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YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

From the Library of

LEWIS S. WELCH

THE LIFE OF HENRY DRUMMOND

THE LIFE

OF

HENRY DRUMMOND

BY
GEORGE ADAM SMITH

WITH PORTRAIT

NEW YORK
DOUBLEDAY & McCLURE COMPANY
1898

Copyright, 1898, by
DOUBLEDAY & McCLURE COMPANY.

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Kariuoab press
J. S. CoBhing & Co. —Berwick & Smith
Norwood Mas'). U.S.A.

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PREFACE
In the preparation of this volume I have received
generous help from many friends, who have placed
at my disposal their memories of Henry Drummond
and their collections of his letters; or who have
further assisted by their counsel on points of diffi
culty, and by their careful revision of several of the
chapters. I am especially indebted to Mr. James
Drummond, who arranged his brother's papers and
furnished many details of information.
As to the letters which are quoted in the volume,
I have to explain that the names of those to whom
they were addressed have been given, for the most
part, only where this was rendered necessary by the
allusions which the letters contain:
In a life so crowded with interests and activities,
some facts have doubtless been overlooked. A few
of these, which appeared too late to be put in their
proper chapters, have been gathered together in an
Appendix. In the quoted material the round marks of paren
thesis and their contents belong to the original;
what is enclosed in square brackets has been added.
COILLEBHROCHAIN, PERTHSHIRE,
September, 1898.

CHAPTER I
AS WE KNEW HIM  ""^j

CHAPTER II
SCHOOL AND COLLEGE .... CHAPTER III
PREPARATION FOR THE MINISTRY .

Iti

THE GREAT

 39
CHAPTER IV
MISSION. 1 873-1 875  58

CHAPTER V
BACK TO COLLEGE  lOO

CHAPTER VI
SCIENCE AND RELIGION . 1877-1883  I29
CHAPTER VII
DIARIES OF TRAVEL. — I. THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS . . . .165
CHAPTER VIII
DIARIES OF TRAVEL. — II. EAST CENTRAL AFRICA. . . . 190

CONTENTS

CHAPTER IX PAGE
THE FAME OF NATURAL LAW  228

CHAPTER X
EVOLUTION AND REVELATION  244
CHAPTER XI
1884-1890   264
CHAPTER XII
THE STUDENT MOVEMENT, 1884-1894  318
CHAPTER XIII
THE AMERICAN COLLEGES — 1887  368
CHAPTER XIV
AUSTRALIA AND THE AUSTRALIAN COLLEGES — 189O . . . 386
CHAPTER XV
DIARIES OF TRAVEL. — III. THE NEW HEBRIDES .... 402
CHAPTER XVI
1891-1894  439
CHAPTER XVII
THE ASCENT OF MAN . .  ^cg
CHAPTER XVIII
BOYS AND THE BOYS' BRIGADE  ^n.

CONTENTS xi
CHAPTER XIX PAGE
THE END  .... 496

APPENDIX I
ADDRESSES TO THE STUDENTS OF EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY IN JAN
UARY, FEBRUARY, AND MARCH, 1890  503

APPENDIX II
ADDENDA  533
INDEX  . . 535

' . . . By a fine gentleman, I mean a man completely qualified as well
for the service and good, as for the ornament and delight, of society.
When I consider the frame of mind peculiar to a gentleman, I suppose it
graced with all the dignity and elevation of spirit that human nature is
capable of. To this I would have joined a clear understanding, a reason
free from prejudice, a steady judgment, and an extensive knowledge.
When I think of the heart of a gentleman, I imagine it firm and intrepid,
void of all inordinate passions, and full of tenderness, compassion, and
benevolence. When I view the fine gentleman with regard to his man
ners, methinks I see him modest without bashfulness, frank and affable
without impertinence, obUging and complaisant without servility, cheerful
and in good humour without noise. These amiable qualities are not easily
obtained, neither are there many men that have a genius to excel this way.
A finished gentleman is perhaps the most uncommon of all the great
characters in life. Besides the natural endowments with which this dis
tinguished man is to be born, he must run through a long series of educa
tion. Before he makes his appearance and shines in the world, he must
be principled in religion, instructed in all the moral virtues, and led through
the whole course of the polite arts and sciences. He should be no stranger
to courts and to camps ; he must travel to open his mind, to enlarge his
views, to learn the pohcies and interests of foreign states as well as to
fashion and polish himself and to get clear of national prejudices, of which
every country has its share. To all these more essential improvements he
must not forget to add the fashionable ornaments of life, such as are the
languages and the bodily exercises most in vogue ; neither would I have
him think even dress itself beneath his notice.'

CHAPTER I
AS WE KNEW HIM
^ It is now eighteen months since Henry Drummond
died — time enough for the fading of those fond extrav
agances into which fresh grief will weave a dead friend's
qualities. And yet, I suppose, there are hundreds of
men and women, who are still sure — and will always
be sure — that his was the most Christlike life they ever
knew. In that belief they are fortified not only by
the record of the great influence which God gave him
over men, for such is sometimes misleading; but by
the testimony of those who worked at his side while
he wielded it ; and by the evidence of the friends who
knew him longest and who were most intimately ac
quainted with the growth of his character.
In his brief life we saw him pass through two of
the greatest trials to which character can be exposed.
We watched him, our fellow-student and not yet
twenty-three, surprised by a sudden and a fierce fame.
Crowds of men and women in all the great cities of
our land hung upon his lips, innumerable lives opened
their secrets to him, and made him aware of his power
over them. When his first book was published, he,
being then about thirty-three, found another world at
his feet ; the great of the land thronged him ; his
social opportunities were boundless ; and he was urged
by the chief statesman of our time to a political career.
This is the kind of trial which one has seen wither
some of the finest characters, and distract others from

2 HENRY DRUMMOND
the simplicity and resolution of their youth. He
passed through it unscathed : it neither warped his
spirit nor turned him from his accepted vocation as a
teacher of religion.
Again, in the end of his life, he was plunged to the
opposite extreme. For two long years he not only
suffered weakness and excruciating pain, but what
must have been more trying to a spirit like his,
accustomed all his manhood to be giving, helping,
and leading, he became absolutely dependent upon
others. This also he bore unspoiled, and we who had
known him from the beginning found him at the end
the same humble, unselfish, and cheerful friend whom
we loved when we sat together on the benches at
college. Perhaps the most conspicuous service which Henry
Drummond rendered to his generation was to show
them a Christianity which was perfectly natural. You
met him somewhere, a graceful, well-dressed gentle
man, tall and lithe, with a swing in his walk and a
brightness on his face, who seemed to carry no cares,
and to know neither presumption nor timidity. You
spoke and found him keen for any of a hundred
interests. He fished, he shot, he skated as few can,
he played cricket; he would go any distance to see
a fire or a football match. He had a new story, a
new puzzle, or a new joke every time he met you.
Was it on the street? He drew you to watch two
message boys meet, grin, knock each other's hats off,
lay down their baskets and enjoy a friendly chaffer of
marbles. Was it in the train .? He had dredged from
the bookstall every paper and magazine that was
new to him ; or he would read you a fresh tale of his
favourite, Bret Harte. ' Had you seen \h& Apostle of
the Tules : or Frederic Harrison's article in the Nirte-

AS WE KNEW HIM 3
teenth Century on " Ruskin as a Master of English
Prose," or Q's Conspiracy aboard the Midas, or the
" Badminton " Cricket ? ' If it was a rainy afternoon
in a country house, he described a new game, and
in five minutes everybody was in the thick of it.
If it was a children's party, they clamoured for his
sleight-of-hand. He smoked, he played billiards;
lounging in the sun, he could be the laziest man
you ever saw.
If you were alone with him, he was sure to find out
what interested you and listen by the hour. The keen
brown eyes got at your heart, and you felt you could
speak your best to them. Sometimes you would remem
ber that he was Drummond the evangelist, Drummond
the author of books which measured their circulation by
scores of thousands. Yet there was no assumption of
superiority nor any ambition to gain influence — noth
ing but the interest of one healthy human being in
another. If the talk slipped among deeper things, he
was as untroubled and as unforced as before ; there was
never a glimpse of a phylactery nor a smudge of unc
tion about his religion. He was one of the purest,
most unselfish, most reverent souls you ever knew, but
you would not have called him saint. The name
he went by among younger men was ' The Prince ' ;
there was a distinction and a radiance upon him that
compelled the title.
That he had ' a genius for friendship ' goes without
saying, for he was rich in the humility, the patience,
and the powers of trust which such a genius implies.
Yet his love had, too, the rarer and more strenuous
temper which requires ' the common aspiration,' is
jealous for a friend's growth, and has the nerve to
criticise. It is the measure of what he felt friendship
to be that he has defined religion in the terms of it.

4 HENRY DRUMMOND
With such gifts, his friendship came to many men and
women — women, to all of whom his chivalry and to
some his gratitude and admiration were among the
most beautiful features of his character. There was
but one thing, which any of his friends could have felt
as a want — others respected it as the height and crown
of his friendship — and that was this.
The longer you knew him, the fact which most
impressed you was that he seldom talked about him
self, and no matter how deep the talk might go, never
about that inner self which for praise or for sympathy
is in many men so clamant, and in all more or less
perceptible. Through the radiance of his presence
and the familiarity of his talk there sometimes stole
out, upon those who were becoming his friends, the
sense of a great loneliness and silence behind, as when
you catch a snow-peak across the summer fragrance
and music of a Swiss meadow. For he always kept
silence concerning his own religious struggles. He
never asked even his most intimate friends for sym
pathy nor seemed to carry any wound, however slight,
that needed their fingers for its healing.
Now many people, seeing his enjoyment of life and
apparent freedom from struggle, — seeing also that
spontaneousness of virtue which distinguished him, —
have judged that it was easy for the man to be good.
He appeared to have few cares in life and no sorrows;
till near the end he never, except in Africa, suffered a
day's illness, and had certainly less drudgery than falls
to most men of his strength and gifts. So they were
apt to take his religion to be mere sunshine and the
effect of an unclouded sky. They classed him among
those who are born good, who are good in their blood.
We may admit that, by his birth, Henry Drummond
did inherit virtue. Few men who have done good in

AS WE KNEW HIM e
the world have not been born to the capacity for it.
It takes more than one generation to make a consum
mate individual, and the life that leaps upon the world
like a cataract is often fed from some remote and
lonely tarn of which the world never hears the name.
Henry Drummond's forbears were men who lived a
clean and honest life in the open air, who thought
seriously, and had a conscience of service to the com
munity. As he inherited from one of them his quick
eye for analogies between the physical and the spir
itual laws of God, so it was his parents and grand
parents who earned for him some at least of the ease
and winsomeness of his piety.
But such good fortune exempts no man from a share
of that discipline and temptation without which neither
character is achieved, nor influence over others. Our
friend knew nothing of poverty or of friendlessness ;
till his last illness he never suffered pain ; and death
did not enter his family till he was thirty-six. And,
as we have said, he was seldom overworked. Yet at
twenty-two he had laid upon him the responsibility
of one of the greatest religious movements of our time,
and when that was over there followed a period of
uncertainty about his future vocation of which he
wrote : ' I do not know what afHiction is, but a strange
thought comes to me sometimes that " waiting " has
the same kind of effect upon one that affliction has.'
Nor can we believe that he was spared those fiercer
contests which every son of man has to endure upon
the battle-field of his own heart. No one who heard
his addresses upon Temptation and Sin can doubt that
he spoke them from experience. We shall find one
record, which he has left behind, of his sense of sin
and of the awful peril of character.
We must look, then, for the secret of his freedom

6 HENRY DRUMMOND
from himself in other directions, and I think we find
it in two conspicuous features of his life and teaching.
The first of these was his absorbed interest in
others — an interest natural to his unselfish temper,
but trained and fed by the opportunities of the great
mission of his youth, which made him the confidant
of so many hundreds of other lives. He had learned
the secret of St. Paul — not to look upon his own
thinos, but also upon the things of others — that sov
ereign way of escape from the self-absorption and
panic which temptation so often breeds in the best of
characters. No man felt temptation more fiercely, or
from the pressure of it has sent up cries of keener
agony, than St. Paul, who buffeted his own body and
kept it under. But how did he rise above the despair .?
By remembering that temptation is co-m-mon to man,
by throwing his heart upon the fight which men were
everywhere waging about him, and by forgetting his
own fears and temptations in interest and sympathy
for others. Such souls are engrossed spectators of
the drama of life; they are purged by its pity, and
ennobled by the contemplation of its issues. But a
great sense of honour, too, is bred within them, as
they spring shoulder to shoulder with so many strug
gling comrades — a sense of honour that lifts them
free of the baser temptations — and they are too inter
ested in the fate of their fellows, and too busy with
the salvation of others, to brood or grow morbid about
themselves. Of such was our friend.
But Drummond had been taught another secret of
the Apostle. St. Paul everywhere links our life in
Christ to the great cosmic processes. For by Him
were all things created, that are in heaven, and that
are in earth, visible and invisible ; all things were cre
ated by Him- and for Hiin . . . and ye are complete

AS WE KNEW HIM 7
in Him who is the head of every principle and potency.
To Henry Drummond Christianity was the crown of
the evolution of the whole universe. The drama
which absorbed him is upon a stage infinitely wider
than the moral life of man. The soul in its battle
against evil, in its service for Christ, is no accident
nor exception, thrown upon a world all hostile to its
feeble spirit. But the forces it represents are the
primal forces of the Universe ; the great laws which
modern science has unveiled sweeping through life
from the beginning work upon the side of the man
who seeks the things that are above. I think it is
in this belief, informed by a wide knowledge of sci
ence, but still more indebted to an original vision of
nature, that, at least in part, we find the secret of the
serenity, the healthy objectiveness, and the courage
of Henry Drummond's faith.
It was certainly on such grounds that in the prime
of his teaching he sought to win the reason of men
for religion. This was always his first aim. He had
an ill-will — one might say a horror — at rousing the
emotions before he had secured the conviction of
the intellect. I do not mean that he was a logician,
for his logic — witness the introduction to his first
book — was often his weak point. But he always
began by the presentation of facts, by the unfolding
of laws, and trust in these and obedience to them was,
in his teaching, religion. He felt that they lay open
to the common sense and natural conscience of man.
Those were blind or fools who did not follow them.
Yet he never thought of these laws as impersonal, for
the greatest were love and the will that men should
be holy, and he spoke of their power and of their
tenderness as they who sing. Underneath are the
everlasting arms. He had an open vision of love

8 HENRY DRUMMOND
wrought into the very foundation of the world ; all
along the evolution of life he saw that the will of
God was our sanctification.
In these two, then, his interest in other men and
his trust in the great laws of the universe, we find
the double secret of that detachment — that distance
from self at which he always seemed to stand.
But we should greatly mistake the man and his
teaching if we did not perceive that the source and
the return of all his interest in men and of all his
trust in God was Jesus Christ. Of this his own
words are most eloquent: —
' The power to set the heart right, to renew the
springs of action, comes from Christ. The sense
of the infinite worth of the single soul, and the
recoverableness of a man at his worst, are the
gifts of Christ.
' The freedom from guilt, the forgiveness of sins,
come from Christ's cross ; the hope of immor
tality springs from Christ's grave. Personal
conversion means for life a personal religion, a
personal trust in God, a personal debt to Christ,
a personal dedication to His cause. These,
brought about how you will, are supreme things
to aim at, supreme losses if they are missed.'
That was the conclusion of all his doctrine. There
was no word of Christ's more often upon his lips than
this : ^ Abide in Me and I in you, for without Me ye
can do nothing^.
The preceding paragraphs have passed impercep
tibly from the man himself to his teaching. And this
is right, for with Henry Drummond the two were one.
So far as it be possible in any human being, in him

AS WE KNEW HIM 9
they were without contradiction or discrepancy. He
never talked beyond his experience; in action he
never seemed to fall behind his faith. Mr. Moody,
who has had as much opportunity as perhaps any man
of our generation in the study of character, especially
among religious people, has said : ' No words of mine
can better describe his life or character than those in
which he has presented to us The Greatest Thing
in the World. Some men take an occasional journey
into the thirteenth of First Corinthians, but Henry
Drummond was a man who lived there constantly,
appropriating its blessings and exemplifying its teach
ings. As you read what he terms the analysis of
love, you find that all its ingredients were interwoven
into his daily life, making him one of the most lov
able men I have ever known. Was it courtesy you
looked for, he was a perfect gentleman. Was it kind
ness, he was always preferring another. Was it hu
mility, he was simple and not courting favour. It could
be said of him truthfully, as it was said of the early
apostles, " that men took knowledge of him that he
had been with Jesus." Nor was this love and kindness
only shown to those who were close friends. His face
was an index to his inner life. It was genial and
kind, and made him, like his Master, a favourite with
children. . . . Never have I known a man who, in
my opinion, lived nearer the Master or sought to do
His will more fully.' ^ And again : ' No man has ever
been with me for any length of time that I did not
see something that was unlike Christ, and I often see
it in myself, but not in Henry Drummond. All the
time we were together he was a Christlike man and
often a rebuke to me.' ^
1 Record of Christian Work, May, 1897, P- '29.
2 Letter to the Rev. James Stalker, D.D.

IO HENRY DRUMMOND
With this testimony let us take that of Sir Archi
bald Geikie, D.C.L., F.R.S., the Director-General of the
Geological Survey of the United Kingdom. When he
became the first Professor of Geology in Edinburgh,
Drummond was his first student. They travelled to
gether in Great Britain, and on a geological expedition
to the Rocky Mountains,^ and in later years they
met at intervals. Sir Archibald had therefore every
opportunity of judging his friend's character, and this
is what he writes of him. It is in continuation of
some reminiscences which will be quoted later : —
' In later years, having resigned my Professorship
for an appointment in London, I met him much more
seldom. But he came to see me from time to time,
always the same gentle and kindly being. His success
never spoiled him in the very least degree. It was no
small matter to be able to preserve his simplicity and
frankness amidst so much that might have fostered
vanity and insincerity in a less noble nature than his.
I have never met with a man in whom transparent
integrity, high moral purpose, sweetness of disposi
tion, and exuberant helpfulness were more happily
combined with wide culture, poetic imagination, and
scientific sympathies than they were in Henry Drum
mond. Most deeply do I grieve over his early death.'
Now there was one portion of Christ's spirit and
Christ's burden which those who observed Henry
Drummond only in his cheerful intercourse with men,
upon the ways of the world, would perhaps deem it
impossible that he should have shared. His first re
ligious ministry was neither of books, nor of public
speech. As we shall see, soon after he had read to
his fellow-students his paper on ' Spiritual Diagnosis,'
in which he blamed the lack of personal dealing as the
^ See below, chap. vii.

AS WE ICNEW HIM I i
great fault of the organised religion of his time, he was
drawn to work in the inquiry rooms of the Revival
of 1873-75. And in these he dealt, face to face, with
hundreds of men and women at the crises of their lives.
When that work was over, his experience, his fidelity,
and his sympathy continued to be about him, as it
were, the waUs of a quiet and healing confessional,
into which wounded men and women crept from the
world, dared ' To unlock the heart and let it speak ' —
dared to tell him the worst about themselves. It is
safe to say that no man in our generation can have
heard confession more constantly than Drummond
did. And this responsibility about which he was ever
as silent as about his own inner struggles was a heavy
burden and a sore grief to him. If some of the letters
he received be specimens of the confidence poured
into his ears, we can understand him saying, as he
did to one friend : ' Such tales of woe I've heard in
Moody's inquiry room that I have felt I must go and
change my very clothes after the contact ; ' or to an
other, when he had come from talking privately with
some students : ' Oh, I am sick with the sins of these
men ! How can God bear it ! ' And yet it is surely
proof of the purity of the man and of the power of the
gospel he believed in that, thus knowing the human
heart, and bearing the full burden of men's sins, he
should nevertheless have believed (to use his own
words) ' in the recoverableness of a man at his worst,'
and have carried with him wherever he went the air
of health and of victory.
To such love and such experience there naturally
came an influence of the widest and most penetrating
kind. Very few men in our day can have touched the

12 HENRY DRUMMOND
springs of so many lives. Like all his friends, I knew
that hundreds of men and women had gone to him,
and by him had been inspired with new hope of
their betterment and new faith in God. But even
then I was prepared neither for the quality nor for
the extent of influence which his correspondence re
veals. First by his addresses and his conversation,
and then with the vastly increased range which his
books gave him, he attracted to himself the doubting
and the sinful hearts of his generation. It must be
left to the other chapters of this biography to illustrate
the breadth and variety of the power both of himself
and of his teaching. But here it may be affirmed with
all sobriety that his influence was like nothing so much
as the influence of one of the greater mediaeval saints
— who yet worked in a smaller world than he and with
a language which travelled more slowly. Men and
women sought him who were of every rank of life and
of almost every nation under the sun. They turned
instinctively to him, not for counsel merely, but for
the good news of God and for the inspiration which
men seek only from the purest and most loving of
their kind. He was prophet and he was priest to
hosts of individuals. Upon the strength of his per
sonality or (if they did not know him) of the spirit
of his writings, they accepted the weakest of his logic,
the most patent of his fallacies. They claimed from
him the solution of every problem. They brought
him alike their mental and their physical troubles.
Surest test of a man's love and holiness, they believed
in his prayers as a remedy for their diseases and a
sure mediation between their sinful souls and God.
It is with a certain hesitation that one asserts so much
as this, yet the evidence in his correspondence is in
dubitable ; and as the members of some great Churches

AS WE KNEW HIM

13

are taught to direct their prayers to the famous saints
of Christendom, so untaught and naturally, as we shall
see, more than one have since his death found them
selves praying to Henry Drummond.
To write an adequate life of such a man is of course
an impossibility ; a friend has said it would be ' like
writing the history of a fragrance.' One can describe
and make assertions about his influence, but those can
hardly appreciate who did not know himself. Indeed,
this volume would never have been undertaken — both
because of its difficulty, and because of what undoubt
edly would have been his own wishes on the point
— had it not become clear to his relatives and friends
that the life of one who exercised a saving influence on
thousands of people all over the world would, in the
absence of an authorised biography, be attempted by
persons who, however feelingly they might write, could
convey only a fragmentary knowledge of their subject.
Nor can his biographer hope to satisfy his intimate
friends, men and women of all stages of religious expe
rience, of many schools of thought, and of all ranks
and callings in life, to whom his sympathy and versa
tility, as well as the pure liberty of his healthy spirit,
must necessarily have shown very different aspects
of his character and opinions. For such, all that a
biographer can do is to provide pegs, on which they
may hang, and perhaps render somewhat more stable
and balanced, their own private portraits of their
friend. One thing is obvious. So much of Drummond's
best work was done, so to speak, ' in the confessional,'
upon many who are still alive, and some of whom are
well known to their fellow-countrymen, that it is impos
sible to describe it except with a reserve which may

14 HENRY DRUMMOND
appear to deprive the picture of life. But, although
among his papers material exists for narratives of sin,
and even of crime, of moral struggle, of conversion and
of Christian service, of the most thrilling interest, it is
the duty of his biographer to imitate his own reticence,
even at the risk of disguising the depth and the reality
of his influence.
But the biographer of Henry Drummond can at
least describe the influences which moulded him, trace
the growth of his character and the development of
his opinions, and give a record of the actual work he
did, and of the movements which he started or en
forced. Among the first of these the religious move
ment in Great Britain from 1873 to 1875 stands
supreme, and deserves the most thorough treatment.
The history of this has never been written. The
present generation do not know how large it was, and
with what results upon the life of our nation. As for
Drummond, it made him the man he was in his prime :
in his expertness in dealing with men, in his power as
a speaker, nay, even in some principles of his faith, he
is inexplicable without it. So a long chapter will be
devoted to the movement and to his share in it.
As to the growth or change of his opinions, that
also it is needful to trace in detail, not only that we
may do justice to himself, but because certain of the
lines of that growth follow some of the most interest
ing religious and intellectual developments of our
time. Here was a young man trained in an evan
gelical family, and in the school of the older orthodoxy,
who consecrated his youth to the service of Christ,
and never all his life lost his faith in Christ as his Lord
and Saviour, or in Christ's Divinity, or in the power of
His Atonement, but who grew away from many of the
doctrines which, when he was young, were still regarded

AS WE KNEW HIM I 5
by the Churches as equally well assured and indispen
sable to the creed of a Christian : such as, for instance,
belief in the literal inspiration and equal divinity of
all parts of the Bible. In his later life Drummond so
explicitly avowed his adherence to an interpretation
of Scripture very different from this, that it is not
only right that the latter should be described in
his own words (hence the large extracts in chap. x.
of this volume), but that also the narrower positions
from which he started on his career should be set
plainly before us. For this reason I have recounted
some of the opinions of his student days with a greater
fulness than their intrinsic importance would warrant.
The story of his growth from them may be of use
to the many students whom the Biblical criticism of
our time has brought face to face with similar facts,
problems, and issues.
Parallel to this change in his views of Scripture and
contributory to it, is the very interesting growth of
the influence wrought upon his religious opinions by
physical science and that discovery of natural laws in
which his generation has been so active. But besides
these two developments there is a third, which is also
characteristic of our time. To Drummond, in his
youth, religion was an affair of the individual ; he was
impatient (if such a temper could, at any time, be im
puted to him) with the new attempts in Scotland and
England to emphasise its social character. It is
true he never bated by one jot his insistence upon the
personal origin of all religion ; yet he so greatly
extended his sympathy and his experience, he so
developed the civic conscience, as to become one of
the principal exponents in our day of the social duties
of religion. Thus his career is typical of the influence
upon the older Christian orthodoxy of the three great

1 6 HENRY DRUMMOND
intellectual movements of our time — historical criti
cism, physical science, and socialism (in the broad and
unsectarian meaning of that much-abused term).
Again, Henry Drummond was a traveller, with
keen powers of observation, a scientific training, and
a great sympathy with human life on its lowest levels
and outside edges. He visited the Far West of
America at a time when Indian wars were still com
mon and the white man was represented only by
soldiers, hunters, and miners of gold. He visited
Central Africa at a time when the only white men
there were missionaries and a few traders, and of
that region he made practically the first detailed sci
entific examination. He visited the New Hebrides,
when the effects of Christianity upon the savages of
these islands were beginning to be obvious; he bought
clubs and poisoned spears from men who were still
cannibals ; he worshipped with those who had been
cannibals and were now members of his own church.
Of these travels it is only of the second that he has
published an account. Yet his notes of the others are
often as interesting and always as careful. I have
thought it right, therefore, to incorporate in this life
of him a transcription of these notes, and to supply
from his African diary so much of scientific or other
human interest as has not appeared in his Tropi
cal Africa. It was in Africa that he made his only
original contributions to science, and in justice to these
it seems right to give, in greater detail than his mod
esty allowed to appear in his volume, his observations
of the geology of the African continent.
Finally, Henry Drummond was a writer of books,
which brought him no little fame in the world. This
biography is written by one of a circle of life-long
friends, and with their affections upon its words; yet

AS WE KNEW HIM 1 7
it was among them that some of his books received
the most severe criticism, and therefore I have deemed
it not inconsistent with the spirit of the biography to
introduce an adverse judgment upon the substance of
one of his volumes. As to the style in which all are
written, if the saying be anywhere true that the style
is the man, it is true here. The even and limpid
pages of his books are the expression of his equable
and transparent temper. And as we have seen that
his character was the outcome of a genuine discipline,
so we shall find evidence that his style was the fruit of
hard labour and an unsparing will.
But all these talents and experiences were only parts
of a rare and radiant whole, of which any biography,
however fully it may record them, can with them all
offer only an imperfect reflection. So complete a life
happens but once in a generation. ' It is no very un
common thing,' says the writer whose words are pre
fixed to this chapter,^ ' it is no very uncommon thing
in the world to meet with men of probity; there are
likewise a great many men of honour to be found.
Men of courage, men of sense, and men of letters are
frequent ; but a true fine gentleman is what one seldom
sees. He is properly a compound of the various good
qualities that embellish mankind. As the great poet
animates all the different parts of learning by the force
of his genius, and irradiates all the compass of his
knowledge by the lustre and brightness of his imagi
nation, so all the great and solid perfections of life
appear in the finished gentleman, with a beautiful
gloss and varnish ; everything he says or does is ac
companied with a manner, or rather a charm, that
draws the admiration and good-will of every beholder.'
1 Sir Richard Steele in the Guardian, No. 34.

CHAPTER II
SCHOOL AND COLLEGE
Henry Drummond came of a family resident for
some generations near the town of Stirling. His great
grandfather was portioner of the lands of Benthead,
Bannockburn. His grandfather, William Drummond,
was a land surveyor and afterwards a nurseryman at
Coneypark. He appears to have been a man who
thought for himself on matters of religion. It was
among some notes of his, upon resemblances be
tween the laws of nature and those of the spiritual
life, that his grandson, after the publication of Natural
Law in the Spiritual World, discovered a remarkable
anticipation of the main thesis of that volume.-^
William Drummond had eleven sons. Of these
Henry, who was the father of our Henry, became
head of the firm of William Drummond & Sons, seeds
men and nurserymen at Stirling and Dublin. One of
his brothers and partners, David, resided at Dublin.
Another was Peter, who established the Agricultural
Museum in Stirling, and withdrew from the firm in
order to give his energies to the Stirling Tract Enter
prise, of which he was the founder.
Mr. Henry Drummond, senior, was a man of great
worth. ' He was fifty years of age before he taught
in a Sabbath-school or opened his lips in public on
religion,' but from that time onwards he was in the
front of every good cause in Stirling, He was a
1 See p. 153.
18

SCHOOL AND COLLEGE 1 9
Justice of the Peace, President of the Young Men's
Christian Association, chairman or director of most
of the philanthropic institutions of the town, and an
elder in the Free North Church, under the ministry
of the Rev. Dr. Beith. He founded, and for many
years conducted, a Sunday-school at Cambusbarron in
the neighbourhood of his home. ' He could play on
an audience of children as a man plays on an instru
ment.' His discipline was strict, but he had his chil
dren's confidence. By his contemporaries he was
implicitly trusted for his probity in business, his fast
friendship, and his sagacious counsel. To the end of
a long life his character remained fresh and winsome.
He died on January i, 1888.
Mr. Drummond married Miss Jane Blackwood of
Kilmarnock. She had a brother, James Blackwood,
of Gillsburn, whose attainments in science deserve
some notice here, partly for their own worth, and
partly because of their resemblance to the qualities
and pursuits of his distinguished nephew. 'While
still a youth he became proficient in chemistry and
geology, and constructed a camera obscura, micro
scope, and telescope. Stands, tubes, and lenses were
all fashioned by himself. He was one of the eariiest
makers of daguerreotypes in Scotland. In later years
he devoted himself to the study of petrology, the
science of the constituents of rocks, and became, next
to his friend, the late Professor Heddle of St. Andrews,
the chief authority on that subject in Scotland. How
many will remember an evening spent with him at
Gillsburn, when the grand microscope was brought
out and Mr. Blackwood showed slices of rock ground
till they were transparent. How instructive it was to
hear him explain "the perpetual motion slides," in
which there are cavities filled with fluid and tiny air

20 HENRY DRUMMOND [1851-57
globules that move to vibrations in the earth so slight
that our senses cannot perceive them!'^ Mr. Black
wood was a genial and enthusiastic man, with the
power of inspiring young people both in the study
of science and in some forms of religious service.
Like his nephew he possessed the gift of mesmerism.
Henry, when he was young, met this uncle twice or
thrice every year, but was not directly influenced by
him. The striking resemblances, both of gifts and
interests, must be put down to heredity.
Mr. and Mrs. Drummond had four sons : James,
Henry, Frederick, who died young, and Patrick ; and
two daughters, Agnes and Jessie. Henry was born
in Stirling on August 17, 1851. His father's house
was then No. i Park Place, the house next to Glen-
elm, which afterwards became the family home, and
is still the residence of his mother. The houses stand
on the southern side of the King's Park and look
across to the Rock and Castle. The park was the
children's playground. James and Henry were sent
first to a ladies' school, and, when Henry was six or
seven, to the High School of Stirling, where he re
mained till he was twelve.
At that time the High, or Grammar, Schools of
Scotland were of various quality. Those of the larger
towns received boys from nine to eleven, and sent
them to the university at sixteen or seventeen. They
gave a fair education in classics, English, history,
mathematics, and the rudiments of French and Ger
man. Boys meant for business took a course of book
keeping, but natural science was almost wholly ignored.
Some of the schools of the smaller towns competed
successfully with those of the larger in preparation
for the university; but others, taking boys at six or
1 Abridged from a notice of Mr. Blackwood by the Rev. D. Landsborough.

^T. 1-6] SCHOOL AND COLLEGE 2 1
seven, dismissed them at twelve or thirteen to business
or to the more advanced schools, with a few exceptions
whom they prepared for college. There was no gen
eral system. Till 1859 the universities had not an en
trance examination in Arts, and afterwards one only
for the shortened curriculum of three, instead of four,
years. The quality of the school depended on the
character of the headmaster, and varied greatly from
place to place and from time to time. At the close
of the session, a university professor might be invited
to examine, sometimes orally, sometimes in writing,
but the examinations were often loose.
The school discipline did not extend beyond the
classes. Preparation was done at home, and a boy's
habits of study largely depended on his guardians. In
many a humble home in Scotland, after the day's work
was done, the tired parents, or an aunt or a big sister,
would bravely attack the Latin grammar, and carry
their boy through his daily preparation. When Scot
land's debt to her parish and burgh schoolmasters is
being celebrated, I love to think of those even more
heroic sacrifices of the home. They were given with
out parade or the feeling that there was anything big
about them; they were unknown to all but those for
whom they were performed, and even by them they
were often forgotten.
Nor in the early sixties was a boy's play organised
for him as it so largely is to-day. Yet there was little
danger of loafing. A day-school boy lives in no
vacuum ; at home, in the streets, and in the country
around there are a hundred healthy interests of which
boarding-schools know little. In Henry's time boys
had their rounders, ' Dully,' a rough cricket, and a
primitive football ; ' Cavey,' ' Scots and English,'
' Thieves and Police,' ' Corners,' ' Bullyable', and other

22 HENRY DRUMMOND [1858-63
running games ; sham fights and sieges, all hard and
healthy sports. The long Saturday, free from school
discipline, and often from the discipline of home, has
always made for good in the life of a Scottish boy.
It develops his independence, teaches him to plan his
time, and takes him upon long and healthy adventures.
Henry enjoyed his Saturday freedom even at the
boarding-school in Crieff, and on a visit there many
years afterwards, out of a grateful memory of what it
had been to himself, he impressed on the headmaster
its indispensableness to the character of the boys.
There was, let it be said again, practically no loafing.
Those who held aloof from sports were laughed or
pommelled into a share of them. ' G and A,' says
Drummond in a letter to his brother, ' are by no
means so spoony as formerly, but still at times they
try their old plans — walks and so forth.' It was a
breezy, healthy life, and not the least part of its health
was the way the ' town's school ' brought all classes of
the 'town's bairns' into rivalry, both of work and
play. Among Drummond's mates was a miner's son,
William Durham, who carried everything before him
at Stirling, and died at the close of a brilliant career
in Edinburgh University. He was the original of the
' Lad of Pairts ' in the story by ' Ian Maclaren,' who
himself joined Stiriing High School a few months
before Drummond left it for Crieff. Drummond also
remembered there the original of ' Bumbee Willie.'
The boys were made to write essays. They found
their way to the Macfariane Free Library, and in that
dingy place hunted up their subjects in the few en
cyclopedias — chiefly the Penny and the Britannica.
Their own reading was mainly in Ballantyne's stories
or Beadle's ' American Library ' of sixpenny books,
published monthly in orange covers— Red Indian

^Er. 7-12] SCHOOL AND COLLEGE

23

tales, with white hunters for their heroes. About half
a dozen of the older boys formed a ' United Book
Club,' to which each contributed a weekly penny, and
a cousin with more pocket-money than the rest made
up the deficiencies. This bought periodicals like the
Boys' Magazine and the Boys' fournal, which, in those
days before rubber stamps were invented, were marked
' U. B. C with a stamp carved out of 'caum.'^
In school the English class was always opened with
prayer. Every Monday morning a verse of a Psalm
was repeated and a chapter read, and every Friday
morning a question was asked from the Catechism.
' We envied the Episcopalians their freedom from the
Catechism.' Mr. Drummond did not send his children to a
Sabbath-school, but on Sunday they gathered to sing
hymns, and were catechised and formally addressed
by their father. They went twice to church.
' Henry was more prominent in the playground
than in the class. I ^ think of him most of all in the
English department. Under its distinguished teacher,
Mr. Young,^ two objects received special attention, —
reading aloud and grammar, analysis and composition.
Henry was a beautiful reader, and more than once
obtained the reading prize. I think the skill which
was then developed largely helped to make him the
speaker he subsequently became.' He was a rapid
learner, but volatile, careless of hours, and often late
for meals. Yet his family remember how through
his boyhood this was the most serious fault for which
he was ever rebuked. One of his hobbies was collect
ing eggs. His sense of bargaining was always very
1 Soft slate or shale.
2 The Rev. John H. M'CmUoch, now of North Leith.
3 ' Mr. Young was an old white-haired man with fine manners, who taught
English with much dignity and impressiveness.' — Rev. T. Crerar.

24 HENRY DRUMMOND [1858-63
Strong, and his pockets were even fuller than those of
other'^boys with knives, pencils, and marbles. 'He
took a foremost place in the playground, where, he was
ready for any game ; there he began that acquaintance
with his fellows, and that personal influence upon
them, which so distinguished his years of manhood.'^
He took to cricket with enthusiasm, and some skill ;
both at Stiriing and at Crieff he kept wickets for the
eleven. But fishing was his favourite sport — his first
rod a bamboo cane with a string at the end of it. His
brother says : ' He was a better fisher than I, but when
I caught my first trout he was more jubilant than if it
had been his own.' Even as a boy he cast a very
pretty line. He could swim, but not well. On sum
mer Saturdays, with other boys, he went far up a burn
among the hills behind his home, caught trout, lit a
fire, scraped some poached turnips with tinkers' scraps,
and bathed and cooked alternately the livelong day.
Around these high excursions lay one of the most
glorious landscapes even in Scotland — the Rock
and its Castle, the links of Forth, Bannockburn, the
Ochils, and to the northwest, the first great Bens:
Lomond, Venue, Ledi, and Voirlich. He has not
written of what all this was to him, and you could
seldom have told from his conversation that he was a
' Son of the Rock.' But after he had seen most of the
world, whenever he came back to Stirling he would
take his old walk round the Castle and say to his
brother, ' Man, there's no place like this — no place
like Scotland ! '
' He was not more than averagely popular among
his contemporaries, and had hardly any intimate
friends, but bigger boys were fond of giving him
things, and he was a great favourite with men.' His
1 From reminiscences by Rev. J. H. M'Culloch.

^T. 7-12] SCHOOL AND COLLEGE 25
interest in fishing was partly the cause of this. But
even in childhood he must have had some distinction
which caught an experienced eye, and there were occa
sions on which he took the lead of other children and
impressed himself on older people, always, as witnesses
testify, without any self-consciousness. The Rev.
James Robertson, a famous preacher to children, was
holding a service for all the Sabbath-schools of the
town in Erskine United Presbyterian Church. ' The
Free North School was the last to arrive, and the
church being already crowded, one class was arranged
on the pulpit stairs, and Henry and two other boys
were taken into the pulpit itself. Mr. Robertson be
gan his sermon by saying that the Bible is like a tree,
each book a branch, each chapter a twig, and each
verse a leaf. " My text is on the thirty-ninth branch,
the third twig, and the seventeenth leaf. Try and
find it for me." Almost immediately Henry slipped
from behind him and said, " Malachi third and seven
teen." — " Right, my boy ; now take my place and read
it out." Then from the pulpit came the silvery voice:
" And they shall be Mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in
that day when I m.ake up My jewels." Mr. Robertson
laid his hand on the boy's head and said : " Well done.
I hope one day you will be a minister." ' ^
With this picture we may take another, which we
owe to the good fortune that John Watson came to
Stirling High School shortly before Henry left it for
Crieff: —
'It was in the King's Park more than thirty years ago that
I first saw Drummond, and on our first meeting he produced
the same effect upon me that he did all his after life. The
sun was going down behind Ben Lomond, in the happy
summer time, touching with gold the grey old castle, deepen-
1 From reminiscences by Mr. Fotheringham.

26 HENRY DRUMMOND [1858-63
ing the green upon the belt of trees which fringed the east
ern side of the park, and filling the park itself with soft,
mellow light. A cricket match between two schools had
been going on all day and was coming to an end, and I had
gone out to see the result, being a new arrival in Stirling
and full of curiosity. The two lads at the wickets were in
striking contrast — one heavy, stockish, and determined, who
slogged powerfully and had scored well for his side ; the other
nimble, alert, graceful, who had a pretty but uncertain play.
The slogger was forcing the running in order to make up
a heavy leeway, and compelled his partner to run once
too often. "It's all right and you fellows are not to cry
shame," — this was what he said as he joined his friends, —
"Buchanan is playing A i, and that hit ought to have been
a four ; I messed the running." It was good form, of course,
and what any decent lad would want to say, but there was an
accent of gaiety and a certain air which was very taking.
Against that group of clumsy, unformed, awkward Scots
lads, this bright, straight, living figure stood out in relief, and
as he moved about the field my eyes followed him, and in my
boyish and dull mind I had a sense that he was a type by
himself, a visitor of finer breed than those among whom he
moved. By and by he mounted a friend's pony and galloped
along the racecourse in the park till one saw only a speck
of white in the sunlight, and still I watched in wonder and
fascination — only a boy of thirteen or so, and dull — till he
came back, in time to cheer the slogger who had pulled off
the match with three runs to spare — and carried his bat.
' "Well played, old chap," the pure, clear, joyous note rang
out on the evening air; "finest thing you've ever done,"
while the strong-armed, heavy-faced slogger stood still and
looked at him in admiration, and made amends. "I say,
Drummond, it was my blame you were run out. ..."
Drummond was his name, and some one said " Henry." So
I first saw my friend.
' What impressed me that pleasant evening in the days of
long ago I can now identify. It was the lad's distinction, an
inherent quality of appearance and manner of character and
soul which marked him and made him solitary.'

-**• 7-12] SCHOOL AND COLLEGE

27

When Henry was twelve, James and he were sent
to Morison's Academy at Crieff. They boarded with
the rector, Mr. Ogilvie, one of a band of able brothers
who have done noble service for education in Scotland.
After two years James entered his father's business,
but Henry stayed on to prepare for the university.
A series of letters to James and his parents record
the details of a very happy life. He begins German
and learns chess and whist. Mr. Ogilvie introduces
a weekly lecture on Natural Philosophy, and an air-
pump and electrical apparatus are purchased to the
excitement of the school. The football club gets its
first Rugby ball and proper goals. There is fishing
in the Turret, and skating on the loch of Ochtertyre.
The boys rehearse for theatricals; Henry is to be a
lady. Christy ministrels are coming, but Henry has
seen from the Stirling paper that the troupe is not a
good one, and dissuades the rector from taking the
school to see them! And so on. These letters are
charming, but their charm cannot be conveyed in quo
tations. They are written with some promise of his
later style — subject to frequent misspellings. There
is much shrewdness and humour in describing his
masters and schoolmates, an independent judgment,
which is adverse, of a tract sent him from home, a
touch of sarcasm when he has succeeded to his older
brother's topcoat and congratulates the latter on his
new one, a healthy power of chaff, a bit of boyish bru
tality in reporting that ' J. has typhous {sic) fever; poor
fellow, it will weaken him sadly, but he needed some
thing of that kind to tame him,' and just one touch of
priggishness. Thrqughout there beats a strong sym
pathy with all at home, and a very pretty desire that
father, mother, brothers, and sisters should each have
some pleasure. The habit thus formed was retained.

28 HENRY DRUMMOND [1863-66
Till the end Drummond almost never missed writing
his mother so that she should get a letter every
Saturday night.
I have presented these details of Henry Drum
mond's early years, not because I deem them singular,
but because this natural boyhood, eageriy enjoyed, was
the secret of his life-long sympathy with boys, and of
his wonderful influence over them. To the end he
preserved the vivid memory, which only the pure in
heart preserve, of what he himself had been as a boy :
at what queer angles he had seen the world; what
had interested and what had tempted him;. what he
had understood in the religion he was taught and
what he silently dropped. That religion was evan
gelical Christianity of a doctrinal form, strict in its
adherence to a somewhat dry routine of preaching and
teaching, but not gloomy nor ascetic, for it forbade no
amusements, allowed the boys to lead an athletic life,
to play chess and whist, to learn dancing, and as they
grew older to go to dancing parties. The boys were
patriotic, as boys could not help being who lived under
Stirling Castle, and public-spirited, for Mr. Drum
mond's large share in social movements interested and
did not weary his children. If the area of religious
experience was denominational, this involved no bitter
ness, but merely an ignorance of the works of other
Churches, which, Henry once naively told me, was the
source to him afterwards of the most delightful sur
prises at the great amount of good in the world.
From his home discipline Henry carried away a
neatness and punctuality that lasted all his days. His
schoolmates have emphasised the unselfishness of the
boy, and unselfishness was the note of his life to the
end. But the most beautiful thing which the letters
reveal is the full confidence between parents and chil-

/Er. 12-15] SCHOOL AND COLLEGE 29
dren, so that the latters' own powers of judgment were
fostered, and their humour had free play. It is a
healthy home where the old and the young folk have
the same jokes.
In July, 1866, Henry left Crieff with prizes for
Latin and English, and for an essay on 'War and
Peace.' In October, being fifteen years of age, very
small, and haunted by a fear that he would not grow,
he matriculated at Edinburgh University. During
the first session he lodged with two older students,
Crerar and Carmichael, who superintended his studies.
He was still the boy, and it is amusing to see how his
habits of chaffering and exchange were developed.
He haunted the auction rooms of Edinburgh, and
made bargains which would have been great if he had
had any use for the articles — two guitars which he did
learn to play,^ and other instruments which he did not
learn. He advertised his ' eggs in exchange for money
or a telescope,' and was pestered by a dealer ' with offers
of articles enough to fill a pawnshop.' He went to
look over the wall of Pitt Street Gymnasium and take
stock of the new velocipedes. ' I do not know what
to think of them. They are as light as a feather, and
look rather startling (' Did you see Punch's cartoon,
" Riding upon Nawthin' ? '" ), and go at a great pace, but
appear to oscillate and waggle in what I should think
was a rather unpleasant manner. However, I daresay
the "By-Cyclones" were all greenhorns. It takes a
few lessons before you become expert, which is a great
blessing, as it would prevent everybody asking " to try
it " if any of us ever have one. The Parisian kind are
being advertised on all hands. I saw a genuine one,
1 ' " What do you want with two ? " we said in our proud seniority. " Oh, I can
sell one of them for the price of the two," which, however, he never did. He
got ribbon about the guitar, and pirouetted, twanging it right musically and
heartily.' — Rev. T. Crerar.

30 HENRY DRUMMOND [1866-67
a beauty, price ^8. They have them dearer. An
Edinburgh firm, I believe, are making them much
cheaper — and with an improved drag, a most inge
nious and easily worked thing — some say £2 10 s.
Sho! I cannot get at the truth. One could easily
make one if a pattern were given.' So he kept his
eyes open to everything that would interest his
brother at Stiriing. He had, too, a pretty tact and
sympathy with the varied sorts of folk among whom
he was thrown for the next four years. He explains
why he cannot offend his fellow-lodgers by introducing
to the common table (at his father's suggestion and
expense) more than his proper share of dainties. He
appreciates his landladies, humorously describes their
babies to his mother, and gives a genial account of
the many characters which the pilgrim from lodging
to lodging constantly encounters.^
In the first year of Arts at Edinburgh University
in those days there was much on which one looks
back now with considerable amusement. The stu
dents were either boys or bearded men, fresh from
the plough and the workshop. In classics and mathe
matics the junior classes were below the standard of
the senior forms in the High Schools. They worked
through several Latin and Greek authors, not the
most difficult, did a heap of prose exercises, and
learned several books of Euclid with a little algebra.
The freshmen carried large oak sticks to class, cut and
1 The Rev. T. Crerar sends the following reminiscence from Drummond's first
year in lodgings : ' Once the two older students (Carmichael and I) sampled too
well before he returned a lot of toffee that had been sent to him. He expressed no
sorrow, though toffee was sweet at that time, and the seniors felt remorse at the
result of their preying on his good nature. But a morning or two after he had his
revenge. He rushed into our room, saying, " Some one died of cholera in that
bed, perhaps in the very sheets you are lying in." We rose in horror and dismay.
Then he pointed the finger and retreated. The death had happened eight years
before ! The toffee was avenged.'

^T. 15-16] SCHOOL AND COLLEGE 31
bludgeoned the desks, snowballed the traffic on the
South Bridge, and by general subscription in copper
paid their ringleaders' fines, both to the University and
the Police authorities. They formed a debaring soci
ety, the Philomathic, which the older societies scorned
as juvenile and as rustic and vulgar, nicknamed ' the
Pheelomawthic' Its ambitions were not mean. Be
sides the usual historical questions to which school
boys devote themselves, it determined week by week
the rank of the great stars of literature and solved the
most abstruse economic problems; but it was also
practical, reviewing once a year the policy of the Gov
ernment. In Drummond's time it disposed of the Irish
Church, decided against the education of women, re
formed the Game Laws, and drew up a new programme
of the Arts curriculum. But it grew most passionate
upon its own constitution and upon points of order.
Then its eloquence blew vast and was beaten into the
desks with the oak sticks.
Partly through a dislike of classics, Henry took an
erratic course through Arts. The first year, 1866-67,
he had Senior Humanity under Professor Sellar and
English with Professor Masson. The second year he
took Junior Greek with Professor Blackie, Logic and
Metaphysics with Professor Fraser, and Junior Mathe
matics with Professor Kelland ; and the third year
Second Mathematics and Natural Philosophy with
Professor Tait. It was under Professor Tait that
Drummond first woke up to something more than
the performance of routine, and his notebooks have
full transcripts of the lectures with diagrams of the ex
periments. Yet he only gained the fourteenth place in
a class of one hundred and fifty. In the spring of 1869
he passed the examination in mathematics and physics
for the degree of M.A. In his fourth session he took

32

HENRY DRUMMOND [1867-70

Senior Greek, Senior Humanity for the second time,
and Moral Philosophy with Professor Calderwood.
His essays for the latter were on the ' Reliability of
Consciousness,' ' The Moral Faculty,' and ' The Dic
tum of Comte : that causes are inacessible, we must
therefore substitute the Study of Laws.' They are
pretty good, but betray an amusing tendency to re
vert to the subject of animal magnetism, with
which Drummond was beginning to be fascinated.
In April, 1870, he closed his Arts course by pass
ing the degree examinations in Mental Philosophy.
' I had never courage,' he wrote, ' to attempt the clas
sical department of the M.A,' During his divinity
course he came back to the University for Botany,
Chemistry, Zoology, in which he took second place
with seventy-six per cent., and Geology, in which he
won the class medal. But, although he tried twice,
he failed to pass the first part of the Bachelor of
Science examination and left the University without a
degree. To one of his more successful friends he
wrote : ' J. W. addresses me " two-thirds M.A." I wish
the University was liberal enough to reward a martyr
like myself with its precious degree upon credit, and
I am almost inclined to petition the Senate to that
effect.' Meanwhile Drummond had put himself under an
other discipline, in which it is possible to see the
development of his later powers, chiefly his powers
of observation and his style of writing English. At
the beginning of his second session he attended a
meeting of the Philomathic Society and was proposed
as a member, — against his will, he says, but neverthe
less there and then he made his first speech, — an
undergrown boy of sixteen with auburn hair, a bonny
fresh face, and keen eyes. His first essay, on ' Novels

^T. 16-19] SCHOOL AND COLLEGE 33
and Novel-reading,' followed in two months. 'It
was not an utter failure and the old hands praised it,'
he wrote to his mother, to whom alone of all his corre
spondents he repeats any praise that he has heard of
himself. In 1868 some members of the Society
started, in monthly manuscript, ' The Philomathic, a
Literary Magazine conducted by a few of the Alumni
of Edinburgh University.' It lived for eight months.
Drummond was the editor, and contributed in Janu
ary, 1869, an essay on ' Mesmerism and Animal Mag
netism.' This is an enthusiastic defence of the sincerity
and usefulness of a movement then under much ridi
cule. It asserts as indubitable the evidence of the
ability of one man's will to induce certain states in
others. ' How probable this is in a reasonable universe !
The Creator cannot have isolated men from each other
nor shut each up in his own prison body. In the hu
man body he has engrafted a life-giving, communi
cable, and curative power ! . . . Mesmerism has been
proved to be a better anaesthetic than chloroform. . . .
With such serious and beneficial results its practice
for amusement ought to be seriously condemned. . . .
Mesmerism must prevail ; only in its infancy, it will
some day be recognised as Nature's universal cura
tive agent,' and so forth. The usual pleas on be
half of a process which had not (at least in this
country) obtained the attention from scientific authori
ties which it has since gained are advanced with force
and clearness. But the interest of the paper lies in
the fact that Drummond himself had practised upon
others the power of mesmerism.
' It was at that time,' writes the Rev. J. H. M'Culloch, ' that
he developed an aptitude for what was then known as
electro-biology. The student who shared rooms with me
proved a capital subject and Drummond could do anything he

34 HENRY DRUMMOND [1867-70
liked with him without giving offence. Once I remember
being in the University reading-room when this student came
in, walked up to where I was sitting, and without a word took
his watch off the chain and handed it to me. I looked up
and saw at once what was what. I asked him what he had
been about, and he told me that Drummond had been prac
tising on him. I told him that he should ask him for his watch,
and then when I found that he had no recollection of having
given it to me, I handed it back to him and told him that this
sort of thing should come to an end.'
Why Drummond gave up this practice I do not
exactly know. I have heard that it was because he
was once startled by the unforeseen length to which
his influence had gone upon another student, though
the latter at the time it was exercised was living at a
distance from him. So much for the paper on 'Animal
Magnetism.' Drummond also contributed to the de
bates in the Philomathic, speaking against the Irish
Church and in favour of the education of women, the
latter on the grounds of the 'awful crime of leaving any
mind untrained and of the terribly unintellectual state
of the average girl of the period ! '
He had begun to form a library and to read for him
self. He bought some books at auctions. He has read,
he says, Channing's works, some of Ruskin's and of
Robertson's of Brighton, Lamb's Essays, Shenstone
and Cowley, Lowell and the American humourists. He
must have read largely in poetry, chiefly in Cowley,
Pope, Byron, and Lowell, for his papers of this time
have many unhackneyed quotations from all of these.
He had faUen under the spell of Ruskin. At the
election of Lord Rector of the University in 1868 he
canvassed for him, as against the political candidates,
Mr. Robert Lowe and Lord Advocate Moncrieff.
But the best proof of how rapidly Drummond was
educating himself in argument and style appears from

Mt. 15-18] SCHOOL AND COLLEGE 35
two papers and a little bundle of notes for a third.
In 1870 he delivered his valedictory address as Presi
dent of the Philomathic, and after expounding the
advantages of debate, contrasted the lecture, conver
sation, and reading as a means of gaining knowledge.
'The lecture,' he says, 'is the best means. If it
has fallen into disrepute in our day, that is because
there are no good lecturers. The advantage of
public teaching lies in the sympathy which it creates.
A lecturer, however, should not be conversational.
He is as much out of place as a lecturing conversa
tionalist.' ' The matter of a lecture is the pedantry of
conversation.' He passes on to reading : ' Books are
the great delusion of the present age. We find them
everywhere. Nature is mocked and put in the back
ground.' ' A good book is as valuable as a good
friend, but he who has too many books, like him who
has too many friends, is sure to be led away by some
of them.' ' Most neglect the great end of reading.
The thing sought is not what you will get in an
author, but what the author will enable you to find in
yourself. Unreflective minds possess thoughts as
a jug does water, only by containing them ; if pebbles
be dropped in the water, if the thought of another
plunges in among our own, the contents brim over and
we discover in ourselves sentiments and ideas which,
apart from certain external conditions of development,
had never been formed, and the mind had been left in
perpetual slumber.' ' The great danger of reading is
superficiality. Many read far too much.'
The second of the papers mentioned above was one
of several sent about this time (1870, when he was not
nineteen) to the editors of magazines and returned by
them. This one was offered to Cassell's Magazine.
It is entitled ' The Abuse of the Adjective.'

36 HENRY DRUMMOND [187°
After a couple of pages against slang, 'by the introduction
of which our language is losing its solid, classic grandeur and
becoming enfeebled and diluted with a wretched levity,' he
goes on to speak of ' an internal enemy, a more subtle because
less apparent danger, the indiscriminate use of adjectives.
'Adjectives have become cosmopolitan. Immensity, minute
ness, rotundity, profundity, astronomy, gastronomy, emotions,
monkeys, feelings, frying-pans, mountains, mouse-traps, trees,
toothpicks, sunsets, and sewing-machines are all qualified in
turn by exactly the same set of adjectives. . . . Appropri
ateness of meaning seems utterly lost sight of, and all are
used promiscuously, apparently with but one object, to add
strength to an otherwise insipid observation. In short, the
prevailing opinion and province of an adjective seems to be
"A big word, having no special significance of its own,
employed to give force and liveliness to a sentence consist
ing otherwise of plain, common-sense words." That deli
cacy of expression is sacrificed to elaboration, and exactness
of description to sonorousness, further appears from the
increased use of qualifying Adverbs, as well as from the fre
quency with which the Superlative degree is employed. . . .
Not the least dangerous quality of this manner of expression
is its infectiousness. It runs through a community like an epi
demic and its opponents take to it in self-defence. . . . Mild
language does not do at all. Every man is a braggart. The
desire to say a strong thing has grown almost irresistible, and
truth becomes sacrificed to strength and impressibility {sic).'
'Those most addicted to the habit are Ladies. . . . Our
Ladies, in conversation at least, are no longer the Gentle
Sex. They have grown in their ideas masculine, and in their
expression of them barbarous. When the voice of Beauty
is heard it speaks in uncouth tones. But professional men,
who ought to be free of the habit, have also succumbed.
Some men have a notion that this manner of " piling on " the
adjective constitutes raciness. When the conversation is
flippant m se it is not so extremely objectionable. Truly, if
we talk nonsense, we ought to talk it well, z.e. well nonsensi
cally. But what we complain of is that a deal of sense is in
the language of nonsense. . . . Language should be sub
ordinate to thought, not thought to language. . . . Com-

JET. 1 8] SCHOOL AND COLLEGE 37
monplace people are deluded by the habit. They mistake
the half-dozen really good thoughts which every fool pos
sesses for the revelation of the hidden glory of a great mind.
But so far from serving any utilitarian purpose the habit of
multiplying adjectives really makes a sentence less impres
sive than if simple words had been used. There is a natural
tendency to suspect insincerity whenever the language is
extraordinary enough to suggest strain or effort on the part
of the author.' The paper then illustrates from ballads,
children's stories, and the Bible the simplicity of the greatest
literature, and closes with the practical exhortation : ' If the
danger be pointed out, there is surely no reasonable individ
ual who would not sacrifice any slight gratification it may
afford him for the sake of the issues at stake, the corruption
versus the preservation of the English language.'
The bundle of notes referred to were in prepa
ration for an article in the Stirling Observer upon
Alva Glen — Drummond's earliest published writing.
They reveal a keen sense of beauty and an extra
ordinary care in sketching natural facts. Every
boulder in the glen, every turn of the banks, every
twist and cascade in the burn, the geological forma
tions, the colouring of the rocks, the fragrances of the
wood, the sounds of human industry that penetrate
to the furthest corners, the features of the sky-line,
the distant prospects, are all noted in a series of rapid
impressive clauses that succeed in making a stranger
to the scene feel as if he were viewing it.'
I have quoted all this, not so much for its own sake,
though a deal of it is very clever, but because it shows
how diligently and how sanely Drummond prepared
the clear and brilliant style for which he afterwards
became famous. There is no evidence in any of his
1 There exists, too, a curious paper entitled ' Treason among the Tombs,' due to
a visit to Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin, and the sight of ^-"-/^f ^ J° ^"^Tce
shot or hung during the Fenian rebellion. He is shocked by the open defiance
of Great Britain which the inscriptions record, and makes a number of sound
remarks upon the problems of British government in Ireland.

38 HENRY DRUMMOND [1870
essays at this time of an original capacity of thought ;
but there is abundant proof of unusually keen powers
of observation, of a fine and healthy taste in letters,
and of distinct powers of illustration and interpreta
tion — all of them exercised with a sanity and matu
rity not less than remarkable from a boy of just
over eighteen years of age. ' One thing,' writes Mr.
M'Culloch, ' which struck me at college was the fash
ion in which Drummond laid himself out in a quiet
way thoroughly to know how those around him looked
at things. He had the faculty of putting himself en
rapport with everybody. Everybody liked him, too,
because he was never inquisitorial. He gained the
confidence of others almost without their knowing it,
and they were glad they had been so frank with him.
This, too, became a characteristic in that larger world
where he ultimately found his vocation.'
During his University course Drummond had shot
up into a tall man, graceful when at rest, and moving
with a litheness and a spring that were all his own.
A fellow-student ' thus remembers him : ' He often
stood in a thoughtful manner, or sauntered about the
northeast corner of the college quadrangle between
classes. He generally wore a tall hat, and had long
auburn hair. Though I fain would have spoken to
him, his ethereal appearance and great grace and
refinement seemed to forbid an approach to one who
appeared different from the majority of the students.
He was generally alone. Indeed, his apparent loneh
ness first drew my attention to him. He seemed to
have no companions as the other students had, but
was only one of them, handsome, bright, and silent.
He struck me as one possessed by great thoughts,
which were polarising in his mind and giving a happy
expression to his face.'
1 Now Dr. H. M. Church of Edinburgh.

CHAPTER III
PREPARATION FOR THE MINISTRY
'During his Arts curriculum Henry Drummond
formed no plans for his future, beyond some thought
of finding his way into the Divinity Hall of the Free
Church of Scotland.' ^
To this there was much to dispose him, and he had
already passed through some religious experience.
In his last illness he told Professor Simpson that
'when he was twelve he had a great work goino-
through Bonar's God's Way of Peace, but thinks it
did him harm.' While he was a student, he attended
some mission services at Cambusbarron. He was
profoundly impressed by the addresses he heard, and
soon after told his father that he wished to enter the
ministry.^ In Edinburgh he shared his lodgings with
several divinity students ; and in Stirling he met
many ministers and evangelists, among them Dr.
Binnie of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, to
whose kindness in counsel he afterwards looked back
with gratitude.
The first notice of his intentions occurs in a
letter to a fellow-student of date April, 1870. 'Are
you not sorry to leave the University ? I feel
it very much. Altho' I intend to enter the Church
Hall next winter, it is still a degeneracy to go
1 From recollections by the Rev. J. H. M'Culloch.
' From recollections by Mr. Fotheringham. The Cambusbarron Mission was
in charge of the Rev. Alexander Macdonald, now of Ardclach; and the special
services were conducted by Mr. Stephen Burrows, now evangehst at Naples.
39

40

HENRY DRUMMOND [1^7°

from an ancient University to a nameless college!
Happily I shall still be a student. I have now to
commence the pleasant study of Hebrew, and have
the prospect of being plucked in that particular
branch at the F. C. Board Examination in July. For
tunately I know the alphabet from the 1 19th Psalm ! '
On May 15th he began Hebrew by himself, and soon
after made a literal translation of some of the Psalms.
On July 26th he passed the Board.
In the summer he had taken a tutorship in a family
in Kincardineshire and he there spent his nineteenth
birthday — his first from home. It cast him into a
train of serious reflection.
' May I never be too hardened to let these annual
milestones sweep by unwept for! In looking
back on my past years I see nothing but an un
broken change of Mercies. Few lives have been
as happy as mine. The rod of affiiction may
conquer many, but if I am subdued at all I have
been "killed with kindness" — unmerited, unre
quited, unsolicited, unexampled kindness. " What
can I render unto God for all His gifts to me ? "
Alas ! I have rendered nothing, nothing but evil.
The only misery I have endured has been of my
own creation — the confusion of face for my own
iniquity, the mournings for sins that were past,
and the consciousness of my own guilt before
God. For days I have felt ashamed to look up
to Him and too wicked to approach His foot
stool. I believe I have discovered by my own
sad experience the true meaning and justice of
His attributes, "Longsuffering," "Plenteous in
Mercy," etc. O that these humiliating periods of
darkness were at an end ! I think I can honestly

Mt. 19] PREPARATION FOR THE MINISTRY 41
say that the chief desire of my heart is to be rec
onciled unto God and to feel the light of His
countenance always upon me. As honestly, I
think, I can say that God in His great goodness
has given me little care for the things of the
world. I have been enabled to see the extreme
httleness of the worid in comparison with the
great Hereafter [so] that the temptations of the
former seem as nothing to the attractions of
the latter, and I cannot be too thankful that I
have been thus spared being whirled into the vor
tex of the cares of this life and the deceitfulness
of riches. This may sound like vainglory, but I
am far too deep in the abyss of sin to deceive
myself in that respect. I say it not boastfully but
in fear and trembling, with deep humiliation that
all these mercies have made me little better than
if I had them not.'
This religious crisis happened to Drummond in the
form which we should have expected from his upbring
ing. He had inherited a pure and healthy nature. He
had been kept from the grosser sins of youth and he was
always patient and unselfish. But with the religious
doctrines of Evangelicalism there had also come to
him a very sensitive moral temper. The Evangelical
movement had many defects, which in his younger
days Henry shared and which we shall see him un
learning; but when, as in his case, sincerity was the
atmosphere of the home in which its doctrines were
taught, it succeeded in creating in the children a ten
der and scrupulous conscience, and by urging them
to the consideration above all of their personal rela
tion to a just and merciful God, it strongly developed
the sense, while they were still young, of their Individ-

42 HENRY DRUMMOND C'^T"
ual responsibility. To have felt the awful peril of
one's own character; to have wakened into the won
der of God's patience with one's unworthy life; to
have known in one's own experience the power of
man's soul to turn and repent — these are the essen
tials of religious experience and the indispensable
apprenticeship of a religious teacher. It is not
necessary that every man should violently break into
this sense of God's grace, out of the intoxication of
some vicious passion or from the weariness and de
spair of a long habit of evil. Pure minds hke Henry
Drummond's will feel as powerfully the accumulated
memories — an avalanche of them loosened perhaps
by some gentle touch — of a lifetime of God's com
mon mercies and of His daily patience with their wil
ful ways. For this is a wonder, of which every day
deepens the awe to their sensitive hearts. Once
when talking of ' sudden conversions ' I asked Drum
mond whether he had passed through one. ' No,' he
said, after thinking for a little, ' I cannot say I did.' ^
' But,' he added, ' I have seen too many ever to doubt
their reality.'
Drummond was thoroughly sane. With the deep
seriousness of his nature there mingled a strong
humour and an equally strong joy in sport, of which
his letters of this summer bear many signs. He had
a great deal of fishing, and with jubilation over his
first grilse he fills of his brief diary nearly as much as
he gives to the spiritual reflections I have quoted. In
October we have an instance of his fun. Before besin-
ning his divinity course he had to be examined by
the Presbytery of Stirling. This is a right which the
Presbyteries of the Church have jealously maintained
over the theological students within their bounds.
^ Compare Dr. Stalker's testimony below, p. 70.

^T. 19] PREPARATION FOR THE MINISTRY 43
But, except in the matter of personal religion, the
students have always resented this superintendence;
and justly, for their competence in scholarship and
theology is so far secured by the General Assembly's
Examination Board. Hebrew — unfortunately for
those who teach it — is not regarded by the average
man as indispensable to the preacher, and the para
digms of its grammar are especially irksome to men
who have already toiled through a university course.
In the beginning of October Drummond wrote a
friend: 'J. W. and I passed the Presbytery exam.
yesterday with much eclat. We took the precaution
beforehand to hide the Presbytery's Hebrew Bible
in the coal-scuttle; so we got no examination in
Hebrew.' In November Drummond entered New CoUege,
Edinburgh, the youngest of twenty-five or thirty stu
dents who formed the First Year. The divinity course
of the Free Church of Scotland occupies four winter
sessions, and thus at New College there are always
some hundred regular students of the Church, besides
twenty or thirty others from America, Ireland, and
the Reformed Churches of the Continent of Europe.
Among a hundred men studying for the same profes
sion there is bound to be closer fellowship than among
the far larger number of students and the more scat
tered interests of the Arts course; and during Drum
mond's time at New College this bond was further
strengthened by the institution of a common dinner-
table. Given a certain proportion of able men, the
atmosphere of the College was always genial and
stimulating. One remembers not only greater matu
rity, but more buoyancy, more humour, and more
camaraderie than in the University.
When Drummond entered, Robertson Smith had

44

HENRY DRUMMOND [1870

just left. Andrew Harper, now Professor of Hebrew
at Melbourne, and David Patrick (now editor of Cham
bers's Encyclopcedia) were in their third year. W. G.
Elmslie, afterwards Professor of Hebrew in the Pres
byterian College of London, was in his second year,
and during Drummond's time Smith, Harper, and
Elmslie were in succession Dr. Davidson's assistants.
In his own year were James Stalker, John Watson,
and two other of his intimate friends : A. S. Paterson,
who died in 1875, at Uitenhage, in South Africa,
and John F. Ewing, who did such noble work in
Melbourne before his early death there in 1890. Two
years after Drummond there came up to the New
College Peter Thomson, of whose great abilities we
must speak later; and D. M. Ross, the assistant to the
Professor of Logic in the University. The mutual
part of their education the students transacted chiefly
in the Theological Society, which met on Friday even
ings. Drummond must have had some reputation as
a speaker, for, although the youngest man in College,
he was asked, in the absence of the student appointed,
to lead off the negative side of a debate, ' Ought the
government to provide for the teaching of the Bible
in schools ? ' He also spoke for the affirmative of the
debate, 'Ought the Church to introduce an order of
lay evangelists.?' and in his letters home he makes
more of this speech than of the other. The College
Missionary Society met on Saturday mornings to hear
addresses, and to arrange the conduct of a college
mission in a district, then somewhere in the neigh
bourhood of the Cowgate. One of the students was
missionary-in-charge, and others helped him with the
meetings and taught in the Sabbath-school. In this
work Drummond took his share with great heart.
The families he visited were in Covenant Close.

^T. 19] PREPARATION FOR THE MINISTRY

45

The First Year's classes were Junior Hebrew under
Dr. Davidson, Apologetics with Dr. Blaikie, Natural
Science with Dr. Duns, and a short course of lectures
on Evangelistic Theology from the famous Indian mis
sionary, Dr. Duff. Dr. Duff, then in extreme old age,
had preserved much of the fire and volume of speech
which in their prime had swept through Scotland and
carried public opinion on Missions to the pitch of
enthusiasm. And still his reverend figure moved
through the college, an object of awe to young men
who knew nothing of his earlier triumphs. But the
six weeks allowed for his subject were all too few for
the scale on which he planned his lectures and for the
enormous mass of details that he threw into them.
He had two parallel courses, both magnificent torsos.
One, on the History of Missions, began with the
eternal decrees and broke off with the early Church.
Another, on Hindoo Theology, did not seem to our
bewildered minds even to arrive on the margin of
history. Little wonder that so rich and fiery a brain
blazed out in indignation upon the indifference of
young men who had neither the theological power
nor the apostolic fervour of their teacher. We could
not follow the incarnations of Vishnu, nor rouse our
interest in the patriarchs before Abraham. ' How
many gods have the Hindoos, Mr.  ?' Dr. Duff
asked a luckless student of Drummond's year. The
student kicked Drummond, who sat next to him
and who whispered, ' I don't know, about twenty-five,
I think.' 'Twenty-five!' shouted the student, gaily.
' Twenty-five, Mr.  ! Twenty-five ! Twenty-five
milhon of millions!' There were not many of the
Edinburgh students who gave themselves to foreign
missions. We sorely tried the great missionary's
heart. Nothing could have been kinder or more

^e>

46 HENRY DRUMMOND [1870-71
unselfish than his treatment of us ; he was very zealous
to interest each man in India. Drummond shared the
common apathy. Besides, his mind was not of the
order that was carried away by romance or by the en
thusiasm of others. He needed the touch with the
concrete, and this he got years afterwards on his
travels in Africa and the East, with the result that
among all testimonies to foreign missions in the last
half-century none are more thorough or more sincere
than his.^
It was to Natural Science that Drummond chiefly
devoted himself at New College, and he easily carried
off the first prize. But his note-books proved that
he worked hard both at Hebrew and Apologetics.
Besides the grammar. Dr. Davidson then gave to the
First Year a few lectures introductory to the Higher
Criticism of the Pentateuch. It was by such lectures
that Dr. Davidson started in the early seventies the
great movement of Old Testament study which has
characterised Scottish theology during the last thirty
years. He did not then take his students beyond the
positions reached by Ewald ; but that was suflicient to
break up the mechanical ideas of inspiration which
then prevailed in the churches, while with the teacher's
own wonderful insight into the spiritual meaning of
Scripture it made the student's own use of his Bible
more rational and lively, and laid upon a sounder basis
the proof of a real revelation in the Old Testament.
Drummond took very full notes of Dr. Davidson's lec
tures. In the class of Apologetics he chose for the
statutory homily which he had to deliver, ' The Six
Days of Creation,' a subject which combined his inter
est in the Old Testament and his knowledge of Natural
1 Later than his course Dr. Carstairs Douglas pleaded with him to go to China,
and impressed him much, but nothing came of this.

^T. 19-20] PREPARATION FOR THE MINISTRY 47
Science, while a year later he wrote for the class of Sys
tematic Theology an essay on ' The Doctrine of Crea
tion.' He treated this under two heads, the Creation of
Matter and the Creation of the World. Under the for
mer he held the question of the Eternity of Matter to
be insoluble. Under the latter he put the question
whether the world as explained by Modern Science
was irreconcilable with the Scriptural statement of
Creation? Certain scientific schools undoubtedly
demand 'Matter without a Maker, Intelligence with
Law but no Liberty, and Life with Liberty but no
Responsibility.' The most glorious attribute of their
'deity' is physical necessity, and his highest prin
ciple of action utilitarianism. But granted that Nat
ural Selection and Evolution are facts, they are not
irreconcilable with the belief that God has created and
sustains the world. On the contrary ' this belief can
allow them a very prominent place,' but on the distinct
understanding that this place has been previously as
signed them by God, and that they are under His super
vision and care. Looked at from this point of view, the
principle of Natural Selection becomes a real and beau
tiful acquisition to Natural Theology, and Mr. Darwin's
work on The Origiit of Species may be regarded as per
haps the most important contribution to the Literature
of Apologetics which the nineteenth century has pro
duced. The same year Drummond delivered to some
Society an address upon Evolution. He affirmed the
principle of Development as an eternal principle, the
emphasis upon which 'has been the century's noblest
contribution to Theology'; but he criticised Darwin's
enunciation of it on three points: 'He ignores the
existence of a personal God, denies God's sovereignty,
and denies the existence of design in the Universe.'
These notes of college essays, juvenile and crude, are

48 HENRY DRUMMOND [1870-73
of interest as the first steps of Drummond's mind
towards the work of his later years.
But at this stage Drummond did not see how to
apply the principle of development to the origins of
Scripture and the story of Revelation. In an essay
which he wrote for the class of Apologetics, he asks:
' How can development explain the Bible? The stages
of development are missing. There is an impas
sable o'ulf between the Bible and the rest of Hebrew
hterature. . . . The Old Testament is infinitely
above the religions of the peoples who surrounded
Israel.' It has ' no cumbrous ritual, doubtful morals,
nor mythical elements.' ' Theoretically its religion is
not only an anomaly to the Hebrew nature, but to
human nature.' The one sound element in this part
of his paper is the emphasis which he lays upon the
'inability of the Jew to reach unaided by Divine help
the highest doctrines of his religion, for in so many
cases those ran counter to even his best natural ideals
and expectations.' For all the rest Drummond as yet
stood upon the ground of the older orthodoxy, with
its doctrine of literal inspiration, and its blind belief
in the absolutely divine character of everything in the
Hebrew Scriptures. Blind indeed, else how could he,
or that older orthodoxy in general, have believed that
there are no links of development between the Old
Testament and the religions from the midst of which
it sprang, or that in the Old Testament itself there
are ' no cumbrous ritual, doubtful morals, nor mythical
elements ' ?
This college essay is of interest to us, as indicating
the grounds on which Drummond stood during his
first great mission, but which he afterwards abandoned
for others, not less evangelical nor less capable of
defending a true revelation in Scripture, but more

^T. 19-21] PREPARATION FOR THE MINISTRY 49
rational and more jn accordance with the facts of
Scripture itself. At the very point at which a theo
logical student is most disposed to be sceptical — the
close of his first session in theology — Drummond ac
cepted orthodox Christianity, not after any passionate
struggle towards the contrary, nor with any strength
of original thought, but upon a full knowledge of the
issues, and after serious consideration. The absence
of all trace of revolt is characteristic. Drummond
never appears to have passed through a crisis of that
kind, or, if he did, it was of the mildest kind; and
when the symptoms appeared in younger men, he
treated them as temporary. He called them ' measles.'
And the effect is seen in all his teaching, as well as in
the limitation of his influence on certain classes of
minds. To Drummond the Christian experience of
faith was one not so much of struggle as of growth.
One is sometimes impatient with his beautiful way of
putting this.^ But he expounded as he himself had
experienced. His temperament was the artistic, which
is sensitive to whatever is lovely and of good report,
and which does not struggle against what is hostile and
superfluous, but simply ignores it, as Drummond did
with certain doctrines upon which at first he laid such
emphasis. But he had the artistic temperament with
two additions — a most unselfish consideration for the
beliefs and prejudices of older people, and a most
warm moral sense. ' I cannot conceive ' (he writes in
the last of the essays we have quoted) ' of such a thing
as the moderate punishment of sin, for "every sin
deserves God's wrath and curse to all eternity." ' This,
though in the words of the Catechism, was no mere
echo of the religious school in which he had been
brought up, but the cry of his own heart. Sin, wrong-
1 See farther on, Natural la-w in the Spiritual World, in chap. iv.

JO HENRY DRUMMOND ['^73
doing, self-indulgence, were the only subjects upon
which, to the end of his life, we ever heard hot words
from him.
The sessions at New College, 1871-72 and 1872-73,
were occupied with the regular classes, — Senior He
brew, New Testament Exegesis, Systematic Theology,
and Church History. In March, 1872, Drummond
wrote a paper on ' The Person of Christ : His Divinity
sketched from Certain Aspects of Atonement.' He
continued to take part in the debates of the Theo
logical Society, of which, in 1873, he was elected one
of the three Presidents, along with Stalker and Pater
son. He also taught a class of boys in the Sabbath-
school of the College Mission. He was anxious to fill
up the long evenings with study, but found many dis
tractions. His reading included Ruskin, George Eliot,
Carlyle, especially Sartor Resart-us, much poetry, and
The Eclipse of Faith, in appreciation of which he came
to hard words with a fellow-student. In the summer
of 1 87 1 he went to Ireland, and wrote the account of
political feeling referred to in the last chapter. He
had much fishing and a walking tour in the Highlands.
Everything is vividly described, and his letters are full
of humour. It was during these two sessions that he
took the Science classes at the University, to which
reference has been made. Professor Archibald Geikie
offered him a geological tutorship in November,
1872. At the close of his third session, in April, 1873,
Drummond did what a number of Scottish divinity
students do every year — went to a German university
for the summer semester. Their favourite resorts used
to be Berlin, where Dillmann and Dorner were ; Halle,
so long as Tholuck was alive; Erlangen, while De-
litzsch and Hoffmann were there; Gbttingen, both be-

^T. 22] PREPARATION FOR THE MINISTRY 5 I
fore and after Ewald's death ; and Tubingen, where,
though Baur had died some years before. Beck was
still lecturing, and succeeding to a great measure of
Tholuck's influence, Weizsacker taught the New Tes
tament, the great Sanscrit scholar. Roth, gave a course
on the ' General History of Religions,' and Wilhelm
Pressel, most learned and most genial of Pfarrers,
opened his Pfarrhaus at Wankheim to all Scottish
students and introduced them to the German lan
guage and German theology. Drummond chose
Tubingen, and went there with John Ewing and
D. M. Ross. I do not know which classes he
attended. More important was the general life and
atmosphere of the place, and this he enjoyed to the
full. Who does not that goes to Tubingen straight from
a Scottish winter? The glory of the southern spring
and summer ; the first sight of vineyards and the first
tramp through a real forest ; the mediaeval castles and
churches, Urach and Lichtenstein, Hohenzollern and
Bebenhausen, the hospitality and ' gemiithlichkeit ' of
the Swabians ; the genuine piety, with other forms and
larger liberties than Scottish religion has allowed itself;
the social side of the students' life, their ' kneipes,' their
music, and their duels; the first impressions of the
thoroughness of German scholarship, and of the depth
of German thinking ; the gradual mastery of the great
language, and the entrance upon the vast new literature
— with all these it is not wonderful that so many of
us at Tiibingen should have wakened for the first time
to what Nature is, and even found there, in a sense,
the second birth of our intellect. Henry saw a number
of duels, was welcomed by a Verein, took a long Whit
suntide tramp through the Black Forest with three of
its members, and so haunted the Wankheim Pfarr-

52 HENRY DRUMMOND [1873
haus and won the Pfarrer's heart, that when they met,
some years later, in Princes Street, Edinburgh, the
old gentleman rushed at him and kissed him on both
cheeks. Altogether, he made a great impression on
the Tiibingen people, as he did everywhere, by his
sunniness and his sympathy ; and to some of us who
followed him three years after, it was enough of a
passport to the friendship of the men and women
most worth knowing in Tiibingen, that we were
friends of ' Heinrich Droomond.'

To his Sisters 'TtfBiNGEN, May 28.
' You will hear that I am going my tour with three
German students. As they know little or no
English, I shall have great chances of picking up
the language, but I find that one has really to
rely almost entirely on home work, for it is per
fectly astonishing how little one really learns by
conversation. You get into the trick of ringing
the changes on a few sentences and phrases, and
one is apt to think one knows far more than
one really does. I find it is no joke getting up
a language; the myriad words and shades of
meaning are almost appalling. The accent in
Tiibingen is a fearful dialect, which Beriiners
cannot understand at all, at least when the peas
ants speak. I have the satisfaction of picking up
Hoch-Deutsch, and quite steering clear of the
patois. I have got to know an authoress in
Tiibingen, a very famous lady [probably Frau
Ottilie Wildermuth, authoress of the charming
Bilder aus Schwabenland\ and she has invited
me to her house as often as I like to come to

^T. 22] PREPARATION FOR THE MINISTRY 53
supper on Tuesday evenings. I shall not be
slow to avail myself of her kindness.
' P.S. Hechingen. Thursday morning. En route
for Schwarzwald. Morning rather misty. Country
splendid.'
On his return from Germany, Drummond resolved
to postpone his fourth session at New College for a
year or two, in order to give himself to the study of
Natural Science, and to regular Mission work. He
retained, however, his position as President of the
Theological Society, and read an essay before it on
'Spiritual Diagnosis.' He had, as yet, practically
no experience of religious work among adults ; yet the
essay enumerated the principles, and laid down the
methods upon which, beginning from this very month
onwards, he conducted all his wonderful ministry to
men. I did not know of the existence of the paper
till too late to quote it here ; but Dr. Stalker sends
me the following recollection, and I add some echoes
of it from the criticism, delivered at the time_ it was
read by Mr. Barnetson, now Free Church minister of
Roslin : —
' In the Theological Society, near the commence
ment of the session 1873-74, he electrified us with
an essay on Spiritual Diagnosis, the thread of which
I still perfectly remember. He contrasted the clinical
work of a medical student with the total absence of
any direct dealing with men in a theological curricu
lum, and maintained that a minister can do far more
good by " buttonholing " individuals, than by preaching
sermons. The essay was understood to be purely
speculative, and as yet there was no word m Edin
burgh of Mr. Moody's coming ; but, within a month.

54

HENRY DRUMMOND [l873

Mr. Moody had arrived, and in his meetings Henry
was putting his speculations into practice.'
' Gentlemen, the paper now read in your hearing is
a brilliant one in many respects. There is an earnest
ness of purpose and a definiteness of aim, which are
manifest at the outset, and never flag throughout. He
is in hot haste to let us know what he means. After
emphasising our Lord's dealing with individuals, he
says : " We know well enough how to move the
masses, how to draw a crowd around us . . . how to
flash and storm in passion, how to work in the appeal
at the right moment, how to play upon all the figures
of Rhetoric in succession, and how to throw in a calm,
when no one expects but every one wants it. Every
one knows this or can know it easily, but to draw
souls one by one and take from them the secret of
their lives, to talk them clear out of themselves, to
read them off like a page of print, to pervade them
with your own spiritual essence and make them trans
parent, this is the spiritual diagnosis which is so
difficult to acquire and so hard to practise." "The
scientific treatment of the power of spiritual discern
ment " is the felt want which the paper expresses ;
this power exercised upon another for his good is
what the essayist understands by " spiritual diag
nosis." The lack of such a science he laments,
and at the same time shows that there is a reason
in the nature of things why this should be. He
brings forward evidence — from Solomon, Plato, Addi
son, and other writers — for the reality of the spirit
ual life. To get the variety of its workings and
interworkings reduced to scientific classification is the
great task before pastoral theology, which, if achieved,
would supply the missing hnk between college training
and practical work. The variety of phenomena in the

^T. 22] PREPARATION FOR THE MINISTRY 55
spiritual life he finds to be no bar to a spiritual science,
inasmuch as there are equally numberiess phenomena
in the sciences of chemistry and biology. But there
is a difficulty in the nature of the facts to be dealt
with. The need iox such a science he finds in seeking
to guide an awakened sinner to Christ. How to direct
such an one, how to note the changing experiences
and their precise import— for this we have no educa
tion. The mere skeleton of the soul's state at different
stages is all that many have to guide them in the deli
cate task of ministering to a mind distressed, and it is
quite insufficient. The dangers arising from this want
of due acquaintance with the subject are next dealt
with, and a warning is deduced: " To avoid the Didac
tic and practise the Attractive must be the rule."
The unsatisfactory basis on which spiritual diagnosis
rests is then adverted to — "it rests at present upon
mere individual impression." It has no philosophic
basis, which is a matter of profound regret, since the
scientific method could be so easily applied to it. And
the paper concludes with an estimate of this power as
seen in the Puritans, whose humanity he reckons not
to have abounded with the milk of human kindness,
and also with an axiom for spiritual diagnosis : " Ten
derness and courtesy are requisite to approach the
heart, without which the heart is approached only to
be shocked." '
In these recollections two of Drummond's character
istics are very evident, — his sense of law and of defi
nite order in all religious experience, and the insist
ence upon tenderness and courtesy, of which qualities
he was himself one of the most perfect examples this
generation has seen, — and it was these which gave him
his wonderful power over the individual.
The same week he started operations as missionary

56 HENRY DRUMMOND [1873
in the Riego Street Mission of Free St. Cuthbert's
Church, then under the collegiate ministry of Sir
Henry Moncrieff, Bart., and Mr. Gavin Anderson. He
opened with this appointment the second of his brief
diaries, in which he records ' his first public appear
ance, Mr. Anderson having asked him to take the
concluding prayer at the congregational prayer-meet
ing. The first time I ever faced an audience, sensa
tions not remarkable. When my turn came I trembled
on standing up — considerably all through. Tremour
in voice. I should think not perceived ; mind kept per
fectly clear and cool. Voice seemed not my own, but
a new voice. Have no possible idea how it sounded.
Prayer was simple and to the point. It was outlined
in thought during the afternoon — a sentence or two
were written, but then not all remembered at the
time.' ' I was more than satisfied with the result. Of
course there was nothing of my doing in it' Two
years before this he had found that he spoke much
more powerfully extempore than when he wrote
out his speeches beforehand, and this is confirmed
by his friend Mr. M'Culloch. But the experience
never betrayed him into laxity of preparation. For
his meetings in Riego Street, attended at first by
only a dozen people, he wrote out his prayers very
carefully, and prepared full notes for his addresses.
' To-night held my first prayer-meeting. There were
ten women and two men present, all the right class.
Address — what shall I say? I think it must have
been very poor, particulariy as to the delivery. Was
not the least nervous, but did not know exactly where
to look. People listened attentively — very. One
woman (like a servant) put me out rather by laugh
ing, I suppose at the crudities of my attempt. It

.^T. 22] PREPARATION FOR THE MINISTRY 57
certainly was crude. It closed with a bang, i.e. an
abrupt collapse ! '
So the diary itself closes. The following week a
religious movement began in Edinburgh and spread
over the country, which caught up the stammering
evangelist to a higher platform and gave him his first
extraordinary influence and fame among men.

CHAPTER IV
THE GREAT MISSION. 1873-1875
Towards the end of the summer of 1873, two
Americans landed at Liverpool with the purpose of
holding religious meetings in the large cities of Eng
land. To quote their bills, one of them preached,
and the other sang, the Gospel. The singer was
the younger of the two, thirty-four years of age, with
a strong baritone voice, and he sang sitting at an
American organ, upon which he accompanied himself.
The one who preached was about thirty-seven, short,
thick-set, with a heavy jaw and a strong American
accent. Their names were American, with the usual
middle initial — Dwight L. Moody, the preacher, and
Ira D. Sankey, the singer.
In their own country the men had already given
proofs of power, and their personal record was un
stained. But they came to England with no fame
and hardly any credentials. Their methods were
strange and aggressive, the season of the year unsuita
ble, and in their attempt upon Liverpool they failed.
They moved to York and found as little sympathy
there. So they went on to Newcastle and Sunder
land, where at last, after a few weeks, large meetings
were gathered and thoroughly roused. Many men
and women, but especially men, were convinced of
sin, and professed faith in Jesus Christ as their
Saviour. The news spread across the country.
The Rev. John Kelman of Leith, who had heard
58

.^T. 22] THE GREAT MISSION 59
of the work from his brother in Sunderland, visited
the meetings both there and at Newcastle. By what
he witnessed he was convinced of the real power of
the movement, and at the close of a service at Walker
he gave the evangelists an invitation to Scotland.
About the same time similar proposals reached them
from Mr. Hood Wilson of Edinburgh and from Dun
dee. Mr. Kelman strongly advised them to begin in
Edinburgh, as from there the whole of Scotland could
be most easily reached. To this Mr. Moody agreed,
and Mr. Kelman returned to form a committee and
prepare the way.^ For the next six weeks there were
daily gatherings for prayer, and on Sunday, the 23d
of November, the Edinburgh mission was opened with
a very crowded meeting in the Music Hall, at which Mr.
Moody was too ill to speak. The meeting on Monday
was in the Barclay Church, and Mr. Sankey's organ hav
ing been broken, he did not sing. With these inauspi
cious beginnings, the week-day meetings were at first
but fairiy Targe. Only a few of the leading ministers
were present; many refused to intimate the mission,
and it was with difficulty that Mr. Sankey's harmonium
was admitted, even into some of the churches previously
granted for meetings. Every week, however, the tide
rose, and by Christmas began to flow in volume. On
New Year's Eve, a crowded watch-meeting was attended
not only by many ministers, but by a still larger num
ber of the leading laymen of the town. Members
of all the Protestant denominations professed them
selves quickened. The prejudices of those who for
years had resisted every attempt to introduce instru
mental music into public worship were overcome, and
1 Mr. Kelman acted as secretary of the Edinburgh committee. Moody wrote
to Drummond some years afterwards : ' My love to Kelman; 1 never thmk of the
work in Edinburgh without thinking of him.'

6o HENRY DRUMMOND [i873
they lustily sang with Mr. Sankey and his organ.
The most respected leaders of religion spoke from the
evangelist's platforms, helped in the inquiry rooms,
and instructed the young converts. Professor Cairns,
Professors Charteris and Calderwood of the University,
Professors Blaikie and Rainy of New College, Dr. An
drew Thomson, Mr. Hood Wilson, and Dr. Horarius
Bonar; Dr. Andrew Bonar and Dr. Marshall Lang
from Glasgow ; Mr. George Cullen, Mr. M'Murtrie of
St. Bernard's and Mr. Wilson of Tolbooth, Mr. William
Arnot, Mr. James Robertson, Mr. John Morgan, Mr.
Whyte of Free St. George's, Mr. Knox Talon of the
Episcopal Church, Lord Polwarth, Sheriff Campbell,
Mr. James Balfour, Mr. William and Mr. David Dick
son, Mr. Brown Douglas, Mr. David M'Laren, and a
number of lawyers, doctors, and merchants gave their
assistance. On all sides the fire spread. Hundreds of
converts were gathered from the careless and formal
members of the Church, as well as from among people
who never went to church. In contrast to most con
gregations, the number of men at the meetings equalled
and sometimes exceeded that of the women. It was
possible to fill one church after another with young
men, and to see in each a hundred rise to confess that
they had been converted by God's Word. And the
work became a general sulDJect of discussion, some
times hostile, but always serious, among all classes of
society. The secret of all this lay open. The evangelists
themselves were obviously men of sincerity and power.
They made mistakes. Mr. Moody said some rash
things, as a foreigner could not help doing, and many
crude ones, as an uneducated man must. While some
of his addresses were powerful, others were very poor.
But these faults soon sank from sight in the deep

^T. 22] THE GREAT MISSION 6 1
impression of a true zeal to win men for a better life,
and to pour fresh power into the routine of Christian
work. Men felt themselves in presence of a Power,
towards whom their obligations and opportunities were
not to be weakened by any defect in its human instru
ments. And as time went on the sincerity and strength
of the latter became more apparent. The evangelists
were practical, they were sane, and they grew more
sane under the influence of the men who gathered to
their help. Mr. Moody suffered no fools, and every
symptom of the hysteria which often breaks out in
such movements was promptly suppressed. The
preaching won Scotsmen's hearts by its loyalty to the
Bible and its expository character. Next to Mr.
Moody's passion for proclaiming the gospel was his
zeal for instruction. He believed in the Bible class,
and like some other recent movements in Scotland,
the revival of Bible classes and of the religious instruc
tion of youth owes not a little to his example. But
his practical spirit reached farther. His gospel, which
had its centre in the Atonement, was the gospel of
an Incarnate Saviour : no mere voice, but hands and
feet, with heart and brains behind, to cleanse the cities
of their foulness, organise the helpless and neglected,
succour the fallen, and gather the friendless into fami
lies. We have forgotten how often Mr. Moody en
forced the civic duties of our faith. Yet read again
his addresses and articles of the time, and you will
believe that in the seventies there was no preacher
more civic or more practical among us. He re
awakened in Scotland not a few echoes of Chalmers ;
and to read him again is to be filled with surprise
that in the country of Chalmers so few of Moody's
followers should have sustained the more liberal key
notes which he struck for them! Again, Mr. Moody

62 HENRY DRUMMOND [1873-74
was no schismatic : just because he was so practical he
was loyal to the churches. Hardly educated himself,
he emphasised the education of the ministry. He
never strove for applause by criticism of the average
clergyman, nor for laughter by jeers at him. He knew,
as some of his present successors do not seem wise
enough to know, that it is not your passing evangelist,
however brilliant, who reaches the drifting and sunken
of our cities, but the parish minister and city mission
ary. But the chief features of the movement were its
prayerfulness and its ethical temper. Those who took
most part in it knew how it lived by prayer, earnest,
simple, and direct. The theology was stiff, some might
say mechanical, but it was never abstract. To use a
good old word, it was thoroughly experimental, and
busied with the actual life of men.
Over the town and neighbourhood a number of
meetings were addressed by ministers and elderly lay
men of position in Edinburgh. It was after the evan
gelists had been at work for some time, when their
gospel was well known, there were large numbers of
inquirers, and the emphasis of every speaker was very
properly laid upon ' decision for Christ' In their natu
ral anxiety to make this duty appear as simple as
possible, some of these speakers laboriously succeeded
in exhausting it of all reality, and shut up their hearers
to the baldest travesty of faith that was ever presented
to hungry men. A young man who had not heard
Moody, but who was awakened and anxious, listened
for several evenings to these speakers. He saw them
whittle away one after another of the essentials of
faith, and call him to a reception of salvation in which
there was neither conscience nor love, nor any awe.
In their extremity they likened the acceptance of
Christ to the taking of a five-pound note offered you

^T. 22] THE GREAT MISSION 63
for nothing, or of a glass of water, or of an orange !
The veil grew thinner and thinner between his eyes
and the mystery which was beyond, till at last, at the
touch of one of their grotesque parables, it tore, and —
there was nothing behind. Religion turned out to be
a big confidence trick. In this feeling he attended a
meeting conducted by Mr. Moody himself. The crowd
was enormous. The sight of two thousand men, all
of them serious, most of them anxious, plunged him
into real life again. The words of the hymns he heard
were poor, and the music little better, but the mystical
power came back with them, and he found himself
worshipping. Mr. Moody began to speak with that
Yankee accent in which, except when it is boasting of
its country, you seldom fail to feel the edge of the real.
There was an occasional exaggeration, but some
humour fell and swept the address clean of every
appearance of unreality. Mr. Moody spoke of the
peril of life, of the ghastly hunger of the soul without
God, of conscience, and of guilt; then with passion
and with tenderness of God's love, and of the Saviour
Christ, who is among us to-day as surely as on the
shores of Galilee, or by the Pool of Bethesda. Hun
dreds of men stood up in silent witness that they had
found salvation, and the young man knew what they
had found. He did not stay behind with them, but
he went away feeling that God was in the meeting,
very clear what Christ could save him from, and con
scious that it was at the peril of his manhood if he
refused to follow Him.
The movement spread over Scotland. Messrs.
Moody and Sankey spent the spring of 1874 in Glas
gow and other towns in the west. Everything hap
pened that had happened in Edinburgh, but on a
larger scale. In Greenock, from three to four thousand

64

HENRY DRUMMOND [1873-74

persons heard the gospel daily; there were meetings
of two and three thousand every Sunday morning at
nine. In Glasgow, the Crystal Palace, as it was then
called, a building of glass, was crowded night after
night with five thousand people, and still many were
turned from the doors ; it was nine times filled in six
days. There would be from fifty to two hundred in
quirers after every meeting. The body of the church
or hall would be occupied by groups of men and
women, all anxious, and many weeping, while ministers
and their friends spoke to them of Christ. Then those
who ' accepted Him ' would be asked to stand up, and
often all did so. The custom was to reserve every
Monday evening for a meeting of converts. At the
last one in Glasgow there were thirty-five hundred
present. From all parts of Scotland visitors attended
the meetings in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and deputa
tions were sent from these centres over the country.
So, when the evangelists went to other towns, they
found their way prepared, and in some cases the
results were even more rapid than they had been in
either of the capitals. Stirling, Perth, Dundee, Aber
deen, Inverness, and towns to the east and north of
it, Oban, Campbeltown, and Rothesay were all visited
during the summer and autumn of 1874. Nor did
the work diminish in a district when the evangelists
passed on. In Edinburgh it was said that the results
rather increased after their farewell meeting. The
converts were organised : twelve hundred, who gave
their names in Edinburgh, were visited every fortnight
for the next two years ! This careful supervision,
attempted also in other places, had the best effect on
the churches, in which the number of young commu
nicants was largely increased. Ministers themselves
were quickened. Although some, it is true, were

^T. 22] THE GREAT MISSION 65
tempted to become sensational and others to rely on
the Spirit, without seeking to deserve His aids by
their own study and prayer, preaching upon the whole
was stronger and more fresh than it had been, and
new heart was put into congregational routine. In
1874, Mr. M'Murtrie — and this is but one among
many testimonies — wrote that he had ' never known
so happy a winter as last, during the whole course of
his ministry.' Dr. Cairns wrote that ' the revival had
made very hopeful the whole future of the Bible class
in Scotland.'
But the power spread beyond the congregations,
and one of the most striking features of the movement
was the social and philanthropic work which it stimu
lated. Like all religious revivals^ this one had its
origin among the well-to-do classes, and at first offered
some ground for the sneers at bourgeois religion
which were cast upon it. But Mr. Moody, who had
the true imagination of the city, and the power to
bring up before others the vision of its wants, inspired
the Christians of Glasgow to attempt missions to the
criminal classes and the relief of the friendless. The
lodging-houses were visited and every haunt of va
grants about the brick-kilns upon the South Side and
elsewhere. Temperance work was organised, and
although there were, as always in that work, very
many disappointments, a considerable number of poor
drunkards were befriended and reformed. A huge
tent was raised on the Green, and afterwards replaced
by a hall, which became the scene of a Sabbath morn
ing breakfast to the poor, and the centre of a great deal of
other philanthropic activity. New interest was roused
in industrial schools, and on the advice of Sheriff Wat
son, a veteran in this line of education, an industrial
1 Thorold Rogers, Lectures on the Economic Interpretation of History.

66 HENRY DRUMMOND [j873-74
feeding school was established for ill-fed or ill-clad
children. At Saltcoats a house was bought and fur
nished for orphans ; new impulses were given to the
Orphan Homes of Scotland, founded in 1871 by Mr.
Quarrier, who, with his fellow-workers among the poor
of Glasgow, had given inestimable assistance to Mr.
Moody's mission. A boarding-house was opened in
Glasgow for young women. Mr. Moody gave great
attention to Young Men's Christian Associations, and
at the height of the movement secured very large sub
scriptions for their foundation or expansion. He felt
strongly that they^ had been conducted upon methods
which were either too vague or too narrow, and that
for their success ' clear and liberal views were needed.'
He defined their aim — to promote the spiritual in
stincts and look after the temporal wants of young
men. Each ' ought to be a nursery of Christian char
acter, a most efficient evangelistic agency, a centre of
social meeting, and a means of furthering the progress
of young men in the general pursuits of life.' But
along with 'liberality in your aims you must have
thoroughness in details. The spiritual must be dis
tinctly dominant. Do not, however, put the associa
tion in place of the Church; it is a handmaid of the
Church and a feeder of the Church. For every man
it must find some work,' and ' use every particle of
power in the young convert.' Again, we may express
the wish that the manly and liberal views of the evan
gelist had been carried out by all the institutions
which he did so much to invigorate.^
^ See a letter by him in Times of Blessing, vol. i. p. 4.
2 Another effect of the movement ought to be recorded in Edinburgh and at
other places, both in England and Scotland. Some Episcopalian ministers heartily
cooperated with the evangeUsts. But in this denomination more good appears
to have been done by special missions and conferences by their own clergy in the
wake of Messrs. Moody and Sankey. There were very successful missions in

^T. 22] THE GREAT MISSION 67
How Henry Drummond was drawn into this great
movement I have not been able to trace with exact
ness. Soon after he began his mission in Riego
Street^ he asked a fellow-student if he had heard of
the two Americans who were evangelising at Newcas
tle, and with the date of their arrival in Edinburgh the
diary of his own work stops short, as if he had been
suddenly carried off upon some larger stream. Two
New College men who had attended one of the early
gatherings in Edinburgh, and had stayed behind to
see the novel inquiry meetings, then exciting much
jealousy, were asked by Mr. Moody to assist, and
refused. When they returned to their lodging they
felt some shame at their inability to speak of their
Lord to anxious men who were seeking Him, and
after prayer together they resolved to offer themselves
for the work. To Drummond's own mind this sus
pected feature of the movement must have appeared
its most promising element. Here was the very factor
which he had missed in the organisation of the Church,
and for which, only that month, he had been pleading
in his essay to the Theological Society. We can
understand how his keen mind watched the move
ment, and in spite of this prejudice in its favour, found
at first not a little to repel him. He was curiously dif
ferent from the two men with whom he was to become
so intimate a colleague, — not in theology, nor in zeal
to win his fellow-men for Christ, but in those other
things that by the bitter irony of our life separate us
from each other far more cruelly than even the divisions
of religion do. His accent, his style, his tastes, were
at the other pole from those of the evangelists. His
Edinburgh, conducted by Mr. Pigou, vicar of Doncaster, and Father Benson ; in.
Brighton, by Mr. Hay Aitken ; in Leeds, London, and elsewhere.
1 See pp. 55-56.

68 HENRY DRUMMOND [i874
speech was quiet and restrained, — an excited preacher
was always a wonder to him, — he had a perilous
sense of humour, and I do not think that he ever
really cared for large public meetings. Nor did the
social possibilities of the movement attract him: at
this time he had not the civic conscience. But from
the first he felt Mr. Moody's sincerity, and the practical
wisdom of the new methods. The aim at the individ
ual, the endeavour to rouse and secure him — this was
what he had missed in ordinary church methods and
now found. The inquiry meetings bridged the gap
between preacher and hearer, and brought them
together, man to man, before God. On his side Mr.
Moody was feeling the need of a young man to take
charge of the meetings for young men, and it is a
tribute to his insight that he chose one whose style
and tastes were so different from his own. At first
Drummond was employed, like other students, only in
the inquiry room. ' Often he was to be seen going
home through the streets after a meeting with a man
in whose arm his own was linked. He wore round
his shoulders, or rather his head, a tartan plaid, green
and black, in which I always see him yet when I recall
those days. The figure was extremely picturesque.
'The next stage was that of addressing meetings,
which came about in this way. As the marvellous
work developed in Edinburgh, the news, of course,
flew in every direction ; and requests came pouring in
from all parts of the country for speakers to come and
describe it. These were dealt with, in the first place,
by the committee who had charge of Mr. Moody's
meetings, but as the students of New College had
gone into the movement nearly in a body, a few of us
shaped ourselves into an informal committee to receive
the applications and send out deputations. Of course

^T. 22] THE GREAT MISSION 69
the descriptions of what was going on in Edinburgh
were combined with evangelistic addresses; and the
flame of revival burst out in one place after another —
north, south, east, and west.
'This went on for months, and Drummond was in
the thick of it all the time. I still remember vividly
some of his deputation work. The sympathy of young
men had been very visible in Edinburgh, but it was in
Glasgow that the first very remarkable meeting for
this class was held, and the feature to which reference
has just been made was conspicuously stamped on the
movement. The meeting is still remembered in Glas
gow, and in religious circles throughout Scotland, as
" the hundred-and-one night." It took place in Ewing
Place Congregational Church, which was filled with
young men. Mr. Moody had sent to Edinburgh for a
deputation of students, and Stewart, Miller (now of the
Bridge of Allan), Gordon (Vienna), Brown (Glasgow),
Henry, and I went. Mr. Moody did not speak at all
himself; but Dr. Cairns of Berwick delivered a pow
erful address on Immortality; then the students spoke
one after another; and Dr. H. J. Wilson wound up.
As the meeting proceeded, the spiritual power was
such as I have never experienced on any other occa
sion; and when Mr. Moody, at the close, ordered the
front seats to be cleared, and invited those who
wished to be prayed for to occupy the vacant pews, a
hundred and one came forward. As the evangelist
pleaded, and that solemn stream began to gather from
every corner of the church, the sense of Divine power
became overwhelming, and I remember quite well
turning round on the platform and hiding my face in
my hands, unable to look on the scene any more.
Yet all was perfectly quiet, and the hundred and one
were men of intelligence and character, who were not

70 HENRY DRUMMOND [1874
carried away with excitement, but moved by the force
of conviction. I do not remember anything remarka
ble in Henry's speaking that night ; the address which
told most was, I think, that of Frank Gordon, whose
speaking was characterised by a wonderful pathos and
passion. When we six went back to the hotel, we sat
very late discussing the remarkable scene we had just
witnessed. Some one started the question whether it
is usual to remember the date and the incidents of
one's own conversion. At such a moment it was easy
to be confidential, and it turned out that we were
equally divided, three remembering the circumstances
in which their spiritual life began, and three not.
Henry was, I think, among the latter. Each of us
possesses an interleaved Testament, beautifully bound
in morocco, as a memorial of that night ; and each
book contains the signatures and mottoes of all six.
These Testaments were Henry's idea, and he pre
sented them to the rest. His own copy went with
him through his subsequent evangelistic wanderings,
and was worn to rags.
' On another occasion I remember that Henry and
I set off together to fulfil two engagements without
having decided to which place each was to go. We
talked the matter over as the train carried us up the
Highland line, but at last we tossed for it. I went
to Inverness and he, I think, to Nairn or Elgin. As
matters turned out, this decision was very important;
for, where he went, there was such a blessing that he
felt called to devote himself more absolutely to the
work; and he used to speak of this occasion as one
of the turning-points by which his subsequent work
was determined.' Others remember that Mr. Moody
himself was in Elgin, and to Drummond's surprise
opened the door to him when he arrived there.

Mt.22'\ the GREAT MISSION 7 1
It was, in fact, because of what he heard or saw of
this work in Elgin that Mr. Moody sent Drummond
to Sunderland — the first instance of his policy of
setting Drummond to continue the work among
young men at places which Mr. Sankey and he had
visited. Stewart either went with Drummond or
joined him a few days later, but 'the work immedi
ately developed to such an extent that he telegraphed
for help. P sent Ewing,^ who up to that point had
kept out of the movement, but was instantly caught
by its spirit and soon proved one of the most power
ful workers. In subsequent years we used to chaff
Ewing by telling with what fear and trembling I had
sent him, and how aghast Henry was when he heard
who was coming to be his coadjutor. Even at the
time, in spite of the solemnity of the supernatural
forces in the midst of which we felt ourselves, there
was a great deal of high spirits in our intercourse.'
The deputation went for three days and stayed a fort
night, with still less hope of getting away, for the
work grew past all belief and spread to the neighbour
ing towns. In answer to urgent invitations the three
young Scotsmen visited Newcastle, South Shields,
Bishop Auckland, Hartlepool, Morpeth, and Hexham.
Sunderland appears to have been fairly aroused by
the mission. The work began as elsewhere among
the middle classes, and spread to the working-men.
All denominations took part in it. Members of the
Society of Friends were among the hardest workers,
but all the Nonconformist ministers gave their help,
and the three young men found themselves at the
head of a large and influential organisation which
they had to superintend from day to day, besides con-
^ Rev. James Stalker.
^ Rev. John F. Ewing, afterwards of Toorak.

72 HENRY DRUMMOND [i874
ducting the services and the meetings with inquirers.
It must have been a tremendous ordeal, both mental
and moral. Ewing used to speak of it as the greatest
month of his life. But there appears to have been no
excitement, and the large daily gatherings for prayer
were conducted with deep earnestness. The results
were very manifest: the after-meetings were large,
very many members of church-going families were
moved to a real decision to follow Christ, and num
bers of young men, who had not been to any church
for months and years, professed themselves converted.
The tiny Young Men's Association rose to a member
ship of four hundred, and a year or two afterwards the
work done among them was declared to be permanent
and still spreading. In the end a thousand persons in
Sunderland alone gave in their names as converts.
Parents were so stirred that arrangements were made
to extend the public services to children ; and in this
delicate work — the propriety of which Drummond
afterwards questioned, believing with justice that reli
gion comes to a child most naturally through its home,
— some amount of real good was done, in spite of the
artificial and premature 'experiences' that such a
movement always forces. In his weekly letters to his
father and mother Drummond tells the following
story : — ' Sunderland, April 24, 1874.
'. . . You see I am still here and do not know when
we are to get away. Requests are pouring in on
us from all quarters and the work is just as deep
as it could be. We have three meetings each
night, one exclusively for young men. Generally
there are about a hundred inquirers in all every
night, and as most of these come to the light before
leaving you may imagine the wonderful nature of

Mt. 22] THE GREAT MISSION 73
the work going on around us. We got Ewing to
help us yesterday, but my health is just as good
as ever. We are kept at it from morning till
night. Schools, infirmaries, poorhouses, etc.,
have all to be addressed, and the work has got in
among several of the public institutions. Yester
day we had an " all day " meeting for inquirers.
The young men's meetings have been a marvel
lous success and have done an amount of good
which the countryside will feel the influence of
for generations. They are going out in bands
to work the neighbourhood, and as there is a
dense colliery population they may do a great
deal of good. I am living in a very quiet family,
and although you might think there is a deal of
excitement going on, I seem to be spared it all
and live as quietly as if I were at Killin. . . .
Next week we shall run in to Newcastle occasion
ally to meetings there, but one of us will always
be left here.' 'Hartlepool, May 6, 1874.
' The people here have been very pressing for some
of us to run down and hold a couple of meetings,
and I made up my mind to comply while the
other two went to Newcastle, where I join them
to-morrow. The Sunderland work would take a
week even to sketch, and it seems to have reached
all classes and all ages. Among the schools it
seems to have broken out with force, and we could
spend another month among them with great profit.
On Sunday I had an enormous children's meeting
and a hundred and fifty remained to an after-meet
ing. In the evening we had the Victoria Hall
crammed (with adults) and a very large number en
tered the inquiry room at the close. On Monday

74

HENRY DRUMMOND ['874
evening we had a farewell meeting with the young
converts. There was a large church full and it was
one of the happiest meetings I was ever at. The
general impression in Sunderland is that the work
is just beginning, and although we have left the
place, I expect we shall have to go back again.
To give you an idea of the work in Sunderland I
may say that upwards of three hundred names
were given in at the young -men's m,eeting alone of
young men who had professed to have been con
verted during the three weeks of the meetings.
One minister of a small chapel stated after the first
fortnight that forty had been converted already
out of his little flock. To me the whole matter
seems an unreal dream. It is impossible to real
ise it. I suppose it was never meant we should.
Hartlepool is a Httle chilly after Sunderland. . . .
The whole countryside is ripe here, and I do not
really know when this English tour of ours is to
end.' 'Sunderland, May 12, 1874.
' I am leading a very wandering life. . . . Our
hands are very full here. We have applications
from all quarters to go to work. Our present
duty, however, is to stay in Sunderland. We
have given it a rest this week and are working
Newcastle and Bishop Auckland, but next week
we are to have a great week of meetings here for
all classes, and a special one each night for young
men only and probably another one for children.
The work among children has been most wonder
ful, and we have visited Sabbath and Day Schools.
As you can guess, we started with but a very
meagre stock of material, and have got on won
derfully. I should much like, however, to have a

^Jr. 22] THE GREAT MISSION 75
few of those American Sabbath School Messengers,
as my stock of illustrations is worn absolutely
threadbare. If you come across anything nice
you might also send it, and A. might join in the
hunt. I am really anxious about this, and I hope
you will manage to send a few scraps before
many posts are passed. . . . On Monday we
had another converts' meeting — a large church
full. The Sunday evening meeting has become
quite an institution in the town, and is having an
extraordinary influence on all classes. There are
always three thousand or four thousand present
and we have always a large prayer-meeting.' 'Hexham, June 9, 1874.
' I got here on Saturday evening after a good week
at Sunderland. We worked two meetings each
night, but the one was six miles off so that we
only had one each to attend to. The results were
most satisfactory. I think there would be about
a hundred in each place — I cannot say exactly
converted, but under very deep impression.
One night I spent at Morpeth and had a very
nice meeting. On Sunday I had no less than
three meetings here, all very interesting. Thev
were just about to close the meetings which have
been going on for some weeks. They thought the
thing was getting played out, but they seem to
have taken a fresh start, and the meetings this
week have been the biggest they have ever had.
Half the audience last night were church peo
ple. ... If the work had been bad I should
have been with you to-morrow, but I see now it
will not do to break off. You know every night
counts. As to my health, I think I am stronger

76 HENRY DRUMMOND ['874
than ever. There could not be a more healthy
place than this, and I take the whole day in the
woods and hills. I am engaged all week at
Shields, but on Saturday I could get free for a
few days and we might have a ramble together.'
'South Shields, June 26, 1874.
' The work here has been steady. Results not like
Sunderland exactly, but I think we ought to be
very well satisfied. I am pressed to stay and will
probably be either here or in the neighbourhood.'
From another place, the same month.
' . . . I had got thus far when a long interruption
occurred. The gentleman with whom I am living
opened up his whole past history to me — a very
chequered one it has been — and I think our visit
will be the means of doing him some good. I
could not stop his yarn, as I saw something per
haps was to come of it. This is a specimen of
the kind of private work which we have to do in
every house we stay at, with scarcely an exception.'
Meetings of three and four thousand, daily addresses
to hundreds of young men, a constant confessional,
crowds of anxious inquirers, urgent invitations from
all quarters, the success of the work obviously de
pendent upon his presence, ministers and leading lay
men in many towns looking to him as their chief, the
sense (right or wrong) that the Christianity of the next
generation in these places might largely be determined
by the work he had charge of — conceive of all this
falling to a man not quite twenty-three ! It might
well seem to him ' an unreal dream.' Yet there is abun
dant evidence in his letters that he did not lose his

.^T. 22] THE GREAT MISSION 77
head nor suffer his natural spirit to be warped. He
kept his interest in the common affairs of home,
wrote about his younger brother's egg-collecting, and
looked forward as eagerly as any school-boy to a holiday
with his mother. From outside testimony, he seems
to have depreciated rather than exaggerated the results
of the work. He remained shrewd and sensible ; and
it was already noticed of him that, as in all his later
years, he never betrayed, either on or off the platform,
one secret of the many hundreds that must have been
confided to him by those who sought his counsel and
inspiration. The Sunderland Mission made Drum
mond a man. He won from it not only the power of
organising and leading his fellow-men, but that insight
into character, that knowledge of life on its lowest as
on its highest levels, that power of interest in every
individual he met, which so brilliantly distinguished
him, and in later years made us who were his friends
feel as if his experience and his sympathy were
exhaustless. When Messrs. Moody and Sankey closed their Scot
tish Mission at Rothesay in the beginning of Septem
ber, they passed over to Belfast, where they stayed for
five weeks. Here the same huge meetings, the same
large number of inquirers and of converts, followed
their work as in Scotland. When they moved to
Londonderry they sent for Drummond (who had spent
his holidays fishing and evangelising in Orkney and
Shetland) to continue the work in Belfast ; and, with
his friend James Stalker, he began to address meetings
there about the 8th of October. When the mission
opened in Dublin he moved to Derry, and carried on
the work alone for some weeks. He had been at
home for part of the autumn, and his people had urged
him to resume his theological studies the next winter

78 HENRY DRUMMOND [1874
session. In the following letter he gives evidence not
only of his resolution to abide by the mission so long
as it should need him, but of that clearness of percep
tion as to what his own proper work was, and that
quiet power of overcoming all influence to the con
trary, which was so marked a feature of his character.
'Londonderry, Oct. 19, 1874.
'. . . Just a few lines from the seat of war to tell
you how things are going on. The enemy is fall
ing by hundreds. I think Derry beats any work
I have been in by a great deal. The first meeting
almost overwhelmed me. Moody was here for
four days, and, leaving on Thursday morning, sent
me to keep up the meetings. The place was first
roused thoroughly, and no more. When I came
I found the biggest church here filled to the last
seat. I think it was one of the most impressive
meetings I have seen. The inquiry meetings were
far bigger than any they had had — amongst them
seventy young men. On Saturday we had a con
verts' meeting. Last night another evangelistic
meeting ; the church crowded to the pulpit stairs
half an hour before the time. There were more
than three hundred anxious. Of course I cannot go
to Dublin for some time. I have just telegraphed
to Moody. I feel the responsibility of the work
here is very great. Being sent here by Moody,
and being the only worker, I have full swing of
the entire work. It is far too much for me, and I
am almost frightened when I think of it. One
very fine feature of the movement here is the hold
it has taken amongst the young men. I believe
there were one hundred and fifty (young men
alone) anxious last night, and about one hundred

Mt. 22] THE GREAT MISSION 79
have already decided before that, and were at the
converts' meeting on Saturday.
' I suppose I am fairly engaged now to follow Moody
all winter, and take his young men's meetings. I
cannot help thinking more and more every day
that this is the work God has planned for me this
session. Why I should have such a tremendous
privilege is the only mystery to me. I do not
believe there has ever been such an opportunity
for work in the history of the Church. Moody
says if the young men's meeting can be kept up
in every town, he believes there will be ten thou
sand young men converted before the winter is
over. What a tremendous thought ! In the light
of all this, I cannot help thinking, as I have said,
that the path I have chosen for the next months
is the path which God has lit up for me. I was
very uncomfortable when I was at home last —
you all seemed so much against it, and I felt it
more than you think. But now I feel I mtist go
onward, the pointing of the Finger has grown
plainer and less unmistakable than ever. I feel
as if I dared not draw back. I wish you could
all see it too.'
To Dublin the evangelists went with some trepida
tion. One correspondent warned them of failure in a
truly Hibernian style : ' I have seen so many of these
revivals, and they all end worse than they were before
they began ! ' Their first meeting in the Exhibition
Palace was reckoned at ten thousand ; and although for
some time after that the work went more slowly than
any since the Edinburgh Mission, it ultimately reached
even greater dimensions than the evangelists had yet
experienced. This increase was partly due to the

8o HENRY DRUMMOND ['874
hearty cooperation, for the first time in the history
of the movement, of the Episcopalian clergy, while
the daily press chronicled the meetings with a fulness
never displayed elsewhere. ' Men of all the Church
parties attended the meetings. Three of the Bishops
have been at them ; and one of these, the Bishop of
Kilmore, has warmly commended " the wonderful work
in Dublin" while presiding over his Synod. The
Bishop of Derry at the reopening of York Minster
said that " in Scotland and Ireland a strong fervour
had been awakened, and hundreds and thousands had
been made earnest by a single voice singing the Gospel
of Jesus Christ." The Rev. Lord Plunket, while " not
personally relishing all the accompaniments of their
teaching," blessed God " for the good which is being
done by our American visitors," and rejoiced " that
Christ is being preached, and souls are being saved."
Many Roman Catholics frequented the meetings. Al
though the evangelists were working for the first time
in a population the majority of which was Catholic,
they made so great an impression of the real good
they were doing that one Catholic newspaper. The
Nation, severely rebuked another for abusing them,
and bade them Godspeed. This impression could
never have been secured had Mr. Moody used contro
versy or denunciation, but these he wisely avoided.' ^
There was unity among Christians. In the first
week of December a Convention was held, for which
the railway companies offered tickets from all parts
of Ireland. On the Tuesday an ' all day' meeting was
attended by fifteen thousand people in the Exhibition
Palace, and there were neariy one thousand ministers
present, in seats reserved for them. The topics chosen
1 The above details are from letters to The Times of Blessing in November,
1874, by Dr. Fleming Stevenson.

^T. 23] THE GREAT MISSION 8 1
were ' Praise and Thanksgiving,' ' How to reach the
Masses,' and ' How to fill Ireland with the Gospel.'
These were introduced by two Episcopalians and a
Presbyterian, and discussed by ministers of other com
munions. Mr. Moody himself spoke on Sectarian
ism. ' God had vouchsafed a blessed unity. Woe to
the unhappy person who should break it! Yet it
would be broken if there was proselytism. The cry
is, " Come out ! Come out from a sect ! " But where ?
Into another sect! The spirit that is always prose
lytising is from Satan. I say. Stay in. If you have
a minister that preaches Christ, stand by him. You
will get nothing but trouble and pride by leaving
him. There are people who consider that denouncing
churches and finding fault with ministers is " bearing
testimony." These people will " bear testimony " for
years, and that is all Christ gets from them. I warn
you, beware of trying to get people away from the folds
where they have been fed. The moment we begin to
lift up our little party or our Church, then the Spirit of
God seems to leave and there is no more conversion.'
Drummond came to Dublin for a meeting of men
on Sunday, November Sth. There were nearly three
thousand present, and at the close a large number of
inquirers. On December 3d Dr. Fleming Stevenson
writes : —
' For some time past another large meeting had been con
ducted in the Metropolitan Hall at the same hour as the
evening inquiry meeting, and yet the attendance at both has
increased. It is exclusively for young men, and is conducted
by Mr. Henry Drummond, who was urgently entreated to
leave work of the same kind at Derry that he might come
up to this. At first it seemed harder to deal with them and
less impression was made than elsewhere ; but that is all past,
and probably there are nowhere more striking instances of
the grace of God.'

82 HENRY DRUMMOND ['874
Drummond himself said at Manchester that during
four weeks of young men's meetings in Dublin from
ten to fifty were converted every night, that in one
business place alone there had been seventy-five con
verts, and that altogether hundreds had sent in their
names as converts. To judge from the letters he
afterwards received from Dublin, these were mainly
artisans, shopmen, and clerks. Some of them were
quite uneducated ; the first result of their conversion
to Christ was usually a strong passion to learn to read.
One poor fellow who had taught himself in a few
months after his conversion writes : ' Since you left
Dublin I had had such a creatin [?] Happeytite long
ing for the knowledge of the Holy Bible.' But this
is the only grotesque testimony out of many.
Messrs. Moody and Sankey opened their mission
in Manchester on a dark Sunday of drenching rain.^
Yet they gathered a meeting of two thousand workers
at eight in the morning and two other meetings later
in the day, for which the Free Trade and Oxford halls
were required. They stayed in Manchester a month.
On New Year's Eve they began in Sheffield, on
January 17th in Birmingham, and on February 5th
in Liverpool. In all three towns the same features
marked their work as in Dublin, Belfast, Glasgow,
and Edinburgh : enormous meetings from the very
start, at first small, ultimately large, numbers of con
verts, the quickening of church life, and a very wide
spread interest among the general population. They
had gatherings of Christian workers at eight on Sunday
mornings, from two to four thousand in number. The
historic halls of the cities — the Free Trade, the Bingley,
the Albert — were crammed on Sunday evenings, and,
in spite of overflow meetings, the streets around were
^ November 29th.

^T, 23] THE GREAT MISSION 83
filled in the rain and the darkness with crowds singing
hymns. In Liverpool a wooden hall was erected to
seat eight thousand. Though the Church of England
clergy generally refused to act on the executive com
mittee, and in one or two places withdrew altogether
from the work because some of its prominent supporters
took part at the same time in Liberation meetings, a
group of them were always found on Mr. Moody's plat
form, and, in Sheffield and Liverpool especially, they
assisted with prayers and addresses. Practically all
the Nonconformist ministers gave help, at their head
MacLaren of Manchester and Dale of Birmingham.
Through all these cities Drummond followed the
evangelists with his meetings for young men, and
(except in Sheffield) with the usual breadth, depth,
and permanent results of his influence. The fol
lowing extracts from his letters show this, as well as
the many anxieties which now began to try him. The
letters are mostly to his mother. 'Manchester, Friday, Dec. ?
' The work here is very fair, perhaps not so enthu
siastic as in some places, but what can be done
in a fortnight with six hundred thousand people.
My department is not yet in full working order.
The young men have never been reached yet in
any numbers, but we shall make an extra effort
next week and try to get them moved. There is not
so much unity among the ministers as one would
like to see, and the Church party have had a feud
with the other ministers which cannot be broken
up in a day. The enclosed card is to be left by
Christian workers in every house in Manchester
before the New Year, a gigantic undertaking ! I
think it will do great good, not the actual card

84 HENRY DRUMMOND [1874-7S
exactly, but it will give the hundreds of workers
an introduction to thousands of people. I do not
expect to make many friends here.. You know
when the work is not boiling hot, there is always
a good deal of jealousy of strangers arriving upon
the scene, and I daresay some of the ministers
who are only lukewarm would rather I had kept
myself to myself. Moody had  , the evangelist
from  , to help in the general work, and there
was such a row about it that he had to send him
away in three days ! However, I am in better
odour and will not get the sack whatever happens.'
'Manchester, Dec. 31, 1874.
' A Happy New Year — my first from home. It seems
strange to be absent at this time, and I am sure
to have a fit of melancholies before to-morrow
finishes. . . . There was a great scene at the
station, all the bigwigs in Manchester down to
see Moody off. I shall have to hold the fort
here for some time yet. The prospects of work
are not very cheering, and unless they get better
in a week, I shall strike my tent and march for
headquarters at Sheffield. . . . The cold has been
intense. There has been so much ice that we have
got tired of skating ; and now there is not much
time for it.' 'Manchester, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 1875.
'I never met a finer set of men — the best Com
mittee by far Moody ever had. . . . My work
here has been a little up-hill. The young men
have never been touched by Moody, and the
Y.M.C.A. has its hands full of district work
elsewhere and cannot work with us. I have had
to develop a new set of workers, and beat up a

^T. 23] THE GREAT MISSION 85
new meeting. I am glad to say, the work is
steadily growing every night and I think it will
be a centre of real good immediately. However,
it will no sooner be up to working power, than
I shall have to leave for Sheffield. ... I was
offered a church (here) the other day — a splendid
new Presbyterian church ! I need not say that I
have declined with thanks.' ' Sheffield, Friday, January 8th.
'You will perceive from my changed address that
I am once more " stalking through the land " as
Daniel's band says. A telegram most unexpected
yesterday, at noon, from Moody brought me off in a
great hurry-scurry to Sheffield. I could not help
it. " Come to Sheifield at three to-day. I have a
great men's meeting for you to-night," so the
message ran, and of course I had just to leave
all and run too. I suppose it was for the best,
though I was real sorry to leave my little Man
chester meeting, which hard labour had worked
up after much discouragement to a really good
work. It has been growing in interest and power
every night and was coming to be a great success
at last. However, I daresay I may be back to it
for a day or two next week. Of course, it is a
much smaller thing than the work here. On
Wednesday night I suppose my audience would
count about three hundred, while last night in
Sheffield it was about as many thousands. I have
rarely seen a better men's meeting, and to-night I
have another just the same. Moody has gone to
Manchester to-day to return to-morrow. I think
the work here is going to be splendid. Afl classes
are moved, from the Mayor to the beggar.'

86 HENRY DRUMMOND [187S
'Sheffield, January 12th.
' Reginald Radcliffe came last night to help me with
the men's meeting. His method was as peculiar
as it was successful. We went to the hall where
Moody was preaching, sang a hymn with the
crowd who could not get in, and then in
vited them to adjourn from the street to the
Young Men's Hall. By eight o'clock we had
five or six hundred of an audience, mostly men.
When Radcliffe began he asked the Christians to
stand up while he addressed them. About half
the audience rose, and he gave them a most
earnest charge on the subject of personal holi
ness for about ten minutes. He pleaded with
them to aim at more entire consecration and to
examine themselves to see what hindered them
from being filled with the Spirit. The effect
upon the unconverted who remained sitting was
wonderful. Then instead of asking the anxious
to retire to the hall below, as is usually done,
Radcliffe asked all the Christians to meet him
there for prayer for more holiness. I gave out
a hymn, while he and his party withdrew, and in
a few minutes was left alone with an audience of
two or three hundred unconverted people. Many
of them must have been under deep conviction.
I addressed them for fifteen minutes, and then
made a dedicatory prayer. A minister followed
in prayer, and then I asked all who had decided
for Christ to rise and leave. Somewhere about
fifty were left behind, and we then turned the
meeting into an inquiry meeting and spoke
personally to each of them. I had about a
dozen men in a corner and one after another
came to the light. All over the hall the same

/Et. 23] THE GREAT MISSION 87
thing was going on, and the result, so far as
the unconverted were concerned, was one of the
best inquiry meetings we have ever had, and so
far as the Christians were concerned, one of the
most delightful and memorable prayer meetings
of their lives.'
'Queen's Hotel, Birmingham, Friday, Jan. 29, 1875.
'A telegram this morning from Moody sent me off
here post-haste. I have just tea'd with him and
had a long talk over things. The work here has
been far greater than anywhere else — far, far
greater. Of course I do not know very much
about it yet. I was quite prepared to leave this
morning, as I knew Moody's ways and I knew I
must be in Birmingham before he left it, and that
is to-morrow morning. As usual I was sorry to
leave the last place, as the work had got into
splendid trim. The young men put out the bill
which I enclose, without my knowledge, and our
meeting was crowded till there was not standing
room and about fifty inquirers at the close. . . .
Moody is not at all the worse for this great work
here, speaking to fifteen thousand people every
night. These figures are not exaggerated. He
is very careful, and he says so himself.
Tell J. I was all over Rogers the cutler's ware
house to-day in Sheffield. It is a magnificent
business. I saw one knife with one thousand
eight hundred and seventy-five blades — quite
true. It is a great curiosity. They add a blade
every year. Yesterday I saw electroplating, so
you see I am picking up information ! '

88 HENRY DRUMMOND [187S
'Birmingham, February, 1875.
' Once more I am on the eve of a flitting. When
you get this I shall either be in Liverpool or on
the road to it. A telegram in the usual style from
Moody settled the arrangement last night. My
work here has not been so great as I should have
liked, but still I think a little real honest work
has been done. And I have great hopes of a
meeting last night with some of the leading
young men of the town resulting in permanent
work among young men. ... I am almost sorry
to leave this, as I have fallen into the houses of
such very nice people ; but of course that is not
my business, so I must be off. I have lived so
much at hotels lately that it is quite a pleasure
to catch a glimpse of home life again.'
'Compton Hotel, Liverpool, Monday, Feb. 15, 1875.
' " Liverpool." Well, the programme is running out,
you see, town by town. This is the last of the
provinces now ; and in another month we shall be
on the big campaign. I came here on Saturday
afternoon, and after dinner at the hotel was car
ried off by one of the Committee on an explora
tion expedition thro' the theatres, music halls,
concert rooms, and public buildings generally
to pick one out for our meeting. I think the
prospects are very good. Yesterday was a great
day here. Moody's four services were splendid —
hundreds of inquirers. In the evening I had a
theatre full of "overflows" to look after. This
morning there was a monster breakfast of gentle
men interested in the movement, which went off
very well. I have fallen quite among friends
here — Stewart, who worked with me in Sunder-

MT.2i] THE GREAT MISSION 89
land, and two college classmates, Fraser from
Alloa and M'Leod have churches near here. I
quite enjoyed meeting them, as they are about the
only " kent faces " I have seen for some time. . . .
I got a treat last night. Moody sat up alone with
me till near i o'clock telling me the story of his
life. He told me the whole thing. A reporter
might have made his fortune out of it ! '
The mission of Messrs. Moody and Sankey to Liver
pool produced greater results than they had achieved
in any other town. On the last day of their visit a
meeting was held for anxious inquirers who were
admitted by ticket.
' Not less- than five thousand presented tickets. Mr.
Moody's address was directed to the clearing away of
doubts and difficulties, and at its close he called upon all
who were willing to trust themselves to Christ there and
then to rise to their feet. With much manifest emotion a
vast multitude of persons, quite two-thirds of all who were
present, stood up. This was followed by an after meeting,
when some four hundred or five hundred awakened souls
were conversed with personally.' Another witness says of
this meeting : ' It was a time of solemn surrender : no
startling appeals had been listened to ; the noonday sun, and
not the glare of gaslight, shone into the building ; there was
nothing to excite any one; yet the close-pressed phalanx of
city merchants and ministers on the platform had a struggle
to repress emotion.' 'An equal number remained after the
women's meeting in the afternoon, but perhaps the most
remarkable meeting was that of the men in the evening.
The great hall was crammed with some twelve hundred.
Mr. Moody delivered the same sermon as to the women in
the afternoon. It is a fact worthy of notice that a very much
larger number of men seemed to be impressed than of women
in the afternoon. In the afternoon three hymns had to be
sung after the address, and repeated invitations given, before

90

HENRY DRUMMOND ['87S

the inquiry room was filled with women, whereas in the even
ing no sooner was the address finished than the same room
was crowded with men before the first hymn was ended,
while hundreds more remained to seek and to find in the
large hall.'
Drummond's meetings with young men in the Cir
cus are said to have been ' as much owned as Mr.
Moody's were.' For weeks he had ten or twelve
hundred every night. I can find only two of his own
letters about them, written after Moody left for Lon
don. 'Compton Hotel, Liverpool, March 19, 1875.
' . . . Must Still hold the fort here for a little. We
are getting up deputations all over the country.
Last night I was at a place fifteen miles off by sea
starting a young men's meeting, and I go back
there to-night and to-morrow. To-night I shall
hurry the meeting and take cab and ferry back to
Liverpool to my own meeting in the Circus at
nine, and the same to-morrow. . . . The people
here are very kind: I have got to know nearly
the whole religious public, and could be out to
breakfast, dinner, or tea every day, but I decline
all invitations. . . . This is the great race week
in Liverpool, and the town is swarming with all
manner of blackguards. [He had his pockets
picked by one.] . . . Moody is much encouraged
by London. To tell the truth, I am in no hurry
to get there. I daresay I shall have had enough
of it before the four months are out.'
'Liverpool [undated, about the Sth AprU].
'My last week in Liverpool. Moody was here
again and almost insisted upon my going with
him on Monday last, but the committee here

¦**-23] THE GREAT MISSION 9 1
begged for another week, and I do not regret hav
ing stayed on. We have had some real good work.
' We have still wonderful work here. I have a the
atre full of young men to " farewell address " at
three, a circus full of working-men at four, another
theatre full of men and women at seven in Birk
enhead, and the usual circus full of young men
again at nine. I shall never forget these young
men's meetings here. You have no idea of them.
We have never less than one thousand each
night, and that is full six weeks without a break.
There is not a man in the world that would not
envy such a congregation. One can do a year's
work in a month in times like these. I have no
doubt but that we shall turn out a number of
missionaries from among the young men here.'
' The aspect of the Circus,' says a newspaper correspond
ent, ' after the meeting was ended and many gone home, was
inexpressibly touching. There two men in fustian jackets
kneeling in prayer together. In one corner a dozen men
standing round an energetic speaker. In another two men
are anxiously debating what seems a question of life and
death. There are many groups throughout the hall intent
on matters of serious moment. There are tears flowing, but
hastily wiped away. There are rough lads in dress and man
ner, whose looks make you regard them with a brother's
love ; and ever and anon the speakers and the spoken kneel
down in the sawdust or on the boards in prayer, and then,
with a wring of the hand and gratified look, they go home.'
The London Mission was begun on March 14th in
the Agricultural Hall, Islington, which was seated for
thirteen thousand persons, with standing room for a
thousand or two more.^ The evening meeting for men
1 There were at first grave exaggerations of the number : it was said that there
were twenty-four thousand seats and twenty-five thousand persons present.

92

HENRY DRUMMOND [187S

filled it to its utmost capacity, and during the following
week the gatherings varied from four to fourteen thou
sand. One of them was addressed by Dr. R. W. Dale,
who afterwards published the very impressive account
which he gave of the work in Birmingham. On Sunday,
the 2 ist, the meetings were nearly as large as on the
preceding Sunday. The noon prayer-meeting was
held in Exeter Hall. The Opera House, Haymarket,
was taken for West End meetings, the Victoria Thea
tre in the Waterloo Road for the south side, and a
large wooden hall was built in the far east. With
scarcely an exception the daily press ' spoke of the
work in terms of respect, even of hopefulness ' ; and
the interest in it spread to all classes of society.
There is no doubt that an immense proportion of
those who attended the monster meetings were already
church members, and in so vast a population as Lon
don, even so strong a movement could touch only the
fringes of the careless and the vicious masses. Yet even
these fringes amounted to much. There were as many
as two hundred anxious inquirers every night at the
Agricultural Hall ; many more whose hearts had been
touched went away without confessing it ; while nearly
every one of the tens of thousands of Christians who
heard the evangelists was quickened and stimulated.
The work spread rapidly. In a leading article, the
Times of Good Friday declared that it was falling off.
On that evening, on Easter Sunday, and all the follow
ing week the meetings were larger than ever.
Drummond came up to London about the close of
the first week in April.

^T. 23] THE GREAT MISSION 93
To fohn F. Ewing
'Friday, April 23, 1875.
' If you knew how I am torn to pieces with work,
you would not abuse me. You are a good fellow
to write, and you deserve to be encouraged. I
like to hear from young ministers! The last
I heard of you was that you were doing " a most
plucky thing." I am thoroughly glad of the line
you have gone into.^ When I become a young
minister it is exactly what I shall do.
' I wish I had time to tell you of myself. The
Liverpool work was very grand. London has
been a fair success only, I mean after Liverpool.
Many things were against work among the young
men, but still we have had a very real work. I
leave the N. meeting to take care of itself after
this week, and go "away down east," as Moody
would say. There we have pitched a tent to
hold a thousand young men, which we expect
to have crammed every night. After setting that
a-going, I think the next move will be to the
Haymarket Opera House, where I expect Stalker
and you will make your first appearance in a
London theatre, and I shall announce you before
hand as two swells from the provinces ! Pardon
me for being in such a serious vein. I have been
writing Moody's sermons all day; you know they
are being published under my most distinguished
editorship.' 'London, Saturday, April 24th.
' A sudden turn in the state of affairs yesterday has
banished me to the South of London, and I fear
1 Ewing had undertaken the formation of a new congregation in a working-
class district of Dundee.

94 HENRY DRUMMOND [187S
it will be impossible for me to come to the station
on Tuesday, but I shall meet you at the Noon
meeting at the Opera House. The reason of my
going to the S. is because Stalker and you are
coming. Moody, the moment he heard of it, put
you both down for work there, and " the young
men from Edinburgh " are to have full swing of
the Victoria Theatre for the whole week. [He
reports on the arrival of others.] I am divided
equally between revival and arrival work.'
To His Father
'Cannon Street Hotel, London, May 11, 1875.
' Everything is bright outside and inside, and I only
wish you were here to share in the enjoyment.
How would you like to see an acre of people?
That is exactly the size of the audience to which
Mr. Moody preaches every night in the East of
London. Here is Moody's programme: Drive
three miles to Noon meeting ; lunch ; Bible read
ing at 3.30 followed by inquiry meeting till at
least 5 ; then preaching in the Opera House
at 6.30; then very short inquiry meeting; then
drive five miles to East End to preach to twelve
thousand at 8.30; then inquiry meeting; then
drive five or six miles home. This is every day
this week and next— a terrible strain, which,
however, he never seems to feel for a moment.
The work is coming out grandly now, and I
think the next two months will witness wonderful
results. It is deepening on every side, and even
" London " is beginning to be moved. Moody
says Sunday was the best day of his life.'

^T. 23] THE GREAT MISSION

95

'Cannon Street Hotel, May 14, 1875.
•Your huge remittance came to me all right this
morning via James. I shall ride once more upon
a 'bus, and pay my way like a man and a Drum
mond.^
'I expect to leave this on Wednesday night after
the meetings are over by the night mail, and as I
am so flush I should not wonder if Mr. Pullman
Sleeping Car should have the honour of conveying
me and my co-worker, Captain Moreton, R.N.'
He goes to a great convention in Liverpool, and
looks forward to another at Brighton, though he does
' not at all approve of views held by some of the lead
ing supporters.' ' We had a splendid young men's
meeting last night in London, the best we have had
there. It is growing every night. Moody takes it
to-morrow, and I shall be back for Saturday.'
To His Mother 'London, May 27, 1875.
'Your flowers made me just a little homesick, they
had such a country air about them. I declare I
had almost forgotten there were such things as
daisies. However, at latest next week, I shall
renew my acquaintance with fresh air. The
greatest event in my programme this week was
a large children's meeting in the Opera House.
I am to have another on Saturday along with Mr.
Sankey, and expect a great hubbub!'
^ Drummond appears to have refused during this mission all remuneration and
only sometimes to have taken all his expenses.

96 HENRY DRUMMOND ['875
'Haymarket Opera House, May (?).
'A large number of inquirers are just waiting from
the afternoon Bible reading, and I must give my
afternoon to them.' To His Father
'Cannon Street Hotel, June 23, 1875.
'The 1 2th of July is Moody's last day, I think.
He goes for a short tour after that, and his berth
is taken for the 4th of August by the National
liner Spain. The Eton affair makes much noise,
but will do great good. Moody thinks, in making
the higher circles show their colours on the gen
eral question. He expects his friends, who are
very influential, will come out and show who they
are. The actual meeting at Eton was a great
success. Never believe a word the papers say
about the work. They are, almost without ex
ception, always wrong. ... I am to have the
privilege of joining Moody (and three others) in
a series of Bible studies every morning for full
two hours. You must know how much I stand
in need of teaching, with so much preoccupation
and so much attempt to teach others. You will
approve this, for I think you must have been
frightened for me sometimes.'
In July he went to start a mission at Epsom.
' Cannon Street Hotel, July 9.
' I had a grand meeting on Monday night at 9 p.m.
The district is terribly dead, so we had at first a
general meeting at 7.30, and then the men's meet
ing [for which he had specially gone] at 9. The

-ffiT. 23] THE GREAT MISSION

97

latter was crammed away out into the street with
men, many of them jockeys and racing men, just
the kind to reach. It was a most interesting meet
ing, and some thirty or forty remained anxious.
Next night there were one hundred in the inquiry
room, and the following night two hundred. I
have agreed to go down again on Saturday night.
It is a magnificent chance for work, and I look
forward to a hundred or two in the after meeting.
I believe I am to have the honour of being sent
home on a special engine after the meeting, some
of the gentlemen who are getting up the work
having an interest in the railway. A young man
who has been recently converted stood up in our
meeting the night before last, and told us he had
gambled away half a fortune before his conver
sion, and kept five race horses. He is a splendid
young fellow, and a most genuine case. He has
been having meetings himself near his own house,
and has done a great deal of good.
' The crowds now to hear Moody are terrific ; the
panic of the papers was of course exaggerated.'
Twenty-five years have passed since the American
evangelists began their mission to Great Britain. We
have seen how profoundly the churches were stirred,
and the crowds outside the churches ; the tens of thou
sands who thronged the meetings ; the hundreds upon
hundreds who filled each inquiry room, professing
penitence, and, in the great majority of cases, new
faith in Jesus Christ and experience of His power to
make them better men. No one can doubt the enor
mous power of the movement so long as it lasted.
What has it left behind.?
Probably, as we have seen, there never was a move-

98 HENRY DRUMMOND ['87S
ment of the kind in which religious extravagance and
dissipation were more honestly discouraged. In the
leaders there was no want of the healthy discrimina
tion and genial charity without which our religious
zeal so fatally develops into Pharisaism. The preach
ing was Biblical and ethical. The doctrines were those
of Catholic Christianity. The salvation proclaimed
was, with some exceptions, salvation not from hell
but from sin. And the new faith and energy of the
converts was nearly everywhere guided into profitable
forms of activity, with effects upon character and ser
vice that, as we shall presently see, have endured until
to-day. To form, however, a just appreciation of the move
ment, we must recall some things upon the other side.
We must remember the perils to which, in our civil
isation, such enormous crowds of converts were im
mediately exposed. While revivals rise and fall, the
influences of worldliness and of vice abide among us
with fresh and awful persistency. Many of the con
verts, some even of the prominent workers, of the
great Mission, fell to that hereditary taint of drunk
enness which infects our nation's blood ; others not
so cursed fell as low before our careless and cruel
drinking customs, although not all of these were
slain, but in the end many won the victory to which
the Mission first inspired them. We must remember,
too, that so vast and rapid a movement was bound to
suffer the defects of its qualities. Among the large
numbers who were certified as adhering to the Mission,
there was a proportion of the comfortable middle class,
who spent their leisure in running from meeting to
meeting, and who, from that day to this, act as if they
believed that such conventions were at once the high
est duty and happiest privilege of religion. Their

iEr. 23] THE GREAT MISSION 99
excitement and the habits which it has formed have
not been beneficial to Christianity. Further, we cannot
help observing that the idealism of the movement, the
emphasis which it laid on general principles, and the
speed with which multitudes were roused to the con
viction of these, conspired with the general excitement
to destroy, in a certain class of minds, all sense for facts,
and to corrupt their conscience for accuracy. This
is, perhaps, natural to every idealist movement, — one
marks it in certain philosophies of the century, — but
it appears to be the besetting temptation of a zealous
and sanguine evangelicalism. It was curiously real
ised in the frequent exaggeration of the numbers re
ported to have attended the various meetings. But
some of the forms which it assumed were more serious.
One was a temptation to ignore all religious expe
rience which lay outside the definite theology of the
movement, and a stubborn refusal to recognise the
manifest fruits of God's Spirit apart from the formulas
and processes by which its converts had arrived at the
truth. And another form of this vice was the unwill
ingness to see in Scripture any facts save such as
might be used to confirm a very narrow theory of in
spiration, nor any teaching save the few lines of evan
gelical doctrine and special providence upon which the
preaching of the movement mainly ran. Mr. Moody
himself was free from all these defects — except that
of a narrow and unscriptural theory of inspiration.
But during the last twenty-five years they have all
developed in the circles whose religious life God used
him to quicken so powerfully ; and much of evangel
icalism, both in its preaching and in its journahsm,
has been beset by narrowness, inaccuracy, and the fear
to acknowledge some of the healthiest and divinest,
movements of our time.

IGO HENRY DRUMMOND [1874-7S
But while all these defects have to be noted, how
much falls to the bright side of the reckoning! Every
one who shared in the movement or who has read its
history will admit without question those beneficial
effects which we have already noted, upon the mem
bership and the ministry of all the Churches. This
Mission lifted thousands and tens of thousands of
persons already trained in religion to a more clear
and decided consciousness of their Christianity. It
baptized crowds in the Spirit of Jesus, and opened the
eyes of innumerable men and women to the reality of
the great facts of repentance and conversion, to the
possibility of self-control and of peace by God's Spirit.
We have admired the organisation of its converts.
The young men who came under its influence are
now in middle life, and to-day one can point to min
isters in many churches, and to laymen in charge
of the municipal and social interests of almost every
town, who were first roused to faith and first enlisted
in the cause of God and of their fellow-men by the
evangelists of 1873-75. The Spirit of our God works
among us in many other ways than by 'revivals'
and church services, and the evangelical movement
which Messrs. Moody and Sankey did so much to
reinforce has required every iota of the influence of
science to teach it tolerance, accuracy, and fearless
ness of facts, and all the strength of the Socialist move
ment to rewaken within it that sense of civic and
economic duty by which the older evangelicalism of
Wilberforce, Chalmers, and Shaftesbury was so nobly
distinguished. Among the men who have seen this,
and who have not only preserved their faith amid the
new distractions of our time, but to their faith have
added knowledge and patience, and the brotheriy love
that means service of the commonweal, have been

^®r. 23] THE GREAT MISSION IOI
many — very many — converts of the two American
evangelists, whom God in His grace sent to our
shores twenty-five years ago.
We shall see in the rest of this biography how
Henry Drummond contributed to this wider evangeli
calism of our day; meantime let us understand how he
helped the movement which did so much to inspire
it, and how the movement helped him.
From April, 1874, to July, 1875, he followed up
the work of the evangelists in the cities of Ireland
and England, and he laboured by their side in London.
His letters have made us familiar with the general
character of his work. The bulk of it was the prepa
ration and delivery of addresses, and as he sometimes
spoke every night for weeks in the same hall his
material began to grow in quantity. During this
period he probably composed the first drafts of most
of the discourses for which in later years he became
famous. The discourses published after his death in
the volume entitled The Ideal Life were produced
either now or in the immediately subsequent years ;
so also his great address on ' Seek ye first the King
dom of God.' But he had also spoken on ' The Great
est Thing in the World,' and ' The Changed Life.'
His preaching, therefore, ranged over all the great
doctrines and facts of Christianity: Sin and Salva
tion, Penitence, The Atonement, Regeneration, Con
version, Sanctification, The Power of the Spirit,
Christ's Teaching about Himself and about a Future
Life — on all these, in contrast to the smaller list of
topics to which he limited himself in later years, he
preached again and again and with great detail. He
stuck close to the Bible. He used the incidents of
the Old Testament to enforce the teaching of the
New, just as older evangelists did. His theology was

I02 HENRY DRUMMOND [1874-7S
practically that of the leaders of the movement, and
among crowds who were always more or less ready to
mark the slightest deflection from orthodoxy there
appears never to have arisen any suspicion of a dif
ference between his teaching and the teaching of the
authorities. But his manner of presentation was
entirely his own, and in speaking to young men he
never forgot that he must put things differently from
the way in which things were put to their elders.
He acted on the principle, which he so often en
forced, that 'a young man's rehgion could not be
the same as his grandmother's.' His style of speak
ing was simple and clear; he kept to the concrete, and
already revealed his famous powers of illustration and
analogy. His manner was quiet and self-possessed.
He had the opportunity, so invaluable to the young
preacher, of giving the same addresses again and
again, so that he could sift and balance them; nor did
he ever yield to the temptation, which such an oppor
tunity often brings with it, of relaxing his preparation,
but this was always hard and thorough. ' One thing
has impressed me more than anything I heard at the
[Agricultural] Hall, and that is the quiet yet deep
and sincere manner in which he always prays and
speaks at the Young Men's Meeting.' ' I thank God
for His goodness in sending you to tell the Gospel of
Christ in a manner so simple and loving that many
together with myself were brought to a saving know
ledge of the truth.' ^ He had not a strong, nor in any
way a remarkable, voice, but he used it easily in the
largest meetings. There was no attempt at oratory,
nor any sign of strain ; and, besides the absence of all
ambition after personal effect, this was due to careful
preparation for each occasion and to that exquisite
1 From a man, a member of the Church of England.

^T. 23] THE GREAT MISSION IO3
taste which the last few years of discipline in reading
and in writing had perfected. He grew, too, to be
very expert in managing meetings. What chances he
had ! Who could ever again fear or fail, that at twenty-
three had organised the meetings he had to organise
or had faced the crowds he had to face night after
night ! But his opportunities would have been noth
ing without himself. Not experience only nor cool
ness, but quick sympathy which does not always go
with coolness, rapid appreciation of other men's gifts
and the power of enlisting them, perfect courtesy, good
humour, and a strong dramatic interest, made him an
ideal chairman. There was the tall lithe figure, the
keen eyes, the unstrained voice, the imperturbable
spirit, the purity and earnestness which were behind
all, the nameless radiance that surrounded him as of a
fresh spring morning — but indeed it is his biogra
pher's despair to explain to those who never felt it the
equal charm and force which came out from him.
In higher things, too, the movement must have re
fined the character we found so perfect in after years.
Dr. Stalker, who shared so much of the work among
the young men, has written the following notes, which
illustrate both this and the other features of which we
have been speaking : —
' Your letter has made me recall that glorious time ;
but I find that while I remember the general impres
sions most distinctly, I have not a very precise recol
lection of details.
' Perhaps the impression which oftenest recurs to
me is the absolute purity of motive which at that time
possessed us. Though suddenly thrust into unusual
prominence, we thought of nothing whatever but the
work itself. This produced a curious confidence, in
which there was not the least touch of self-conscious-

I04

HENRY DRUMMOND [»874-7S

ness. The very largest meetings were in no wise
formidable, and if the highest in the land had been
present, we should only have been glad to have addi
tional hearers for the message of salvation. If we had
little of the humility which thinks disparagingly of
self, we had what has always since then seemed to me
the better humility which forgets self altogether. In
deed, at that time, we had many experiences which
have ever since made Christ intelligible; and the
Book of the Acts of the Apostles especially has a
meaning to those who have passed through such a
movement which it could scarcely, I should think,
have for any one else.
' Henry retained this humility of self-forgetfulness
throughout life ; but at that time, when he was only
about three-and-twenty and very youthful looking, it
must have been curious to see him handling meetings
of thousands with the most perfect ease, though this
did not occur to any of us then. I was with him con
ducting meetings scores of times, and from the first
he had the most perfect, effortless command of every
audience which I have ever seen in any speaker. It
was like mesmerism ; and I have often wondered
whether it actually had any connection with the mes
meric powers which he occasionally exhibited for the
amusement of his friends. His speaking was never
loud nor excited ; there was never any straining
after profundity or picturesqueness or effect of any
kind; but every person in the audience followed
the speaker from the first word to the last with
out wandering for a moment. He never spoke of
his preparation, as other speakers do; and to this
hour I am not quite certain whether or not he pre
pared elaborately, but I should think he did. At all
events I know that his books were written with the

^T. 23] THE GREAT MISSION IO5
thoroughness of a French stylist. I have heard his
young disciples trying, in evangelistic addresses, to re
peat his stories ; and then one realised by contrast the
perfection of his way of telling them. He \yas not at
his best in addressing very large meetings, but in an
audience not exceeding five hundred his quiet voice
and simple manner found their natural range.'
But to associate Henry Drummond only with meet
ings and addresses would be to misrepresent him.
Had he ever been carried away with the size and
success of these, had he ever been tempted to swerve
from his own principle that the individual was the
aim and object of religion, he must have been brought
back by one element of the meetings themselves. At
each of these there were handed up to the chairman a
large number of requests for prayer, which in nine
cases out of ten had to do with the darkness or the
tragedy of some individual life. Carefully preserved
among his documents are some scores of these anony
mous scraps of paper, shabby, soiled, and often mis
spelt, each of them the confession of a fallen soul, or
the sob of a broken heart, or the cry for warmth of a
cold and a starving one. From vice or servitude to
some besetting sin, from long doubt and vain struggle
to the light, from wrecked and dreary homes, or
wasted by love and fear that had battled for years
over the characters of those who were dearest to
them, they had crept to the meetings, and felt the
strength of the faith that was present, and cried to be
lifted upon it as their last chance. Drummond sought
out many of these, and was sought by many more.
He worked hard in the inquiry rooms, but shy men,
who would not stand up in a meeting, nor enter an
inquiry room, waited for him by the doors as he came
out, or waylaid him in the street, or wrote, asking him

I06 HENRY DRUMMOND [1874-7S
for an interview. He took great trouble with every
one of them, as much trouble and interest as if each
was a large meeting. His sympathy, his leisure from
himself, his strength, won their confidence, as his per
sonal charm on the platform had first stirred their
hope, and he thus became acquainted with the secrets
of hundreds of lives. Men felt he was not a voice
merely, but a friend, and on his arm they were
lifted up.^ He was always hopeful about the most
hopeless, picked out some good points in the worst,
and sent a man away feeling that he was trusted once
more, not only by this friend, but by Christ, by God.
The affection which such treatment aroused was ex
traordinary. I have seen numbers of letters, common
place enough but for the intense love and gratitude
which they breathe, and which sometimes approaches
worship. It was such power as was possessed by
some of the greatest of the medieval saints — and
he was not twenty-four. One man said to me only
the other day, ' Since Drummond died I have not
been able to help praying to him.'
He had a great love, too, for all odd and grotesque
characters. His patience with bores was his friends'
wonder to the end ; but he dearly liked to come across
the unconventional, the Bohemian, and the vagrant.
Showmen of all sorts were such a joy to him, and he
got on so well with them, that we used to nickname
him Barnum. A Spanish guitar-player, a laddie who
performed on the penny whistle, music-hall singers, a
cornet-player, a concertina-player — he had a knack of
picking them out and giving them work to do in the
1 Mr. R. R. Simpson sends the following : 'At an inquiry meeting in the
Assembly Hall I spoke to a bright-looking young man and found that he had
decided for Christ. On my asking him what led him to decision, the striking
answer was, " It was the way Mr. Drummond laid his hand on my shoulder and
looked me in the face that led me to Christ." '

^T. 23] THE GREAT MISSION

107

meetings. Nor was he often taken in. So great a
movement had, of course, among its adherents many of
sordid and worldly motives : some contemptible, some
very amusing. One good lady, who had never spoken
to him, wrote that she is ' sure he is her friend, wants
to introduce him to her eleven children and nineteen
grandchildren, and has asked them all to a one o'clock
dinner to-morrow to meet him : ' she is sure he will
not disappoint her. People who had lost heavily by
American railways passionately urge him to get Moody
and Sankey to undertake among their countrymen a
crusade for the recovery of their lost investments. Men
and women of the idle middle class and busy stock ex
change brokers send him verses and tracts to publish.
There were countless appeals for employment; offers of
' Christian lodgings ' for young men ; requests for ser
mons for collections from clergymen whose churches
were in debt ; plaintive notes from flute-players to know
why their offers to give solos at the meetings have not
been attended to ; claims to be reimbursed for losses
caused by faithful adherence to the movement; re
proaches from speakers and other workers that they
have never had one word of praise — and so forth.
One of the kinds of appeal that gave him most trouble
was that from well-intentioned people who wanted him
to speak to their young relatives about their souls, when
these young relatives had no wish to be spoken to. On
the occasions when he could not escape such conversa
tions, he would begin thus : ' I suppose you know this
is a put-up job,' or thus, ' What you are suffering from
is too much religion, isn't it ? ' His insight was mar
vellous. In one of the London after meetings, he said
to a girl, ' You must give up reading James's Anxious
Inquirer' and she wondered how he guessed she was
reading it. A fortnight of the Testament set her

I08 HENRY DRUMMOND ['874-75
right. When he helped another, she said, ' It's not
so simple as that in James's Anxious Inquirer' ^
A great deal of the work was very painful. He once
said, ' Such tales of woe I've heard in Moody's inquiry
room that I've felt I must go and change my very
clothes after the contact.' Thus at twenty-three he saw
life on all its sides, learned the secrets of countless char
acters, and was trusted and hung upon by thousands
of his fellow-men.
Yet he stepped from it all unspoiled, and the next
session went quietly back to college.
^ From notes by Professor Simpson.

CHAPTER V
BACK TO COLLEGE
Henry Drummond did not go back to college with
out a struggle. Invitations to conduct missions poured
in upon him from all quarters. The leaders of the
work pleaded that the last two years had surely proved
his calling as an evangelist ; and on his part he shrank
from settling down as the minister of a congrega
tion, with two sermons to prepare every week. But
his parents had renewed their pressure upon him,
and in letters, which he has kept, his wisest friends
warned him of the perils of the wandering evan
gelist's life, the faults which it breeds in the best
of characters, and the hindrances which it sets to con
scientious preparation and general intellectual growth.
Between these opposite influences he was still hesitat
ing, when he went, in August, 1875, fo spend a holi
day with his friend Robert W. Barbour, at Bonskeid,
in Perthshire. Barbour had just finished a brilliant
course at Edinburgh University, — nine class medals,
the prize poem, and a double first degree in Classics
and Philosophy, — but had found time with it all for
work among young men in Moody and Sankey's mis
sion. After his success at Edinburgh — we who
followed him there believed that there was no distinc
tion beyond his reach — and with his political oppor
tunities as the son of a large landowner, Barbour had
been urged to go to Oxford, with a view to entering
Parliament. But he resolved to give himself to the
109

IIO HENRY drummond ["875
ministry of the Free Church, and was now intending
to enter New College in the following October.
Drummond and he discussed their future at some
length, and his mother, Mrs. George Freeland Bar
bour, although fully aware of Drummond's powers as
an evangelist, lent her influence to persuade him to
complete his studies for the regular ministry. Drum
mond described the result in a statement made to
Professor Simpson shortly before his death : —
' For a year and a half after Moody's visit (he said)
he was sure that he had found his vocation, till
one Sunday forenoon on the steps of Bonskeid he
had a long talk with Mrs. George Barbour, who
showed him how the evangelist's career was apt
to be a failure — perhaps a few years of enthusi
asm and blessing, then carelessness, no study, no
spiritual fruits; too often a sad collapse. That
sent him back to his last year at college.'
This is confirmed by the following letter to Robert
Barbour. The 'sore leg,' on which so much depended,
was a sprained ankle from a stumble over a stone on
the slopes between Fincastle and Bonskeid.
'Glen Elm Lodge, Stirling, Oct. 23, 1875.
' My DEAR Barbour, — ... Very sorry to hear you
have been ill. You are much more to be pitied
than I, for I count my sore leg one of the best
things that ever happened to me. It was the
very thing I needed. I have got time to look at
all sorts of things, and have even made an attempt
to write a first sermon. Altho' the first sermon,
it was not the first, or the fiftieth, attempt, but
only differed from the others by being, if any-

Mt. 24] BACK TO COLLEGE III
thing, a greater failure. I suppose I shall have
to do penance for this some day, but I don't
understand how men can knock together two
sermons a week — as if they were rabbit hutches.
' My main object in writing is to tell you that I have
decided to go to Edinburgh this winter. For the
last fortnight things have been growing clearer,
and my mind is now quite made up to go. I
hope I am doing the right thing. My horizon
was very dark when I was at Bonskeid, but I
know being there did me good. Besides, it is the
pleasantest recollection I have of this autumn ; so
I emphatically demur to your statement that it
was " unfortunate." '
A year later, looking back to the same accident, he
writes again to Barbour: —
' I should rather like to make a pilgrimage to that
stone at Bonskeid. Sometimes I think I owe
more to it than I know. Perhaps if it had not
been for that stone I should not have been at
college this winter. " That stone ! " I wish it
had been anything else but a stone. A wheel
barrow would almost have been as poetical.'
How strong the temptations were to continue as an
evangelist may be felt from the following letter which
Drummond received after he had begun the winter
session, but which was only one of many similar
appeals that reached him while his mind was still un
certain. Mr. Moody had begun his American cam
paign at Philadelphia in November.

112 HENRY drummond ['87S-76
From, Mr. Moody
' Philadelphia, Dec. 4, 1875.
'My dear Drummond,' — The work among young men
in this country is growing splendidly. I am glad I went to
England to learn how to reach young men. Could you come
over and help us ? We want you much and will see that all
expenses are paid. I think you would get a few thousand
souls on these shores, if you should come. I miss you more
than I can tell. You do not know how much I want you
with me. Come if you possibly can. . . . Since I got your
letters I think of you and the College. May God bless you,
and make you thrive in His Kingdom, is my prayer. Yours
with a heart full of love, , -^ ^ Moody.'
When Drummond came back to college, he found
his contemporaries gone from it, his juniors already in
the Fourth Year, which he entered, and a fresh set of
men in the years behind them. Some of the latter,
like Richard Cameron, Frank Gordon, and Robert
Barbour he knew : they had taken part in the great
Mission ; but the men who had shared with him the
first and most profound experiences of it were already
in the ministry ; and, while the College as a whole was
still under its glamour, and the students regarded him
self with respect and admiration, their religious inter
ests were far from being identified with its methods.
Among them were an unusual number of able men.
The ablest of all was Peter Thomson, the son of an
Aberdeenshire farm-grieve, who had graduated with
first-class honours at Aberdeen, and carried all before
him at New College. He was now President of the
Theological Society, and assistant to Professor David
son. We who were entering the First Year had learned
from him any Hebrew we knew, and looked up to him
with great respect. His ability, kindliness, and weight

^T. 24] BACK TO COLLEGE

113

of character formed the chief influence of that session.
Round him, in his own year, were a group of solid and
thoughtful men, — among them George Steven, now
of Free St. Bernard's Church in Edinburgh, — who
set the life of the College upon scholarly but strenu
ously religious lines. The First Year contained the
phenomenal number of five men with first-class hon
ours — three of them with double firsts. There was a
strong intellectual rivalry. The debates in the Theo
logical Society were vigorous and extremely interest
ing. Thomson, who had already studied at Leipzig,
followed up Dr. Davidson's lectures, and brought be
fore the meetings the facts which recent criticism had
laid bare in the Old Testament. But the chief inter
est of the society was in Dogmatic Theology. A num
ber of the members were strong in philosophy ; D. M.
Ross was assisting Professor Campbell Fraser at the
University, and Barbour and Sorley had just come
from it with first-class philosophical honours. Others
had been at German universities, and those who had
not were reading Dr. George Matheson's Introduction
to the Study of German Theology, which had just been
published. Thomson, who had left Aberdeen with
the very singular conviction that in Mill's philosophy,
as interpreted by Bain, he was furnished with a de
fence for the Christian faith, had found this fail him,
and a great deal of his faith fail with it.^ After
seeking in vain for another philosophy reconcil
able with Christian doctrine, he was finding, and
leading others towards, a dogmatic based upon the
facts of religious experience. In this pursuit, the stu
dents were helped by the lectures of Dr. Davidson,
who taught them Old Testament Theology, not as the
' See his very interesting Memoirs, entitled A Scotch Student, by the Rev-
George Steven, M.A. Edinburgh, Macniven and Wallace, 2d ed., 1881.

114 HENRY DRUMMOND [187S-76
dogmas of a church, but as the living experience of a
oreat people and its greatest individuals ; by the lec
tures of Dr. Rainy upon Church History, with their
fascinating presentation of the personal religion of
the chief doctors of the Church ; and by the study of
Schleiermacher, for the reading of whose Der Christ-
liche Glaube a small club was formed. In the saptie
direction we found of value Miiller's Doctrine of Sin,
Rothe's Dogmatik, with its priceless paragraphs upon
the religious roots of each dogma, and his essays, Zur
Dogmatik. The effect upon the debates in the Theo
logical Society was that all the best men argued for
truths which they had lived upon, or had seen working
in the lives of others; it can be imagined how much
they were helped in this by their experience of the
Great Revival in which so many of them had taken
part. The practical and the theoretical thus devel
oped in close cooperation, with inestimable benefit to
both. The strong intellectual activities of the College
were in the healthiest possible touch with real life. At
the same time the College was full of happy play, and
there was a good deal of joking. Two comic papers
were started by the Fourth Year and by the First:
The Patagonian Candle, a Missionary Record, and The
Soap and Towel, a parody upon Spurgeon's famous
title. The fun of these was more furious than witty.
Into this life Drummond slipped from his great
experiences very quietly. We younger men, who had
not been in the Moody movement, were a little afraid
of him and of the chance of his tackling us upon our
own religious life. But we found him unaggressive,
treating us as equals, willing to be our friend, entering
into our fun, and even contributing to our comic
papers. After dinner some of the students used to
gather in a coffee-house to drink coffee, and one of

^T. 24] BACK TO COLLEGE I 1 5
my earliest visions of Drummond was as he stood up
with the rest in due solemnity to chant a nonsense
verse, which invariably accompanied this function.
Soon our feeling of his friendliness deepened to grati
tude for his power of doing us good. It was a power
somewhat difficult to define, for it was exercised
almost imperceptibly. We felt that he was interested
in us, and his interest being without officiousness
won our confidence and made us frank with him.
We could tell him, as we could not tell others, the
worst about ourselves, — the worst, and just as easily
also, the best, our ideals and ambitions, of which
men are often as ashamed to speak as they are about
their sins. To the latter he was never indulgent, or
aught but faithful with those who confessed to him.
But in every man he saw good, which the man himself
had either forgotten or was ignorant of. ' He and
Robert Barbour,' said a fellow-student, ' were the only
two men I ever knew who helped you to feel that you
were stronger and your work better than you had
dared to believe.' His sunniness brought hope with
it to everybody about him ; and the air of distinction
which he carried was so manifestly an air of purity,
and not of pride, that it helped you to keep yourself
separate from what was base or trivial.
On his part Drummond laid himself out to learn
from the new men among whom he was thrown; and
in his constant humility he made no difference be
tween those who were older and those who were
younger than himself. For philosophy he had never
any gift, and he often chaffed those who had. But
the effort of the leaders of the College to find a dog
matic based on experience enlisted his sympathy, and
I think it was this year that he mastered Miiller's
great work on Sin, which had ever afterwards some

Il6 HENRY DRUMMOND [1875-76
influence on his thinking. He had a keen sense for
facts; and the facts of Old Testament criticism, of
which he heard from Thomson and others, made a
deep impression on his mind. He did not yet throw
off the narrow theory of inspiration upon which he
had worked with the Bible, but all he learned prepared
him for further influence in the same direction, and
engaged his sympathies for the great movement which
was now rising in Scotland under the hands of Pro
fessor Robertson Smith.
Drummond did not forget the duties of an evange
list, nor fail to infect some of his fellow-students with
an enthusiasm for them. During the winter he en
gaged the ' Gaiety ' Music Hall in Chambers Street
for a number of Sunday evenings, for meetings of men.
When he spoke the hall was full, and at the after-
meetings there were groups of inquirers. But he
took few of the addresses himself, and the speaking
was mostly by other students. The audience, chiefly
of students in arts and medicine, clerks and working-
men, must often have been puzzled, for one address was
entirely on the Kenotic Theory of the Humiliation of
our Lord, and in another, Spinoza was quoted three
times. One would hke to know how Drummond
dealt with the criminals. Possibly he intended the
mission more for the speakers than their audience,
for his criticism of them was unsparing.
From these meetings came the name of the Gaiety
Club. It was founded at a small gathering invited by
Provost Swan of Kirkcaldy to his country-house near
Cupar, and was at first called, after this house, the
' Springfield Club.' Besides Provost Swan, the orig
inal members were James Stalker, then minister at
Kirkcaldy, James Brown of Tillicoultry, John F.
Ewing, of Dundee, John Watson of Logiealmond;

^T. 24] BACK TO COLLEGE 1 1 7
and from New College, Drummond, D. M. Ross,
Frank Gordon, and Robert Barbour. Alexander
Skene, now of St. Kilda's, Melbourne, joined them a
little later, the present writer in 1883, and Dr. Hugh
Barbour upon his brother's death in 1891. An
arrangement was made to meet every spring from a
Monday to Saturday at some country inn ; and for
twenty-two years these annual gatherings have been
sustained without a break. Drummond attended every
one of them save three. At first some of the evenings
were set apart for criticism of each other's growth up
wards or downwards during the year. But as time
went on this grew less formal, and the gathering
became simply one of close friends, members of the
same church, with very sacred memories of work and
study together in the service of Christ, and with com
mon interests in literature and religion. Every man
discusses with the rest his own work planned or
achieved, and I do not think that there can be any
where a group of friends who have more constantly
shared each other's aspirations, or who have more
benefited by each other's criticism. If one could be
more loyal than another it was Drummond. This
was the innermost circle among his countless friends ;
and for our part, while we look back with thankfulness
to the three lives of our fellowship that are now com
pleted and have passed to God, Ewing's, Barbour's, and
Drummond's, it is our chief pride that Drummond was
one of us.
In April, 1876, Drummond finished his four years'
course of Divinity, and passed the second part of the
exit examination.' The ensuing summer he spent
^ In Church History (Puritanism), Systematic Theology (The Person of
Christ and Doctrine of the Church), and Biblical Theology. He made 636
marks out of 800.

1X8 HENRY DRUMMOND [187^
partly on holiday and partly in short courses of evan
gelistic work. He received several invitations from
ministers to become their assistant, and several others
to preach as a candidate for vacant charges, but he
declined them all, and though in the ordinary course
he should have taken license to preach, he was still so
uncertain of his future that he postponed this first
step towards the full orders of the Presbyterian
ministry. The following letters were written by him during
the summer to Mr. and Mrs. James C. Stuart,' with
whom he had stayed in Manchester for six weeks in
1874. They are interesting for two features, which
he subsequently dropped, the use of conventional
religious phrases, and the underlining of portions of
the sentences. In the first, he tells how he walked from
Grasmere to Keswick and chose the hotel from which
he writes in order to meet a party of Oxford students.
He is sorry to have missed a good Sabbath at Man
chester, but has ' found a mission here.'
'Atkinson's Lake Hotel, Keswick,
Monday, Aug. 7, 1876.
'I had some wonderful "leading" on Saturday —
all the more that it was unexpected. It would
take too long to tell, but I had two distinct and
valuable opportunities of talking personally and
in detail about the " unsearchable riches." The
outline of the first case is somethino; like this.
I started in the morning for UUswater, missed a
seat on the two coaches, walked half-way, was
picked up by a private party, who offered me a
seat beside the driver. At first he was very quiet,
and after some time I noticed tears in his eyes.
1 Now of Grove Plouse, Altrincham.

^T. 25] BACK TO COLLEGE

119

I found he had just buried his wife. He was in
very deep distress. He was a good respectable
man, a teetotaler, but plainly did not know the
truth. I did not tell him much then, but I got
his address and mean to write him to-night. I
hope something will come of it ; the poor fellow
seemed very anxious. Another of the cases was
in coming down Helvellyn. I went to UUswater,
dined, and started for Helvellyn alone about two.
It was a lovely afternoon and the view from the
top was marvellous. In coming down I met a
young fellow who was in great anxiety about a
companion whom he had lost on the mountain.
He had searched everywhere, night was coming
on, and he feared his friend had been seized with
a fit. He didn't know what to do, but the ques
tion, "What do you think of praying?" led to a
long and earnest talk. He was a Swedenborgian,
but had practically no religion. ... I do not
know that any positive good was done ; I mean I
saw no immediate effect ; but we talked the whole
matter round very freely and plainly. I am afraid
these details will be uninteresting on paper, and
I will not trouble you with a third. For my own
part, I felt very grateful for them.
' To-day to Grasmere Chapel. / got nothing. It
poured all afternoon. I read Tersteegen.
' I have met one Moody party at each hotel. I am
glad to see the Christian world goes round too.
Religion is in a deplorable state in  ; I quite
felt for it. I should have given something for
your "little river." The big sea is wonderfully
shallow sometimes. I suppose that is when we
are big ourselves.
* I go to Newcastle on Wednesday. Thanks for

I20 HENRY DRUMMOND ['87^
that brave text. It made me feel quite strong
to-day. I do not forget C 'Stirling, Aug. 15, 1876.
' . . . I enjoyed my last day at the Lakes exceedingly,
and was perfectly enchanted with Derwentwater.
I got a beautiful little canoe and spent the even
ing on the Lake, and did not paddle home till it
was about dark. The tints on the hills and the
lights on the water and the quietness — well,
everything was perfect.
' The transition to Newcastle was abrupt. There
was a marriage and the inevitable meeting !
Young folk alone. I ran away to hear Henry
Moorhouse [the American evangelist]. He
wants me to go to America with him.
' He said to me, " You must not let any person
gather manna for you — you must go every day
and gather it for yourself."
' I give you the beautiful text I got this morning :
" Now the Lord my God hath given me rest on
every side " (i Kings v. 4).'
'Glen Elm, Stirling, Sept. 21, 1876.
' . . . Thank you very much for Pulsford ; I like it
extremely. It has almost become part of myself
already, as I have it always by me. What I like
about it is its great reverence, not only for reli
gion, but for everything and everybody. It seems
to be full of " points " besides. Excuse me also
remarking on the binding ; one likes to see one's
friends decently dressed. I used to wish your
Tersteegen was not quite so dilapidated! I am
very glad you are at Brighton. ... B. is a place
of few, but very happy, memories to me. Firstly,

^T. 25] BACK TO COLLEGE I 2 I
it is associated with Frederick William Robert
son, from whom I got a great deal of good ; and
secondly, with the Brighton convention, from
which I got no harm. The first thing I should
do if I were there again would be to visit Rob
ertson's grave. He used to be one of my few
heroes.
' My life is still the same knotless thread that it used
to be. I have been trying to do a little here and
there, but personally I see no further than before.
And, do you know, a strange thought comes to
me sometimes that " waiting " has the same kind
of effect upon one that affliction has? I do not
know truly if this be so, for I do not know what
affliction is ; but I sometimes wonder whether or
not the effects may not to some small extent run
in the same lines. My freshest truth is still " the
will of God." May it always be so. It has been
a great help to many of my friends here.'
In September he was preaching and evangelising
in various parts of Scotland. He took a few Sundays
in the church in Ayr, and in answer to an invitation
from Bonskeid writes from Ayr as follows : —
' I have had no opportunity of deserving a holiday.
My programme is full. ... I like Kenman ex
ceedingly ; he came with me to G  on Sunday,
and we tackled the beadle at the close of the
service. I really believe the man was converted.
At all events, he prayed. Did you ever hear of
a beadle praying? I am to be in Ayrshire till
Wednesday, and then I hope to be at the Glasgow
convention. The programme is rather clumsy, I
think. I am hacking my way through two old
sermons for Sabbath.'

122 HENRY DRUMMOND [1876-7?
In the end of the year he accepted an invitation
from Mr. Wilson of the Barclay Church to assist him
for some months. '6, Lonsdale Terrace, Edinburgh,
Feb. I, 1877.
' , . . Was I "forlorn" when I wrote last? I dare
say I might have been, feeling the loneliness of a
new position. But that is past now, and I am in
full swing of work and very happy. Rather I
should say I am very interested. I do not feel
that I am in my life-work, however, but am cer
tain it is a splendid and unique training for it,
and I am sure I shall thank God for it long after
wards if I am spared. The work is very heavy,
but all very interesting and enjoyable. It includes
a sermon on Sabbath, a prayer-meeting address
on Wednesday, a children's meeting on Friday,
and an evangelistic meeting on Sabbath night.
This is the regular weekly programme, but the
unengaged nights are generally occupied with
meetings of some sort or private work with in
quirers, of whom there are always one or two
somewhere. Indeed, this last is the best part of
it all, and there have been some deeply interesting
cases behind the scenes to keep the old fire from
quite burning out.
' I have to make new sermons every Sabbath,
which take much time and study. ... I have
preached a regular series on the " Will of God,"
and am going to write two or three more still.
It is a profound and marvellous subject. But I
do not think I am getting the people to take it
up.^ ... I have had dreams of coming to Lon-
1 He rather bored his friends these months with his continual insistence on
this subject.

iET. 25] BACK TO COLLEGE 1 23
don, as I have a very urgent and warm corre
spondence from Dr. Dykes just now to come and
be his assistant, but I cannot see anything more
than dreams in them in the meantime. . . .
'I am trying to live on the text I sent you at
Christmas, which seems to me to be one of the
most beautiful pieces of teaching in the whole
Testament.^ I think I have got a little way in
to its meaning, and find it very wonderful . . .'
I think that it was at this time of his life that he
used to go down every night of the week to the Grass-
market and convoy a man home past the public-houses.
In March he again wrote that he could not come to
Bonskeid. ' 6, Lonsdale Terrace, Saturday.
' I must deny myself this and all other forms of
worldliness for at least six weeks, unless the Bar
clay steeple comes down in the interim, which is a
consummation devoutly to be wished. I feel like
a squirrel in a cage just now — hinc illce lach-
rymcB ! '
He had thrown himself into the Barclay work with
great diligence, not a little inspired by the feelings of
affection and admiration which he always felt towards
Mr. Wilson. The latter had gathered round him a
strong band of young men, and they and the inquirers
whom he constantly drew to him were Drummond's
chief joy in the work. But the congregational routine
was not, as the last letter shows, to his taste, and he
felt cramped. Most, if not all, of the discourses pub
lished in the The Ideal Life were delivered from the
Barclay pulpit. His work there came to a close with
the end of April.
1 I Tim. i. 12 (?).

124 HENRY DRUMMOND ['877
To Mrs. Stuart
'Glen Elm, Stirling, June 28, 1877.
' My story is soon told. I stayed with Mr. Wilson
till ist May. Then he got so thoroughly well
that I saw I was no longer a necessity, and
struck my tent accordingly. I was a little tired,
as the work was not light, and I was glad to get a
chance and go knapsacking with Professor Geikie
for a little. A fortnight's mission in Kirkcaldy
followed, and then a week at the General Assem
bly. Since then I have been studying at home
with an occasional flight into evangelism.
' My future as usual is all in the clouds. Everything
is as dark as ever — or shall I say as bright as
ever ? Faith-colour would be the best word, only
I am not quite assured enough to use it.'
In June he went north to address a meeting of the
Pitlochrie Young Men's Association. There was a
cricket-match in one of the Bonskeid parks, in which
he took part, and when it was over and the visitors
gone, four of us were left together to spend the even
ing, which closed in dark and rainy. With his usual
resource Drummond invented a game for us. ' They
play it in America,' he said, ' with bowie-knives. Four
men are locked into a dark room, each in a corner,
and the survivor wins. We'll do without the knives ;
the door and the shutters shall be shut, each of us will
stand in a corner, and the first who gets on another
man's back will be the winner.' It was, I think, the
most exciting game I ever played. Nobody stirred
from his corner for twenty minutes. Then I heard a
scuffle between two of the others, felt my way to fling
myself on both of them, when Drummond pounced on

^T. 25] BACK TO COLLEGE

125

me, and we all rolled in a heap, he of course on the
top — as he always was.
In July he went for a tour in Norway with Robert
Barbour, to whom he afterwards sent this letter, nota
ble at least for its charming definition of a holiday: —
'Glen Elm Lodge, Stirling, Aug. 21, 1877.
"My programme since coming from Norway has
been very simple and very happy. I have scarcely
stirred from my den. I have studied some, and
read crowds of, books. The Ring and the Book I
have gone through with increasing interest, and
Hutton's Essays have filled me with admiration
for everybody except myself. I have just got
Shairp's new book, which I think will dehght you,
if you have not seen it. The Poetic Interpretation
of Nature, my only other novelties being Puls-
ford's new volume of sermons and a book by
Enigmas of Life's brother, A Layman's Legacy,
which is only mediocre. Norway did me a world
of good ; it was a clear month out of reading,
out of thinking, out of planning for the future, out
of responsibility for others. Not a shred of those
things followed me ; I forgot them all and I think
this is the true holiday — to be one's simplest self,
forget the past, and ignore the future. This is
fearfully heathenish, and I sometimes had my
misgivings, but I think now it is right. I never
came back to work, to books, to Christianity, I
might almost say, with such a spring ; the world
seemed new born. The first sermon I heard was
heaven opened ; preaching myself was inspiration.
I should like to have your version when you
write; or you can write a treatise if you like " On
the Philosophy of Holidays," which is a subject

126 HENRY DRUMMOND C'877
quite worth thinking about, seeing that most men
in our line give at least one-twelfth of their year
to it.
' I went in to the Commission ten days ago, mainly
to recover my ecclesiastical vocabulary. I had
really forgotten all the more important words,
also in theology, from pure disuse. . . .
' I am a missionary again — sad relapse from an
assistant's airy height. A handful of colliers, in
a place near Polmont, were needing shepherding,
and I go down every Sabbath to preach twice to
them. It is most delightful work, and I would
not exchange it for anywhere.'
In spite of these bright intervals of holiday and
work, Drummond, still uncertain of his future, was not
happy. He afterwards called ^ this year ' the most mis
erable time of his life, not seeing what definite work
he could do to earn his bread, and yet get time to
preach. When he came from Norway he went to
New College to see in the Calendar what subjects
were required for examination for license, though he
did not want to be licensed. He had been blamed
(he says), as if he had given up the ministry, but he
has never been a minister, nor wanted to be. At col
lege he found some numbers of Nature that had been
accumulating for him, and then all his scientific studies
came back upon him. But he saw no use for his
Natures now that his college career was at an end ;
and as he went down the Mound he gave them to an
engine-driver, saying they were some journals he might
find interesting. In a day or two he noticed the death
of Mr. Keddie (lecturer on Natural Science in the
iTo Professor Simpson, with whom he had a long talk about his career a few
months before his death.

^T. 26] BACK TO COLLEGE

127

Free Church College, Glasgow), and wrote to Principal
Douglas to ask if it was any use his applying for the
lectureship. Dr. Douglas encouraged him. He got
a very commendatory testimonial from Professor Archi
bald Geikie, as well as some others, but he thinks
Geikie's got him the place.' On September 17th the
General Assembly's College Committee appointed him
to the lectureship for one session, and so he found
the work that ultimately formed the profession and
settled post after which he had been groping for two
years. During these years of uncertainty and painful wait
ing for the issue of his life, Drummond had been much
sustained by studying the teaching of the Bible upon
the Will of God. He had put the result in three ser
mons which he preached from the Barclay pulpit, and
which now form the last of his volume. The Ideal Life,
' What is God's Will ? ' ' The Relation of the Will of
God to Sanctification,' and ' How to know the Will of
God.' But he has summarised the knowledge which
the study and experience of three years of waiting
brought him, in eight maxims, which he inscribed
upon the fly-leaf of his Bible.
To FIND OUT God's Will
I. Pray.
2. Think.
3. Talk to wise people, but do not regard their
decision as final.
4. Beware of the bias of your own will, but do not
be too much afraid of it (God never unnecessarily
thwarts a man's nature and likings, and it is a mistake
to think that His will is in the line of the disa
greeable). 5. Meantime do the next thing (for doing God's

128 HENRY DRUMMOND [1878
will in small things is the best preparation for know
ing it in great things).
6. When decision and action are necessary, go
ahead. 7. Never reconsider the decision when it is finally
acted upon ; and
8. You will probably not find out till afterwards,
perhaps long afterwards, that you have been led at all.

CHAPTER VI
SCIENCE AND RELIGION. 1 877-1 883
The presence in a divinity hall of a lectureship on
Natural Science is a phenomenon which requires some
explanation. In the case of the Free Church of Scot
land it was not due, as has sometimes been supposed,
to the Roman policy of qualifying so inevitable an
influence as modern science by straining it through a
theological filter; but it arose very reasonably out of
the condition of the Scottish universities in 1843,
when the Free Church separated from the State.
At that time the Arts chairs in the universities
were still under tests, and the Free Church felt herself
obliged to supply for her students not only a theologi
cal curriculum, but a full Arts one as well. New Col
lege, Edinburgh, at first included professorships or
lectureships in Classics, Mathematics, and Philosophy,
and these continued till the university tests were
abolished.^ But in addition a chair of Natural Science
was founded, at the instigation of Sir David Brewster,
Hugh Miller, and others, who had strong feelings of
the need of it in training young men for the ministry.^
These feelings were due to the healthy opinion that
Natural Science should be a factor in the Arts cur
riculum, in which nevertheless no Scottish university
save that of Aberdeen had yet placed it. Other mem-
1 Two of the New College Professors, Macdougall and Campbell Fraser, after
wards became the University Professors of Moral Philosophy and Logic.
* See a speech by Principal Rainy in the General Assembly of 1884.
K 129

I30

HENRY DRUMMOND [1878

bers of the Church, too, felt that science would so
largely enter into Christian apologetics, and into the
materials for preaching, as to justify a separate class
for its treatment. Consequently, when the other Arts
chairs in New College came to an end, that of Natural
Science was continued, first under Dr. Fleming, then
under Dr. Duns ; and a lectureship was established in
the second Free Church College at Glasgow. The
latter was held till 1877 by Mr. Keddie, F.R.S.E., and
on his death, as we have seen, Henry Drummond se
cured the temporary appointment for session 1877-78.
The students in Glasgow College varied from sev
enty to one hundred. Drummond lectured to the First
Year, from twelve to twenty-four in number. He had
no lines prescribed to him and chose to instruct the
students in the rudiments of geology and botany and
in the general methods of modern science.^ The sal
ary was ;^ 1 50 a year, the lectures four a week from the
beginning of November to the end of March. Their
preparation occupied the whole of his time, and I find
in existence no letters from him during this session and
no record of other work. The following was written
when the session closed : —
'Glen Elm Lodge, Stirling, April 20, 1878.
' ... I am in the statu quo. Session ended well.
We wound up with four days' geologising in
Arran, and had a glorious time. Eleven men
mustered, the cream of the class, and we ham
mered the Island almost to bits — nothing left
but the hotel and a ledge of rock to smoke on ! '
In May he had ten days more geologising, this time
among the Cairngorms and with Professor Geikie.
^ See further, p. 268.

¦«T. 26] SCIENCE AND RELIGION

131

In the end of the month he returned to Glasgow, to
attend the meetings of the General Assembly, the first
for many years held outside Edinburgh. The most
important business before this Assembly was the con
sideration of the 'relevancy' of the charge made
against Professor Robertson Smith before the Pres
bytery of Aberdeen, of contravening by his articles in
the Encyclopcedia Britannica the doctrine of inspira
tion in the Westminster Confession of Faith. The
question was narrowed to the Professor's statement of
the non-Mosaic authorship of Deuteronomy. A mo
tion by Sir Henry Moncrieff that such a statement
would, if proved, contravene the Confession, was car
ried by a small majority over one by Principal Rainy,
that the charge was not relevant ; and the case was
sent back for proof to the Presbytery of Aberdeen.
But the moral victory was felt to lie with the Profess
or's opinions, and as it turned out he was acquitted
by the Presbytery and, on a narrow majority of three,
by a subsequent Assembly.^ At this stage of the
famous trial Drummond's own mind was not very
clear, but he was evidently impressed by the speeches
for the defence. 'Assembly Hall, Saturday [first Saturday of June], 1878.
'My dear Mother, — . . . The Smith and Dods
cases are very well over, and every one is thankful
for the peace of the end. [Alas, it was not the
end!] The speaking of Smith, Rainy, and others
has been extraordinary, and has made the Assem
bly very profitable. Last night I spent at an
evangelistic meeting in Grove Street with Willie
Ferguson and Mac Gill. I was with the same
party on Wednesday morning, having an open-
1 1880. See p. 141.

132 henry drummond [1878
air meeting in a foundry during the breakfast
hour ; so I have not been altogether useless.'
By this Assembly Drummond was appointed to
another session of the lectureship; but the summer
was free, and, eager for some religious work, he ac
cepted an invitation to take charge of the Free Church
of Scotland's station at Malta, in the absence of the
chaplain, the Rev. Mr. Wisely. The following letters
are to his friends Ross and Barbour : —
'Valletta, Malta, July 4, 1878.
'My DEAR Ross, — This is the day of your ordination,
and I am not unmindful of you. My thoughts
are Dundeewards, and if good wishes can do you
any good in your new work you have them in
abundance from this far-off land. ... I am not
going to bother you with much of this tissue-
paper caligraphy, as I have little to say yet about
Malta that would interest you. Besides, with the
thermometer at 90° in the shade letter-writing is
far from being a luxury, especially as I have to
sally forth on a mosquito hunt between every
second sentence. I had a splendid tour here. It
began with a peep at the Paris Exhibition, then
with a run through Italy and Sardinia, and
wound up with a voyage to Africa, where I stayed
a week.
' I have only been three days here. It is a splendid
place. If the heat allow it, I am sure I shall
enjoy the work greatly. The chief items are
three services on Sundays, one or two in the
camps through the week, and hospital visitation.
It will be pretty hard, but I am only to have two
months of it. . . .

^T. 27] SCIENCE AND RELIGION

133

' Now do write me a line and tell me " wie es sieht
in der Welt aus," to quote your famous Tiibingen
phrase. I hope you have had a good start.'
'Rev. Mr. Wisely's, Valletta, Malta,
July 4, 1878.
' LiEBER Robert, — This time last year we were sing
ing chorales on the North Sea. You no doubt
are singing them still in the North of Scotland.
I am killing mosquitoes in Malta.
' . . . Malta seems a most interesting place, thoroughly
civilised, and inhabited by every nation on earth.
There is a magnificently equipped English library,
where I spend the morning before work begins,
and there are museums when one is tired of the
endless museum of the streets. I came here via
Paris, Marseilles, Italy, Sardinia, and Africa. In
Africa I spent a week. My headquarters were
Tunis, the second largest city in Africa. The
change to Oriental life was most interesting, in
fact, Tunis is the most interesting place I have
ever seen. Arabs, deserts, palms, and camels
are strange sights to a European, and I would
recommend every one who comes near the Medi
terranean to give a few days to North Africa. I
was all alone, and it is out of the tourists' track,
so sometimes I felt rather eerie. One day I
spent among the ruins of ancient Carthage —
profoundly interesting. . . . Yours most sin
cerely, Henry Drummond.
' P.S. Paul was three months here ! '
'Glen Elm Lodge, Stirling, Sept. 17, 1878.
' Lieber Robert, — . . . I came home on Friday.
The chief event on the way was a sunrise from

J 34 HENRY DRUMMOND [1878-79
Etna. Etna is only three thousand feet lower than
Mt. Blanc, so the chmb was glorious and the view
from the crater a miracle of grandeur. After
Sicily, I did Naples, Pompeii, Herculaneum,
Vesuvius, the Island of Capri, Pozzuoli; then
Rome, Florence, Milan, the Italian Lakes, and
home over the St. Gotthard Pass with Switzer
land ; thence by Basle, Paris, and Calais.'
In September Drummond settled down again in
Glasgow. He was happy in his lectureship, and very
happy in his colleagues, with whom he was to work
for nineteen years on terms of the closest affection
and confidence. Principal Douglas, who was Pro
fessor of Hebrew, Professor T. M. Lindsay, who had
the Church History Chair, Professor James Candlish,
who taught Systematic and Pastoral Theology, and
Professor A. B. Bruce, who had the Chairs of Apolo
getics and the New Testament. Drummond's few
lectures gave him leisure for other work, and he had
not forgotten his calling as an evangelist. ' I want,'
he had written in April of this year, ' a quiet mission
somewhere, entry immediate and self-contained.' He
had attached himself to Renfield Free Church, under
the ministry of Dr. Marcus Dods, and was ordained
as an elder. The congregation had recently adopted
a mission station in Possilpark, and in April Dr. Dods
had offered the charge of it to Drummond, who en
tered upon his duties when he returned from Malta.
Possilpark is a northern suburb of Glasgow. In 1878
its population was said to be about six thousand, mostly
working-class families settled in recently built houses.
They were nearly all well-to-do people, but in the
autumn of 1878 the City of Glasgow Bank failed and
cast hundreds of them out of work. It was a terrible

vEt. 27] SCIENCE AND RELIGION 1 35
winter; the social distress was aggravated by very
severe cold, and city missionaries, not in Glasgow
only but all over Scotland, passed through experiences
which they can never forget. The ordinary labours
of charity were increased tenfold ; investigations had
to be made into hundreds of new cases, and, owing to
the number of honest families thrown into a distress
to which they were absolutely new, the work required
extraordinary patience and tact. But the rewards
were great. The missionaries came into personal re
lation with a large number of lives they would proba
bly never have touched, and obtained abundant proofs
of the courage and honesty of the mass of Scottish
working-men. One missionary, who was given ^40
for distribution in his district, found that the most of
it would be accepted only in the form of loans, and
had not less than £22^ repaid to him when work grew
better in the course of the following year.
To Robert W. Barbour
'September 17, 1878.
? On Sunday I was " introduced " to my new flock
in Glasgow by Dods, and I begin work there at
once. I have a splendid prospect for the winter
— a district of six thousand people, none of them
lapsed as yet, no opposition, and many wiUing,
helping hands.'
To Mr. and Mrs. Stuart
' Possilpark, Glasgow, Nov. 22, 1878.
». . . In the first place I have my college lectures,
which is enough for any man. Secondly, I have
now a church. On Sabbath I preach twice,

136 HENRY DRUMMOND [1878-79
attend schools and classes. On Mondays I look
after a bank ; on Tuesdays I give a popular lect
ure. On Wednesdays a mothers' meeting m the
afternoon, a lecture to children at seven, the con
gregational prayer-meeting at eight. The other
two nights I visit the poor and the sick, or hold
meetings elsewhere. I am just starting^ now,
ten miles, for a meeting to-night. This is my
programme every week. In addition to all this,
I have had the horror of my examination for
license hanging over me from the hour I landed
from Malta.' 'Possilpark, March 21, 1879.
' ... So you have been to America and seen Moody.
For myself I have had a long, quiet, busy winter.
My little church gets on bravely, though it has
been a dreadful winter in Glasgow. Thousands
have been really starving all winter, and out here
I have had to feed scores of families with the
meat that perisheth, and a scant seasoning only
of the other. We are past the worst now, I hope,
though the snow is still thick on the ground.
' Although I have a church, I am not a minister yet.
Mrs. Grundy, I am glad to say, has not prevailed.
I am not ordained, nor have I any desire to be,
or prospect of being. My old desires and aims
are there still, unchanged. I have taken what we
call license, and which is often mistaken for ordi
nation, but it is little more than a college certifi
cate of a theological education. And my church
is a mere appendage to my college work to fill up
spare interest and time. By and by I give it up,
and plunge into evangelism. I shall retain my
college work — it will be corrective without being
absorbing. I have had several calls this winter

«T. 28] SCIENCE AND RELIGION

137

to be ordained to churches in different places, but
have refused them all on this secret ground. No
one, however, can understand me. I am looked
upon as "queer." You wiU understand, however,
that I have not bowed down and worshipped
Mrs. G. If you ever write Mr. Moody, I wish
you would tell him that. ^ He, too, thinks I have
fallen.
' I am going to take my class down to the Island of
Arran for some days' geologising. . . .'
'Possilpark, Glasgow, July 25, 1879.
' . . . You wrote me on the eve of your departure to
America. It is now my turn. I start next Thurs
day. I am to be away three months — all the
time in the Far West. I am going with Professor
Geikie, whom you know. We are to geologise
in the Rocky Mountains. I suppose we shall be
camped out all the time, shooting, fishing, and
hammering, so we shall see nothing of the States.
I mean, of course, to make a great effort to run
off for a day or two with D. L. M.,^ but I shall
have to reserve civilised America for a future
occasion.
' Now that I have introduced myself, I must recall
events since I wrote last. My life has been very
humdrum, toiling away in a mission district since
college closed last March. My college appoint
ment was made permanent by my election to the
Chair ^ last Assembly, so that there is no fear of
my being a settled minister. I shall lecture five
months and be a vagrant, or a city, missionary
during the other seven. It is an odd life, but it
suits me.' iMr. Moody. 2 Lectureship.

138 HENRY DRUMMOND [1879-81
On the 31st of July he sailed for America. The
account of his geological expedition to the Rocky
Mountains with Professor Geikie may be postponed
to a separate chapter.
On his return from the Rockies, Drummond found
himself at Boston, and in a curious dilemma. He had
five days before he sailed for home. He was in the
city of Lowell and Longfellow, Bryant, Emerson,
Channing, Agassiz, and Holmes; and he had an in
vitation to meet Longfellow and Holmes at dinner.
' Longfellow I had learned to love from my youth
up ; Holmes, ever since the mystery of the three
Johns and the three Toms caught my school-boy
fancy years ago, has been to me a mouth and
wisdom. And naturally the attraction of these
names was a powerful inducement to me to spend
my last days in quiet worship at shrines so revered
and beloved. But some eight hundred miles off,
away by Lake Erie, were two men who were more
to me than philosopher or poet, and it only
required a moment's thought to convince me
that for me, at least, a visit to America would be
much more than incomplete without a visit to
Mr. Moody and Mr. Sankey. It was hard, I must
say, to give up Longfellow, but I am one of those
who think that the world is not dying for poets
so much as for preachers. I set off at once. . . .
Neither of the men seemed the least changed.
There they were before me, the same men : Mr.
Sankey down to the faultless set of his black
necktie, Mr. Moody to the chronic crush of his
collar. ... I can scarcely say I have much to
record that would be in itself news. For my own
part I am glad of this. We do not want anything

Mr. 28-30] SCIENCE AND RELIGION

139

new in revivals. We want always the old factors —
the living Spirit of God, the living Word of God,
the old Gospel. We want crowds coming to
hear — crowds made up of the old elements; per
ishing men and women finding their way to
prayer-meeting, Bible reading, and inquiry room.
These were all to be seen in Cleveland. It was
the same as in England and Scotland. I was
especially pleased to find that it was the same as
regards quietness. I had expected to find revival
work in America more exciting; but, although a
deep work was beginning, everything was calm.
There was movement, but no agitation ; there was
power in the meetings, but no frenzy. And the
secret of that probably lay here, that in the speaker
himself there was earnestness, but no bigotry, and
enthusiasm, but no superstition.' ^
No more signal proof could we have both of Drum
mond's enthusiasm for the Gospel and of his loyalty to
old friends. Probably never in all his life did he feel
a greater wrench than this from Boston and the
chance of meeting the two poets ; probably never
greater happiness than when he burst in — uninvited,
unannounced — upon the astonished evangelists at
Cleveland. And yet, — and yet, — O Henry, why
didn't you dine with Longfellow and Holmes ?
From America Drummond returned to his third
winter as lecturer on Natural Science, and as mission
ary in Possilpark. The years '80 and '81 passed away
in this double work, without incident and almost with
out the break of a single holiday.
The case of Professor Robertson Smith was pro
ceeding from one church court to another, with vary-
1 From a letter to I'he Christian, November, 1879.

140

HENRY DRUMMOND [1880-81

ing and ambiguous fortunes. No one knew how it
would end ; and indeed comparatively few were certain
on which side, at the end, they themselves would be
found. The truth is, it was not so much the trial of
one man which was proceeding, nor even the trial of
one set of opinions, as the education of the whole
Church in face of the facts which Biblical criticism
had recently presented to her. The Great Mission of
1873-72 had quickened, as we have seen, the practical
use of the Bible, and the Church was studying her
sacred books in the congregation and in the Bible class,
with a freshness and a thoroughness hardly seen before.
But now came the necessary complement to all that,
in the critical study of the Scriptures; and by those
who believe in God's providence of His Church, it has
always been a matter of praise that the revival of the
experimental study of the Scriptures in Scotland pre
ceded that of the critical. Those who, with Professor
Robertson Smith, instigated the latter, were some of
the devoutest men in the Church, of whom it is right
to instance especially one of Drummond's own col
leagues : the late Professor James Candlish, a teacher
of undoubted orthodoxy, a most spiritual preacher, a
finished scholar, and, in spite of his weak health and a
rare modesty, which made him the least aggressive
spirit in the movement, a man of courage and the
most perfect justice. These men believed that Christ's
promise of the Holy Spirit for the education of His
Church was being fulfilled, not less in the critical than
in the experimental use of the Bible ; they defended
criticism on the highest grounds of faith in God and
loyalty to Christ. But as in every other discipline of
the Church in new truth, so in this, pain and restless
ness prevailed. Within, as without, the church courts
discussion ran high and hot for three years. The old

^T. 29-30] SCIENCE AND RELIGION I4I
parties were broken up, and even groups of friends and
fellow-workers divided sharply under the new tests.
At first Drummond could not but share the general
uncertainty. Many of his dearest friends and leaders
were opposed to Professor Smith's views ; he himself
was not equipped with the knowledge of the original
languages of the Bible which could have enabled him
to form conclusions of his own. And in the letter he
wrote from the Glasgow Assembly, we have seen that
he looked for peace arising out of some compromise.
But Drummond's scientific training had given him
a sense for facts, an appreciation of evidence ; while
his strong and cheerful faith in God saved him from
the confusion into which so complete a revolution in
his views of the methods of inspiration must otherwise
have cast him. The Assembly of 1880 decided by
a narrow majority in Professor Smith's favour, and
Drummond rejoiced at the decision. When new arti
cles by the professor appeared in the Encyclopcedia
Britannica, and led the Assembly's Commission of
the following October to suspend him once more from
his chair, Drummond refused to be satisfied with a
verdict which, while it saved the Church from a pro
nouncement against the new views, prepared to sac
rifice, for the peace of the Church, their foremost
representative; and when it became apparent, next
spring, that the General Assembly would complete the
work of the Commission, and remove Professor Smith
from his chair, Drummond wrote in great sorrow : ^ —
' We are all much dejected here by the suicidal pol
icy of the majority in their recent determination
to lynch Smith. It will be a very serious blow to
the Church, and I fear nothing can avert it now.'
1 Glasgow, May 21, 1881.

142 HENRY DRUMMOND [1881-82
He was right. Professor Robertson Smith was sac
rificed ; but whatever may have been the motives of the
leaders of the majority, — whether the general peace of
the Church, or the more subtle desire to save the
Church, by his suspension, from a condemnation of
the critical views, — the latter result was secured, and
the Church was allowed to find room for methods of
research and for views of inspiration more free from
the errors of tradition, and more true to the facts of
Scripture itself. With these new views, Drummond,
though he took no share in developing them, was
henceforth in hearty sympathy. His religious teach
ing was as much based upon the Bible as it had ever
been ; but in his own practical use of the Bible he
exercised a new discrimination, and he often said
that the critical movement had removed very many
difliculties in the Old Testament which once puzzled
him, and had set him free for the fuller apprecia
tion of its divine contents.
Several years afterwards, speaking of the contest of
Science and Religion, he is reported to have said : —
' The contest is dying out. The new view of the
Bible has rendered further apologetics almost
superfluous. I have endeavoured to show that
in my articles on Creation.^ No one now expects
science from the Bible. The literary form of
Genesis precludes the idea that it is science.
You might as well contrast Paradise Lost with
geology as the Book of Genesis. Mr. Huxley
might have been better employed than in laying
that poor old ghost. The more modern views
of the inspiration of the Bible have destroyed
the stock-in-trade of the platform infidel. Such
1 See below, chap. x.

^T. 30] SCIENCE AND RELIGION 1 43
men are constructing difficulties which do not
exist, and they fight as those that beat the air.' ^
Drummond once asked me to help in the prepara
tion of a popular tract on the Higher Criticism. A
rhetorical Bishop, a defender of the Mosaic origin of
the Pentateuch, had asked what the critics would
answer when in the next world Moses met them with
the challenge, ' How dared you say that I did not
write the Pentateuch ? ' I pointed out that, consider
ing the absence of all claims of Mosaic authorship in
the Pentateuch itself, it was equally reasonable to put
the question in the very opposite form ; and Drum
mond's proposal was to write the tract in the form of
a dream by the same Bishop, as though, being con
veyed to heaven and meeting Moses, Moses should
ask him, ' How dared you say that I did write the
Pentateuch ? '
But among all the influences which were bearing
on Drummond during these years, the strongest came
through his intercourse with Dr. Marcus Dods. In
the Possilpark Mission Dr. Dods was his ecclesiastical
superior, and they shared work in those practical
movements for which the religious life of Glasgow
is famous; while, in Dr. Dods' knowledge of litera
ture and of the philosophical tendencies of our time,
the younger man found numerous opportunities of
repairing the defects in his own education. Years
afterwards Drummond said : ' I can claim Dr. Dods,
not only as a friend and elder brother, but as the
greatest influence in many directions that has ever
come across my life ; and that if I have done anything
in my poor way to help anybody else, it has been
1 From ' A Talk with Professor Drummond,' by Raymond Blathwayt, in Great
Thoughts, I think, about 1890.

144

HENRY DRUMMOND [1881-82

largely owing to what he has done, and mainly by his
own grand character, to help me.' Among the ' many
directions ' in which this influence told were those of
Biblical criticism and the application of the hypothesis
of evolution to the interpretation of religion.
Most of the members of Drummond's Club had
married by 1881, and the experiment was tried of ask
ing the wives to the annual reunion. This is the let
ter that one of them got from Drummond shortly
afterwards. To Mrs. Robert W. Barbour
' Possilpark, Glasgow, May 21st, 1881.
' . . . I am so glad you enjoyed Moffat. I must
confess I was afraid the ladies would find us a
very queer set of beings. We are so accustomed
to one another, that when we get together we drop
all the graver responsibilities, and become school
boys once more. This, of course, is a great and a
natural joy to us, but I fancy you must often have
been bewildered at us. Moffat reminded me even
of an earlier stage than the school-boy this year.
You know the curious old memory of "going thro'
a wood when we were children," that was what
Moffat was to me : young, fresh, and buoyant,
" children going thro' a wood " ; yet I trust we will
never forget this memory, nor lose this spirit. . . .'
Early in 1882 Messrs. Moody and Sankey began a
new mission in Scotland, passed in the late summer
into Wales and the southwest of England, preached
in Paris for the most of October, and returned for the
winter to the cities they had already visited in Eng
land and Ireland, and to a number of others in addi
tion. The mission was not so powerful as that of

^T. 3o] science AND RELIGION 1 45
eight years before, but a good deal of real work was
done. To Robert W. Barbour^
'Possilpark, Glasgow, March 13, 1882.
' Dear Robert, — I wish you could spend a few
days in the Moody work. Stalker is coming on
Wednesday. The movement amongst men in the
East End has been the main feature, and I have
had some very wonderful cases. Brown and
Ewing are both over head and ears in it ; and for
the workers at least, it is quite as good as the last
revival. At the same time, the movement has not
seized the city as it did before, and the scarcity
of ministers at the meetings is marked. I have
got a few students to come to the inquiry room,
but the attitude of the college as a whole is
largely one of simple toleration.
'I am afraid it will be impossible for me to come
up in April. I expect Moody in my own parish,
where I have long been expecting to see some
work. I must say I believe in personal dealing
more and more every day, and in the inadequacy
of mere preaching. The inquiry room this time,
as before, brings its terrible revelation of the vast
multitude of unregenerate church members. I
have dealt with several men of position who knew
the letter of Scripture as they knew their own
names, but who had no more idea of Free Grace
and a Personal Christ than a Hottentot.'
'Possilpark, Glasgow, June 8th, 1882.
* Dear Robert, — ... I now see things a little clearer,
but unfortunately I do not see Cults. Moody, too,
1 Then Free Church minister at Cults.
L

146 HENRY DRUMMOND [1882
has made me promise to " hitch on to him," as
he calls it, for the summer, so that my arrange
ments are very much taken out of my own hands.
My only reserve is a few weeks in July, which I
spend with Dods somewhere on the Continent.
' I had Moody in my church last Sabbath — one of
the most wonderful meetings I ever saw. A crowd
of my own members stood up at the close and
asked to be prayed for, and a number of other
inquirers waited to the second meeting. I have
been following up all week with nightly meetings.
' On Tuesday night there was a special meeting for
reformed drunkards in the City Hall. They
were admitted by special ticket, received on
formal application and after cross-examination.
Over 800 sat down to tea, of all ages and ranks.
Mr. Moody presided, and a number afterwards
gave their testimony : all was most thrilling and
pathetic.
'Altogether the work has taken a powerful hold, and
immense numbers have been reached. I have
given up my church.'
The Possilpark Mission, in which Drummond had
been working hard for four years, had prospered.
There were nearly three hundred communicants, a
large Sabbath-school, a Young Men's Christian Associ
ation, and various other agencies. A church had been
built, costing nearly ;^4ooo, and it was free of debt.
The General Assembly of 1882 raised the mission
to the status of a full charge, and Drummond resigned
the missionaryship in order that an ordained minister
might be appointed. This set him free to work with
Mr. Moody through the rest of the summer, and in
October he came back to his college lectures.

^T. 30] SCIENCE AND RELIGION 1 47
To Mrs. Stuart
'Possilpark, Glasgow, December 20th, 1882.
' Of myself I have little to report. I am growing
older and, as you know, wickeder. I was with
Moody all summer in Scotland, Wales, and Eng
land. I have been very busy, and have not had a
holiday for a year and a half. I have also been
writing a book, now in the press. When I add
that I am not married yet, and as far away from
it as ever, my year's autobiography is ended.
' I hope you will see something of Moody when he
is in your neighbourhood in the early year. My
admiration of him has increased a hundredfold.
I had no idea before of the moral size of the man,
and I think very few know what he really is.'
A month before his death Drummond said to one
of his doctors, ' Moody was the biggest human I ever
met.' During the winter he worked hard at the book, re
writing most of it, and joined Moody again for a little
when the session was over.
To Mrs. Stuart
'Possilpark, Glasgow, March 31st, 1883.
' . . . The book will not be ready for two or three
weeks yet. I am going to Liverpool next week
to work for a short time with Moody. . . . Moody
has asked me to go to America with him, but I
do not think I shall be tempted. From your
letter I see you are afraid my book will not be
orthodox, but I hope you will not find this to be
the case. I am getting sounder and sounder ! '

148 HENRY DRUMMOND [1883
The book was the one which made him famous.
Natural Law in the Spiritual World. It was not his
greatest work. Its main argument rests upon a couple
of unproved, and, in the opinion of many, impossible
assumptions. And Drummond himself became dis
contented with it. But because it made him famous,
and is still, with many, the chief cause of his reputa
tion ; because of the enormous circulation it achieved,
the multitudes it helped, the wild hopes it raised, and
the bitter controversy, — it is right that we should
form some clear idea of how this book began, and
what it aimed at effecting. Drummond has himself
described its origin.
' For four years,' as he says in his Preface, he had
' to address regularly two very different audiences
on two very different themes. On week days
I have lectured to a class of students on the
Natural Sciences, and on Sundays to an audience
consisting for the most part of working-men, on
subjects of a moral and religious character. I
cannot say that this collocation ever appeared as
a difficulty to myself, but to certain of my friends
it was more than a problem. It was solved to me,
however, at first by what then seemed the necessi
ties of the case — I must keep the two depart
ments entirely by themselves. They lay at
opposite poles of thought ; and for a time I suc
ceeded in keeping the Science and the Religion
shut off from one another in two separate com
partments of my mind. But gradually the wall
of partition showed symptoms of giving way.
The two fountains of knowledge also slowly began
to overflow, and finally their waters met and
mingled. The great change was in the compart-

^T. 31] SCIENCE AND RELIGION

149

ment which held the Religion. It was not that
the well there was dried; still less that the fer
menting waters were washed away by the flood of
science. The actual contents remained the same.
But the crystals of former doctrine were dissolved ;
and as they precipitated themselves once more in
definite forms, I observed that the Crystalline
System was also changed. New channels also
for outward expression opened, and some of the
old closed up ; and I found the truth running out
to my audience on the Sundays by the week-day
outlets. In other words, the subject-matter of
Religion had taken on the method of expression
of Science, and I discovered myself enunciating
Spiritual Law in the exact terms of Biology and
Physics.'
The simple style of this paragraph masks a consid
erable vagueness of meaning, and one desires some
more explicit description of the state of his Science
and his Religion when he 'kept them shut off from
one another in two separate compartments of his
mind.' He cannot have intended this to be taken
literally. For, since coming to Glasgow, Drummond's
eyes had been opened to the great signs of evolution
within Scripture^ itself. And, on the other side, he
was equally aware how Natural Science corroborates
the Scriptural assumption that behind the visible uni
verse there is a creative mind. Although he had
judged Darwin's own teaching to be defective on this
point,^ he thankfully acknowledged that Science in
general bore to it unmistakable and even lavish witness.
To his students he emphasised these mutual contribu-
1 We shall get his opinion on this later on.
2 See above, p. 47.

I50

HENRY DRUMMOND [1877-83

tions of Religion and Science, and on the last day of
1878 he wrote to one who inquired of him what
Science had done to corroborate the teaching of Script
ure upon the origin of life, as follows : —
To Hugh Barbour
' I think it is quite clear that Science has gone as
far as she ever will on her side of the border.
And she has gone a wonderful length — towards
us, as I am convinced. The old cry, " How far
Science has wandered away from God (Creator),"
will soon be entirely obsolete ; and " How near
Science has come to God " will be the watchword
of the most thoughtful and far-seeing. Instance
the argument of the "Unseen Universe" in
toto; instance Tyndall's article in the November
number of the Nineteenth Century ; instance a
hundred passages in Huxley's Lay Sermons and
many other places.
'My Huxley is in Glasgow, or I would send you
reference to a quotation which would surprise
you if you have never seen it.'^ He is describing
the development of an ovum. He watches the
process through a powerful microscope. "Strange
possibilities lie dormant in that semi-fluid globe.
Let a moderate supply of warmth reach its watery
cradle, and the plastic matter undergoes changes
so rapid, and yet so steady and purposelike in
their succession, that we can only compare them
to those operated by a skilled operator on a form
less lump of clay." He sees, as it were, "a skilled
modeller" shaping the plastic mass with a trowel.
He sees "as if a delicate finger traced out the line
^ The reference is to Lay Sermons.

^t. 26-31] SCIENCE AND RELIGION 15I
to be occupied by the spinal column, and moulded
the contour of the body, pinching up the head at
one end, the tail at the other, and fashioning flank
and limb into due salamandrine proportions in so
artistic a way that, after watching the process hour
by hour, one is almost involuntarily possessed by
the notion that some more subtle aid to vision
than an achromatic would show the hidden artist
with his plan before him, striving with skilful
manipulation to perfect his work."^ The above
are Huxley's own words. That is to say that
the first biologist in Europe (according to Vir-
chow) when he comes to describe the develop
ment of life can only do so in Terms of Creation.
This, of course, was just what we might have ex
pected, but I find it very remarkable that our
anticipation should have been so literally fulfilled
and by such authority. The materialists have
never got credit for this most advanced stand
point, and I think it cannot be too widely ex
plained. Your desire evidently is to state all
that Science can with reference to the evolution
of living things. I do not see that they could
go one step further than Huxley in the passage
referred to; for the next step would be God.'
Drummond, therefore, was never troubled by any
fears that Science would contradict the fundamental
postulates of the Bible on the field of the natural uni
verse on which Science worked; and he already rec
ognised, within the historical origins of the Christian
religion, the same method of evolution at work as
Science had recently revealed in the growth of physical
1 In Drummond's letter the quotation, written from memory, is not given, of
course, so fully or accurately.

1^2 HENRY DRUMMOND [1883
life. What, then, did he mean by saying that he 'kept
Relio-ion and Science shut off from one another in two
different compartments of his mind'? In these words
he was speaking of religion as the experience of the
individual — conversion, regeneration, the growth of
character, the assurance of immortality — the phenom
ena, in short, with which he himself had been practi
cally busied in hundreds of lives during the last ten
years. This set of facts, comprising the religious life
of the individual, was what he had kept in one com
partment of his mind, while the other was filled with
the facts of physical life. By 'keeping them apart,'
he did not, of course, mean that the religious facts had
not their laws, as the physical had theirs, for Drum
mond had never treated religion in the manner of cer
tain preachers, as if it were utterly without the great
laws of life, a moral-less magic of arbitrary formulas,
expedients, and even dodges. But he meant that the
laws which are visible in the phenomena of the indi
vidual's experience of religion were at first felt by him
to be different from, and without the slightest resem
blance or relevance to, the laws which are visible in
the phenomena of physical life. But a teacher who
teaches in parallel lines two different subjects of human
knowledge cannot help, sooner or later, stating the one
in terms of the other; and this, of course, happened
in Drummond's case the more easily that teachers of
religion had from the very first perceived analogies or
resemblances between spiritual and physical phenom
ena, and that some of the greatest of them had even
conceived of Nature as therefore sacramental — the de
signed mirror or symbol of religious truth. No one,
however, had proposed as yet to define these compari
sons between the two sets of laws in more stringent
terms than those of analogy and sacrament. Drum-

/Et. 31] SCIENCE AND RELIGION 153
mond went farther, and with great boldness — whether
rightly or wrongly we shall inquire afterwards — as
serted the two sets of laws to be identical.
Perhaps this is the best place at which to introduce
a very curious story concerning a similar suggestion
made by Drummond's grandfather, William Drum
mond, who died in 1824. It is told by Henry's
brother-in-law, the Rev. Thomas Crerar : ' I was with
Henry after his father's death ^ in Glenelm, when we
found among his father's papers a note-book of his
father, the old William Drummond, in which he had
some reflections on religious matters. I think the old
man wrote, after noting some facts in the Spiritual
and the Natural Life : " Would it not be strange if it
turned out that the laws of Nature and of the Spirit
ual World were the same ? " and Henry remarked to
me : " How strange ! That is just my idea as ex
pressed in Natural Law. Can there be an inherited
idea as well as an inherited tendency ? " — or words to
that effect.'
Drummond, then, asserted that the laws governing
both spheres were identical. But he insisted that he
arrived at this position by the inductive method; that
first of all he awoke to the actual presence of certain
natural laws in one department after another of the
spiritual life — regeneration, growth, degeneration, and
so forth. This he emphasised again and again. He
had not first supposed his theory, and then tried if the
facts would fit it; but he had first encountered the
facts, gradually recognised their significance, and then
deduced his general principle from them. His method,
in short, had been the a posteriori. But having thus
reached his conclusions, he had found for them
the corroboration of an a priori argument in the
1 January I, 1888.

154 HENRY DRUMMOND [1883
scientific principle of Continuity. Scientific writers
had recently emphasised the Continuity of Law in the
Physical Universe. Was it not probable, Drummond
asked, that this continuity should extend still farther,
and cover the spiritual world as well? Drummond
thought that the affirmative reply to such a question
was obvious.
It is not within the province of a biographer to ex
pound in detail, still less to criticise, the writings
of the man whose life he is portraying; yet, if for
nothing else than to point out the direction in which
Drummond — who was far bigger than all his books
— grew away from the positions which he so con
fidently occupied in the first of them, it is necessary
that we should here indicate the two unproved — and
most people will think impossible — assumptions by
which he reached his famous conclusion of the opera
tion of natural law in the spiritual life. In the first
place, Drummond's a priori argument from the prin
ciple of Continuity was a huge petitio principii. It
does not necessarily, nor even probably, follow that
because laws have a certain continuity throughout
the physical universe they must also prevail in the
spiritual experience of man. Drummond maintains,
indeed, that the principle of Continuity is so well es
tablished that the burden of the disproof of its exten
sion to spiritual life remains with those who deny this.
Emphatically this is not true. The gulf is so great
between matter and mind, the respective contents of
the two spheres are so very different, that the burden
of proof in the question of a continuity of Law between
the two rather lies with him who maintains the affirm
ative. Drummond has simply begged the question;
and since, as he himself points out, laws are not inde
pendent substances, but forms or conditions by which

^T. 31] SCIENCE AND RELIGION 1 55
the actions of forces are invariably governed, the fact
that the forces of the spirit life are different from
those of the physical life makes the presupposition
very strong that, though the Lawgiver be the same,
the laws in the two spheres are equally different.
And this leads us to his other unproved assump
tion ; that, namely, in the inductive portion of his
reasoning. In his belief that he had discovered some
laws of biology in the religious experience of the indi
vidual, Drummond was apparently fascinated by the
use of the term life, to describe the phenomena in
both departments, without pausing to inquire whether
the two kinds of life had anything more than the
name in common with each other. Had he entered
upon this inquiry, he must have made it obvious (as
indeed it afterwards became to his own mind) that
spiritual life contained elements, and was realised in
conditions, so foreign to physical life, that the identity
of the laws governing the phenomena of both might
be reasonably regarded as an impossibility. This fun
damental objection to his argument has been stated by
many of his critics, but by none better than by the
author of On Natural Law in the Spiritual World'
by 'a Brother of the Natural Man,' who, it is no harm
now to state, is the Rev. Professor Denney. He says,^
' We find that natural life comes from preexisting
natural life — according, we must add, to a certain
law, a law of necessary physical determination ; and
we find that spiritual life comes from preexisting spir
itual life — according, we must add again, to another
law, a law of free moral determination in correspond
ence with the idea of that life; and these two laws
are quite different. What is more, till we appreciate
the difference, we are not within sight of the spiritual
1 P. 15.

156 HENRY DRUMMOND [1883
world. From this point of view, which also takes in
the whole complexity of the spiritual facts, we can see
the error and irrelevancy of much of Mr. Drummond's
preface and introduction.' And, it may be added, it is
from this point of view also that we can appreciate
the defects of the body of the book : the illustrations
of the working of natural laws in several departments
of the spiritual life. The want of the volume is the
want of regard for the moral character of religious
experience. The spiritual life which the various chap
ters describe is one perilously near sheer passivity : in
its beginnings as independent of responsibility on the
part of those who receive it as their physical life is,
and in its continuance as destitute of the elements
of effort and struggle. Take the beautiful chapter on
Growth, one of the most justly admired in the book.
It inculcates the advice not to try to grow spiritually,
but to leave one's growth, first, to the power of the
Spirit, and, second, to the effect of a good environment.
And, in support of this advice, it quotes our Lord's call
to consider the lilies of the field how they grow : they
toil not neither do they spin. But Drummond forgot
that in this part of His discourse our Lord was speak
ing, not of our spiritual struggles after character, and
perfect obedience to the Will of God, but of our
physical anxieties and labours for our daily bread.
Christ's own spiritual life was full of moral effort, yea,
to the pitch of agony; and so it has been with the
lives of all the greatest saints. This defect of the book
has another as its consequence. Drummond denies
that the man who 'by hard work and self-restraint
attains to a very high character' is really growing.^
According to him, the unregenerate man is in the same
relation to the regenerate as the inorganic in the
1 Twenty-fourth edition, p. 131.

/Et. 31] SCIENCE AND RELIGION

157

physical worid is to the organic, as a stone is to a plant.
And this leads him to a further assertion, which com
pletely ignores the moral identity of the individual be
fore and after conversion. ' The plant stretches down
to the dead world beneath it, touches its minerals and
gases with its mystery of life, and brings them up en
nobled to the living sphere. The breath of God, blow
ing where it listeth, touches with its mystery of life the
dead souls of men, bears them across the bridgeless
gulf between the natural and the spiritual, between
the spiritually inorganic and the spiritually organic,
endows them with its own high qualities, and devel
ops within them those new and secret faculties by
which those who are born again are said to see the
Kingdom of God.' But the man before and after his
conversion is the same man, with a continuance of
consciousness and will which are certainly absent in
the other case. The identity or analogy breaks down
at the vital point.^ In short, this omission of all regard
for the moral distinctions of the spiritual life is so fun
damental, that its effects are seen almost everywhere
throughout the book. Drummond himself came to
recognise this. Some years afterwards, I think about
1890, he said: ' I would write the book differently if I
were to do it again. I should make less rigid applica
tion of physical laws, and I should endeavour to be
more ethical ; and this I have stated in a new trans
lation of the book in Germany.' Yes; but he did
not even then see that to introduce those ethical
elements which had been so conspicuously absent
from his volume would be to destroy its primary
argument that natural law still prevailed where those
elements predominate, for he immediately added :
1 This is finely put in On ' Natural La-w in the Spiritual World; by ' a Brother
of the Natural Man,' p. 35.

1^8 HENRY DRUMMOND [1881-82
' But it is still clear to me that the same laws govern
all worlds.'
The introduction, into which these fallacies mainly
enter, was not given by Drummond to his Possilpark
audiences of working-men, nor indeed was its thesis
formulated till after his work in Possilpark was closed.
It is a far more welcome task to turn to the great vir
tues of the addresses themselves. Their analysis and
orderly arrangement of the facts of Christian experi
ence ; their emphasis upon the government of the re
ligious life by law; their exposure of formalism and
insincerity, conscious and unconscious, in the fashion
able religion of the day; their revelation of life in
Christ ; their enthusiasm ; their powers of practical
counsel and of comfort; and their atmosphere of
beauty and of peace, — must have made these ad
dresses to the hundreds who heard them, as afterwards
to the hundreds of thousands whom they reached in the
volume, an inspiration and a discipline of inestimable
value. But these aspects of the book we may postpone
till we come to treat of its wonderful reception by the
pubhc; and here need only state that they have an
enduring value which not even the fallacies of the in
troduction to them can wholly destroy. What Drum
mond would have done with the volume had he lived
is quite uncertain. But a month or two before his
death, when he said that he wished it withdrawn from
circulation, a friend answered, ' Remember the reli
gious good which it has done, and is still doing, to
multitudes who either never read the introduction, or
do not concern themselves with the philosophic ques
tions it raises.' This friend might have added that
the effort of the book to reduce the phenomena of the
Christian life to reasonable processes under laws —
whether or not these laws were what the volume

^T. 3o] SCIENCE AND RELIGION 1 59
alleges them to be — constitutes of itself a valuable
contribution to religion.
At the time he gave his ' talks to working-men,' as
he called them, Drummond had 'not intended to
make a book out of them.' But the editor of the Cler
ical World, a London periodical no longer in exist
ence, asked him for a contribution.

' I had never published anything before, and it was
only after a second appeal that I resuscitated
some faded lectures, which once had voices for a
local public, but which with other "dried tongues "
had been long since packed away in a forgotten
drawer. These papers, which are now reprinted
almost as they stood in Natural Law, passed
through many vicissitudes, as I shall relate, be
fore they became a book, but in connection with
this reference to their origin I may answer a ques
tion. I am asked : Were these papers, or are such
papers, even with the addition of viva voce expla
nations, not above the people ? I can only say I
did not find it so. My conviction, indeed, grows
stronger every day that the masses require and
deserve the very best work we have. The crime
of evangelism is laziness ; and the failure of the
average mission church to reach intelligent work
ing-men rises from the indolent reiteration of
threadbare formulce by teachers, often competent
enough, who have not first learned to respect their
hearers.'
The papers were five in number: 'Degeneration,'
which was published on September 28, 1881 ; ' Biogen
esis,' on November 30 ; ' Nature abhors a Vacuum,'

l6o HENRY DRUMMOND [1882
founded largely on Paul's words. Be not drunk with
wine, but be filled with the Spirit (these did not ap
pear in the volume) ; and two on ' Semi-Parasitism,'
which appeared in 1882.
' Though printed almost verbatim as they now
stand, no one, I then thought, seems to have
read the papers in their fugitive form. Pres
ently the journal which published them died,
leaving in my mind a lingering remorse at what
share I might have had in its untimely end. To
give continuity to the series, and as a title under
which to publish them, I had given the editor the
phrase " Natural Law in the Spiritual World."
At that time I had not thought much as to what
this title actually meant. The few laws which
formed the theme of the papers certainly seemed
common to both the natural and the spiritual
spheres ; but it did not occur to me to regard this
as a general principle. I mention this to show
that the principle came to me through its appli
cations, not vice versa. ... I am well aware
that many see no such thread binding Nature
and Grace. Others not only see no thread, but
see no use in one. I can only say that for me
there is no alternative but to see it ; that I saw
it before I knew what it was, and that if this were
taken away much of the solidity of religion would
go with it.
• Now, a thing that we cannot help seeing must
either be really there, or one's vision must have
some constitutional defect. To test this I wrote
out the rough sketch of the principle which now
forms the introduction to Natural Law and sub
mitted it to a small club, which met for the dis-

^T. 30] SCIENCE AND RELIGION l6l
cussion especially of theological subjects.^ With
one dissenting voice, it was unanimously con
demned. Some of the criticisms were just and
helpful, and others mercilessly severe. One
pleasantry I remember as especially discouraging,
for its source compelled me to treat it with respect.
The essay, said this candid friend, reminded him
of a pamphlet he had once picked up, entitled,
" Forty Reasons for the Identification of the
English People with the Lost Ten Tribes."
' But for two things I should have received this
verdict as final, and abandoned my heresies for
ever. The first was the one dissenting voice.
But for its encouragement at the outset, my book
had never been begun, and without its ceaseless
assistance afterwards, it would never have been
carried through. . . . The second was that I
remembered that the membership of the afore
said club consisted almost exclusively of men
who worked from the philosophical, rather than
from the scientific, standpoint. My own point
of view being exclusively the latter, I imagined
that, in many particulars, we might have been
working at cross purposes. . . .
' After this misadventure there remained in my
mind the desire to submit the essay, if only for
my own satisfaction, to a more public criticism.
About this time, also, I received a letter from an
orphanage^ in England, asking permission to
1 Glasgow Theological Club, 'January 9, 1882, at 5 Ashton Terrace. Paper by
Mr. Drummond on " Natural Law in the Spiritual Sphere." '
2 The request came from Mr. Newman, a member of the Society of Friends, in
the interest of a Home for Orphans at Leominster. The tract was entitled
'Natural La-w in the Spiritual World. Degeneration — " If We Neglect," by
Henry Drummond, F.R.S.E., F.G.S., Leominster : printed at the Orphans' Print
ing Press. Price, \d. ; 6 s. per loo.' Drummond used to call Mr. Newman his
' guiding star.' M

1 62 HENRY DRUMMOND [1882-83
republish as a booklet one of the papers which
had already appeared. The printing, I gathered,
was to be done by the orphans themselves, and
the proceeds were to go to the institution. What
the orphans could want with this paper, except
to practise printing long words on, I could not
imagine; but, as they had no parents, I over
looked the eccentricity and consented. Whether
the orphans had ever made anything by it, I
never knew; but presently letters dropped in
from unknown corresiaondents, telHng me that in
another sense the paper had done some good.
This decided me at once. The world did not
need being made wiser, but if there was the chance
of helping any one a little practically, that was a
thing to be done. In a rash hour, therefore, I
addressed the introduction, along with some of
the " Natural Law " papers, to a leading London
publisher. In three weeks the manuscript, as I
wholly expected, came back " declined with
thanks." A slight change was made, and a
second application to another well-known London
house ; and again the document was returned with
the same mystic legend — the gentlest yet most
inexorable of sentences — inscribed upon its back.
To be served a second time with the Black Seal
of Literature was too much for me, and the
doomed sheets were returned to their pigeon
holes and once more forgotten. I suppose most
men have a condemned cell in their escritoire.
For their consolation, let me tell them further
how at least one convicted felon escaped.
' Time had gone, when one day, passing through
London on returning from a Continental tour, I
happened along Paternoster Row. I encountered

^T. 31] SCIENCE AND RELIGION 1 63
Mr. M. H. Hodder of Messrs. Hodder and
Stoughton. In the course of conversation he
made a sudden reference to my ill-starred papers.
My guilty secret, alas, was known ! By the treach
ery of the other publishers, I was already the
laughing-stock of the Row — the whole trade had
been warned against me. But I was wrong.
This most guileless and indulgent of publishers
knew nothing! He had seen the papers in their
earlier form, and was merely sounding their
abashed author with a view to a possible reprint.
I was honest enough, in the light of previous
tragedies, to commit neither him nor myself, but
promised to exhume the manuscript for his further
consideration. From this interview I learned
one lesson — that the search for a publisher is a
mistake. The right way is to let the publisher
search for the author.
' The next step was to hold a post mortem examina
tion on my Rejected Addresses. I found mortal
wounds in one or two of the papers, but the few
which seemed most fit for resuscitation were for
warded as a first instalment to the publisher. . . .
I would have given anything just then to have
gained time, for nearly half my remaining material
was useless. ... I set to work replacing the most
decayed of the papers with new ones, and these
were literally written, I believe, like most literary
work — with the printer's demon waiting at my
elbow. The subjects were chosen as I went
along, and, as the printer was exasperatingljr
punctual, they received the barest possible justice.
. . . Owing to the lengthened interval between
the writing of one paper and another, consistency
was almost impossible. I was careful in the

164 HENRY DRUMMOND [1882-S3
Preface to point out the unsystematic nature of
the book and the almost haphazard arrange
ment of the papers ; in point of fact, it was little
more than the printer's necessity of paging ; but,
in spite of all protest, some of my critics have
wandered through these disjecta m.embra in search
of a philosophic or theological system, and have
come back laden with spoil of every description
to confound and discomfit the illogical author.'
But for a long time Drummond was out of reach
of his critics.
' A few days after the publication of Natural Law
and before it had reached the booksellers' shelves,
I was steaming down the Red Sea en route for
the heart of Africa.'

CHAPTER VII
DIARIES OF TRAVEL. — I. THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS
The Yellowstone: Canyons, Geysers, Antelopes, and
Beavers
Henry Drummond made three expeditions to dis
tant and at the time little known parts of the earth, —
the first, in 1879, to the Rocky Mountains; the second,
in 1883-84, to Central Africa; and the third, in the
summer of 1 891, to the New Hebrides. We may
take the first of these in this chapter.
The expedition to the Rocky Mountains was a
geological one, and Drummond joined it on the invi
tation of Sir Archibald (then Professor) Geikie, who
sends the following reminiscences leading up to it: —
' My first acquaintance with Henry Drummond
began in the University of Edinburgh at the com
mencement of the winter session of 1871-72. The
Chair of Geology and Mineralogy had then recently
been founded there by Sir Roderick Murchison, in
conjunction with the Crown, and at his request I had
been appointed Professor. At the end of my opening
lecture, the first student who came to my retiring
room to be enrolled as a member of the class was
Drummond. I well remember his frank, open face
and the gentle timidity of his manner as he gave in
his name. The instinctive impression of that first
interview was deepened by further intercourse with
him. During the session frequent excursions were
165

1 66 HENRY DRUMMOND ['879
made to places of geological interest around Edin
burgh, and these rambles afforded excellent oppor
tunities for the teacher and the students to become
personally acquainted with each other. I soon recog
nised the earnest enthusiasm and remarkable capacity
of the young man who had been the first to join me.
He was conspicuous by his zeal in the field, and he
took a good place in the periodical examinations,
finally coming out in the first class. At the end of
each session I used to take my students for a longer
excursion to some more distant part of Scotland,
where we spent ten days or so in constant field work.
The first of these most enjoyable trips was devoted to
the isle of Arran. Drummond was one of the party,
and I remember being struck with his feeling for the
beauty of natural scenery and the meditative look that
often marked his features when we sat down on some
rock or hillside to rest and enjoy the landscape.
' In later years, though no longer in my class, he
used to come occasionally to the field excursions, and
I was delighted to have these opportunities of enjoy
ing a closer acquaintance with him. He had entirely
won my affectionate regard, and I think he felt this
himself, for he often came to consult me as to his
career at college. In the year 1879 I planned an
expedition into Western North America for the pur
pose more particularly of studying the volcanic phe
nomena displayed on so wonderful a scale in that
region. Desiring a companion, I at once turned to
my favourite pupil, and found him willing to join me.'
The invitation was given in June, and Drummond
had a month for preparation. Letters to Professor
Geikie discuss their equipment, and the risks the
expedition might run from the unsettled condition of
the Indians in the Rocky Mountains: —

Mt. 28] THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS 167
To Professor Geikie
'Possilpark, Glasgow, July 3d, 1879.
' . . . I see from Renter's telegram of last night that
the Indians are at war among themselves on the
Canadian frontier. This will probably drain the
south of Montana, and leave the Yellowstone
clear. The reports in the Field lately have been
also more encouraging.'
Professor Geikie and Henry Drummond sailed for
America on the 31st of July, and after a few pre
liminary arrangements in the Eastern States, they
travelled straight to the Rocky Mountains. Drum
mond used to speak of the great generosity of the
United States Government, which on the request of
Professor Hayden, then at the head of the Geological
Survey, provided these British geologists with an
escort of soldiers, their needful equipage and supplies,
and introductions to the various military posts in
Indian territory. To His Mother
'Fort Bridger, Rocky Mountains, Thursday, Aug. 21, 1879.
' My DEAR Mother, — At last we are in the heart of
the mountains, and very comfortably quartered,
with a famous man in these parts. Judge Carter,
to whom Geikie had introductions. We make
his house our home for a couple of nights, and
go cruising among the mountains during the
day. Then we go off for a few days' camping,
and return here for a night next week on our
way further west, and north to the Yellowstone.
Judge Carter lives in a desert in an old fort

1 68 HENRY DRUMMOND [1879
which was occupied until May the year before
last by a post of soldiery for protection against
the Indians. The Indians are quiet, and the fort
has been abandoned, but "the Judge" and his
cattlemen occupy it as a kind of farm and store.
The fort is simply a collection of huts of wood,
but everything is very comfortable. We shall be
fitted out with waggon, and riding horses, and
baggage animals for our camp by the Judge,
which will be a great saving both of trouble and
money. At present we are some seven thousand
feet above sea level, and the climate is simply
perfect. . . .
' On Monday rather a curious thing happened. We
were at a place called Boulder, in Colorado, in a
new gold-mining district right up among the
mountains. As I was standing at the hotel door
a man came up, and in an excited way asked the
landlord if he knew where any minister lived, as
a miner had died ten miles off in a lonely canyon
(deep valley), and his mates had subscribed to
bury him, and had sent him in to try and find a
minister. He had already called on one, but he
was from home. I told him if he could not find
one anywhere he might come back to the hotel
for me and I would go. In an hour he returned
saying he had searched far and near, and could
find ,no one. I had my tweeds on, but ran to a
store, and fortunately found a white tie, which
gave one quite a sufficiently professional look for
the mountains. We drove ten miles in a two-
mule buggy through one of the most wonderful
glens I have ever seen. On reaching the mining
settlement I found the whole camp turned out.
It was the first death in the camp, and evidently

^T. 28] THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS 1 69
it was no common occasion to the gold-diggers.
Not a stroke of work had been done all day. All
were dressed in their best, and the whole popula
tion of the district, men, women, and children,
were turned out to attend the funeral. We got
the coffin put in the buggy, and the whole party
proceeded up to a little chapel of wood, which
had been built for any occasional service. A har
monium was there, and a choir of the miners'
daughters all ready to sing our hymns. I found
I was expected to make an "oration," as they
called it, and as the chapel was crammed to the
door I had one of the best audiences I have ever
seen in my life. The diggers are a very rough
lot — kindly, brave, but wild and lawless — and I
suppose few of them had ever been in that chapel
before. All were emigrants who had come to
seek their fortunes — some from the far East,
some from Germany, some from England, and
two young fellows with whom I spoke were from
Glasgow. The man who had died was an Eng
lishman. They listened with profound attention,
and when the service was over they slowly filed
past the open coffin, and took a last look at the
dead. At last all were gone but one, a genuine
rough specimen, who looked all round to see if we
were alone, then bowed his face in his hands, and
wept like a child. He was the dead man's mate.
' The grave was far up the valley, as there was noth
ing here but the solid granite. The procession
formed once more, and when we reached the spot
the miners begged for another service. This was
gladly granted, and I hope I did not lose so
golden an opportunity. It may be years before
there is another service in that camp, as it is one

170 HENRY DRUMMOND [1879
of the loneliest inhabited spots on earth. Before
I came home they gave me tea, and loaded me
with specimens of gold,'
On the 2d of September the friends left Fort Ellis
in Gallatin County, Montana, driving southwards, and
by the way shooting grouse and prairie-dogs and fish
ing for trout. In the afternoon they entered the
Yellowstone Valley, 'an old lake basin with a canyon
at each end.' DiARV
' Long, low undulating line. " Moraines, if ever I
saw them ! " " Is that an erratic against the sky ? " ^
Porphyry boulders, granite, flint, fragments of chalced
ony. The Lake Terraces. The Basalt Plateau, flat
tables. Caught a dozen trout, average half a pound,
in half an hour. Camped at Bottler's, just opposite
Emigrant Peak; a hundred prospectors gulching for
gold and silver.
'Wednesday, Sept. 3d. — Trout breakfast. Our
horses, old cavalry " condemned." Open valley. Passed
several " wailing " heaps of stones, made by Indian
squaws to the Great Spirit when any of their braves
died. " Nooned " at Canyon Creek, eleven miles from
Bottler's : ^ cold trout, tongue, and crackers. Fishing,
caught a two-and-a-half pounder, sluggish, not game.
Broke camp at two, entered second canyon. At mouth
on right magnificent glaciated gneiss (no granite in
canyon). Moraines of immense size. Yankee Jim
gave me a fine specimen of gold quartz from Bear
Rock Canyon, Yellowstone. Camp at 4.30. Deer
1 These words were the exclamation of his companion. The existence of
former glaciers in these valleys had not previously been observed. — Note by Pro
fessor Geikie.
^ He spells it Boetler's.

^T. 28] THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS

171

hanging between willows. Meteor, camp talk, buffalo
robes. 'Thursday, Sept. 4th. — Up at 5.30, washed, break
fast at 6. Broke camp at 7.15. Rode along flank of
Cinnabar Mountain — limestone mostly. At the south
end of the Devil's Slide upturned beds of limestones
and bands of red and cream-coloured marls, almost
vertical ; the walls of the slide composed of straight
planed walls of limestone, exactly parallel, soft layers
worn away but still quite distinct in part along the
west wall; firs scattered through the gap, morning
sun shining straight in and bringing out the vivid
colouring of the great bands of rock curving down
the mountain slope. Came to log shanty, store for
miners, got gold specimen from miner in next shanty ;
a ranch burned by Indians two years ago. Passed
waggon with magnificent head of elk, passed dead
rattlesnake. For two or three miles on this side of
junction of Yellowstone with Gardiner rivers magnifi
cent moraine mounds and lovely little lake basin.
Struck across Gardiner River, long wearisome ride
over high mounds and ridge of landslides and mo
raines, passed two or three moraine lakes. Suddenly,
without a minute's warning, half a mile off, [what
looked like] a gigantic glacier, glittering through the
pines. Camp on a rill, lunch.
' Examination of Springs. — First approach, exceed
ing beauty and delicacy of fretwork, cascades above
cascades. The hot springs, basins all temperature;
the orifice, 140°. Edge colours of leaf fronds and
seaweeds, white with orange veining; sacrilege to
tread upon it. You look for notice-board in vain.
Pools of every conceivable shape and size, rim usu
ally two to four inches cut out like coral. Each
basin a slight slope upwards, successive deposits

172 HENRY DRUMMOND [1879
marked upon sides as if they were made of piles of
coins, framework of hills all around, dark pine forests
and grass. Rise on to a plateau, you are in an arctic
scene, everything is white like snow, the trees are
growing up through it here and there. Water where
it reaches the downmost lips is tasteless ; where it
bubbles up it strongly tastes of sulphuretted hydrogen.
' The Pulpits. — One place has fifty; in shade cream-
coloured, in sunshine spotless white. Stalactites here
and there. Bottom of each pulpit covered with soft
tufts of most delicate moss. Whole ground sounds
hollow. ' The Forest. — A little farther on, the remains of a
burned forest. The springs have come down through
a wood and destroyed the trees. Now they stand up,
some erect, some half-prostrate, just as in the living
forest, but blanched, grey, dead, holding out thin,
gaunt, bare arms as if in protest. Here and there an
arbor vitce has survived and put on greenness once
more. 'The Cascades. — Water falling over a hundred
little balconies. On either side these balconies are
as white as stucco. Where the cascades come down
the walls are dyed near the top a deep orange, almost
red, farther down a deep yellow, then saffron and
exquisite shades of pink, then cream, then white.
The water itself is milk-white, steaming at the top,
and pattering and splashing like the fountains in
gardens. This is at the top of the forest; the most
wonderful colouring is at the southwest corner, above
the petrified wood, and running through it. The
fountain basins here are as regular as if chiselled by
hand; the colours are pink, salmon, dark and light
purple, white, cinnamon.
' The Upper Basin. — The blue colour of the water

^T. 28] THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS I 73
— the photograph — looking for a place to bathe —
the cascades — the variegated tables — marble, ala
baster, etc.
'Friday, Sept. 5th. — Seymour, the artist — Yellow
stone Kelly, Miles's scout, — where the Indians killed.
Crossed Gardiner River — rode up valley of east fork
of Gardiner River, like Black Forest scenery. After
an hour's ride we surmounted the plateau of basalt
(waterfall) at the head of the valley. Then for hours
wound over an undulating country, ridges and mounds,
covered with erratic blocks of granite. The ice action
quite remarkable, showing that the country has been
covered with ice and not simply a local glacier;
grand stream, with chalcedony, many agates ; elk-
heads and horns of deer and buffalo scattered every
where. Then began descent through valleys of pine
and poplar ; camp waiting in a meadow, open pastures,
animals turned loose. Only 2.30; ramble after lunch ;
rocks, roses, squirrels. Jack went to look for an
antelope, failed. O that bacon! Dark at 7.30; bed
by 8.30.
' Saturday, 6th. — Awoke at five, thermometer in
tent 36° ; outside the ground was covered with frost,
ice in dishes and on creek, wash cold.^ Bacon again !
Tomatoes. The ceremony of packing. Three miles
to Lower Creek — not time to visit the Fall. Struck
up the long ridge of Mount Washburne, over hillside
and forest ; long ride, seven hours in saddle. Andy's
shooting — a prairie chicken. When riding three
paces behind him suddenly fired, . . . [?] our horses
into the air, a diabolical smell — the skunk! Our
camp at end of long meadow in full view of Wash
burne, the usual streamlet.
' Visit to the Falls and Canyon ; the evening light
1 They were about six thousand feet above sea level.

174

HENRY drummond [1879

the most favourable ; two things — the colouring from
an esthetic standpoint, the erosion from a geological.
The section at camp in stream : a devitrified obsidian
(pumiceous base, abundantly filled with currant-like
fragments of the original obsidian), resting on perlite
and covered by an obsidian tuff. The great in
terest of the march lay in tracing the granite boul
ders right up the flanks of Washburne. The ice
sheet must have been of enormous thickness, and not
merely local. The tracks of the glacier flow and wind
round the mountain, and are caught up again in the
long plateau traversed the day before along the east
fork of Gardiner River.
' Sabbath, 7th. — Remained encamped all day, spent
the day wandering around the Canyon, the magnificent
timber like a gentleman's park for thousands of acres,
soft yellow glades, withered flowers, one herb like the
maidenhair, only with a thicker stem. The N. T.
'The Squirrel; Jack off hunting, Andy ditto; the
cranes. Return to camp. " There's Jack," a minut
est figure in the distance — " Has he got anything? "
Nothing — another week on bacon ! " Something
white ? A crane ? What — a sack. What have you
got?" "Elk!" The unpacking — the choice bits,
the supper !
' The Canyon.^ — The most grand and memorable
spectacle of my life, the inconceivable beauty and
glory of the colouring; a colossal gorge zigzagging;
green, foaming, spraying, roaring river. The sides of
the gorge — not clean-cut, but carved into alcoves, pin
nacles, spires, of the most picturesque and fantastic
forms. The original colour of the rock is pure, daz
zling white from river to crest, but little of the white
1 That is, the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River at the south foot of
Mount Washburne.

^T. 28] THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS 175
is left save here and there a brilliant scar. The first
weathering is a pale lemon yellow, deepening into
saffron, sulphur, and through all the shades of yellow
into the deepest orange. Then another gradation is
the most tender rose-pink into vermilion and dark
blood-red. The tone of the whole is a rich cream
colour, deepening into russets and yellows and oranges
— a kind of artificial sunlight. The distance tones
were first in the yellows, a faint spring green ; and the
usual purple, shading into the deepest blue of distance
as the canyon lost itself in the distant gloom, at
the foot of Mount Washburne. The Fall — the lush
green at the cauldron, the purple mists, the roar, the
emerald green at the crests succeeded by dazzling
spray — for three hundred and fifty feet. The lichen
colours, brown here and there. The dark green pines
mantling the whole, and straggling here and there in
single file right down to the water's edge.
' Geological. — The rock is rhyolite — a solid mass
of volcanic formation. Then the interest of the vast
erosion, first, of the stream ; second, of the weather,
frost, and jointing along the sides. All through the
forest and on all the plateau around the great blocks
of granite and gneiss are records of the glacier age.
The three elements combine: fire, water, and ice.
'Monday, the Sth of September. — Followed trail
through magnificently timbered country with parks,
glades, and streamlets, then across prairie country to
head of Alum Creek — deposits, effluvium [from]
steaming springs, sulphur mountain, Solfataras. Trail
through timber again. Over the Divide. Down steep
forest-clad hill to the east fork of Madison River.
Fire Hole River. Through long swamp — timber
again. Camp in glade by river-side. Seven hours in
saddle. Lunch, bathe, bear, theological discussion

176 HENRY DRUMMOND [1879
with Jack. Geology, volcanic all day. Obsidian
blocks everywhere; schistose obsidian.
' Tuesday, Sept. 9th. — Broke camp about 8.30, mag
nificent ride through glade and forest, crossed Fire
Hole River several times : clean turf banks, meadow,
o-reen and golden grass. Puff of steam here and there
through the forest, white patches of geyser deposit.
Lovely little basin by side of trail, green emerald
water. Then struck through fallen timber — suddenly
the forest opened — an immense glade encircled by
pine mountains, the further end covered with snow.
'Old Faithful. — Notice his spurt at lunch, 1.2 1
P.M. Went up at the hour of next performance.
Precisely at the hour almost, 2.20, he gave a grunt
and then threw up a little water. Visitors rushed
back in alarm. Then at intervals, say at i-| minutes,
he made another feint; then the feints became more
frequent, each succeeding better than the last. Finally
he ran up twenty or thirty feet and then, as if climbing
on the shoulders of this he ran up his column to the
full height. This began about 2.30, and the maximum
was reached about 2.31 ; it remained at this height,
say one minute, and then gradually lessened. The
eruption lasted till 2.36^ — about 4-|- minutes. Ap-
pearaitce — in the distance a low flat mound appears
rugged as you approach it, then as you get near you
imagine it to be made of coral-madrepore. A little coral
island, — on narrower inspection urns, pools, basins,
fantastic shapes, every conceivable design and colour,
— pink, yellow, orange, umber. Many of the pools
contain water — veiy pure — a faint but perceptible
taste of sulphuretted hydrogen. One or two orifices
in the mound were steaming — small caverns as large
as a coal-scuttle, some of them too hot to hold the
hand in. The " valleys " along the flank of the little

^T. 28] THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS 1 77
island were made of tesselated pavement of imma
ture [ ?] workmanship, like sections cut smooth from
brain coral. Some, nearly all, held little lakes from
the size of a walnut shell upwards, with pink bottoms.
Others had a little rivulet trickling down. At one
side quite a little stream wound down to the river a
hundred and fifty yards off. The bed of this rill was
covered with fragments of silicified wood. The ridges
were made of masses of pearls without the tesselated
look ; ruggedly smoothed lumps, bosses like botryoidal.
After the eruption the whole sides were running with
rills which sparkled in the sun gloriously, as they
trickled from basin to basin.
' Sitting on the mound after making notes, a rhythmic
thud at one minute interval. Hot to the seat. The
orifice of the geyser — a roughly oval hole, large enough
to let two tolerably stout men slip through. Noise
like a barn threshing-mill, giving occasional explosions,
water coming up but not over edge, cloud of steam,
sides lined with dark orange, slimy coating, with a pale
sulphurous colour round the margin. The moment
the lip was reached the beautiful madrepore formation
began. Two handkerchiefs and a hat recovered, my
handkerchief forfeited.

3-15

boil in tube.

3.20

spurted thick about 5 ft. in air, boiling and increasing.

3-2ii

spurted thick about 5 ft. in air.

3-22|-

spurted twice, once about 5 ft., once 3.

3-23

spurted once about 5 ft.

3-25

spurted once about 2 ft.

3-26

thick stream, 5 ft.

3-27

thick stream, 5 ft.

3-28

very thin shower, 4 ft.

3-29

shower, 12 ft.

3-29I-

shower rising.

3-291

shower rose to full height and continued at this maximum, till

178 HENRY DRUMMOND [1879
3.30I then dwindled but action brisk, till
3.35 the last half minute steam alone but in a thick mass. The
geyser steams always.
' Old Faithful occupies a very prominent position on
a white sinter plateau raised above the valley and look
ing down on all the other geysers. Three extinct
geysers surround it at fifty paces, and another lies to
the west the same distance, which was slowly steaming.
These four attendants are all perfectly symmetrical, of
the same size, and equidistant.^ Vast pine-woods
encircle the whole geyser basin, and straggling islands
of timber are scattered through the whole undulating
valley. Here and there white colour of steam, now
one in full blast.
4.30 " there it goes " — signs.
4.32 low spurt.
4.34 low spurt.
4.37 high.
4-3 7f higher.
4.38 up to max., lasts 4 minutes, very high.
5.39, date of next eruption, seen from Beehive — 3^
minutes. First water faUs back into funnel — after
that the temperature is so high that when pressure
is relieved it turns into steam [?]. Geysers damming
up river with sinter. Springs on both sides meeting.
The river banks simply show sections of geyserite.
Overlapping curves. Mounds raised by overflow from
the basin. Hyalite (or millerite ?) the usual (?) struct
ure in Old Faithful. Took temperature of two springs,
ISt, 185° F., 2d, 200° F. Boiling briskly. Appear
ance an irregular tube, tawny, ugly throats. A third
with a thin crust of ice floating on the top, such was
the appearance. The water was very deep and of the
most perfect crystal, blue in shade — green in sun.^
1 Here follows a rough sketch. 2 -with this a rough sketch.

Mt. 28] THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS 1 79
' Explored the Giantess, the Beehive, the Jokers [?].
Played at stopping up a would-be geyser. Different
forms: mermaid grottos, ulcers, gashes, gaping
mouths with horrid yellow umber lips; grunting,
snorting, hissing, bubbling, gurgling, spluttering. A
pink tube, six feet — pink coral. Rugged coral sides,
like a cancer.
'Wednesday, Sept. lo. — Up at 6, wash in creek.
Elk and tomatoes. Old Faithful played at 6.26, a
very fine display, and again at 7.24 ; just saw him
finish, at 7.25 to .27; saw two minutes' play, not at
maximum. Examined the Castle, Vesuvius, the
Grotto, the Punch-bowl, the Cancer. Adjoining
this, a deep grotto, with dentate or serrate margin —
orange fringe all around. At the side of this a blis
tered crust — about ten feet diameter, with five ragged
holes, fined with sulphur and black mineral [?], three
steaming, one little pond still, and fringed with deli
cate lace [?] work. The fourth boiling, and splutter
ing boiling water, and gurgling. One of these mouths
has raised, pouting lips.^
' Old Faithful played at 8.30 and 9.30 precisely. The
Castle in full blast, 9.15.
' Collecting diatoms, heard shouting, two men holler
ing ; great spluttering and tremendous clouds of steam.
Suddenly they ran down bank and struck across river
— up to knees at least. " The Castle ! " Reached it
breathless, thinking it was as short in its period as Old
Faithful— played on and on and on. Booming. Party
came here on Monday evening ; Castle has not spurted
since then. Hats in, thrown high in the air, hand
kerchiefs, stones ; showered out.^
1 Rough sketch given of ' a very perfect form of geyser, perfectly round, shallow
saucer, with an irregular funnel mouth —boiling.' Three other larger sketches.
2 Sketch of ' outline of Castle against blue sky, the rainbow, the whole sides
running with steam.'

l8o HENRY DRUMMOND ['879
' After lunch walked on to examine the remaining
geysers: Fan, Grave, Sawmill, etc. Saw Sawmill in
action. Snow came on as we were emerging from the
basin. Walked to the half-way group. There over
taken by pack train. Struck ^ camp in a bay of the
wood overlooking geyser basin (lower). Went off to
examine many lively geysers.
' The Mud Geyser. — The most comical thing in
nature! On a summit of a pine grove — grass and
wild flowers. You come to a low oval basin, marked
out by an undulating rim of some dazzling white ma
terial. The one-half of the basin consists of a pink,
sun-cracked mud of the consistency of the finest
stucco — not a flat surface, but a score of large mole
hills, each made of concentric cones, the rings quite
well marked, and each terminating in a perfectly round
mouth, like a miniature crater. Here and there the
cone is mverted, leaving a round hole. One or two of
them are steaming faintly, and a dusting of sulphur is
sprinkled over one or two of them. One or two of the
craters are also smoking, hissing briskly. The major
ity are stiff and cold. The pink colour is exceedingly
beautiful and delicate, very pale — a mere tinge — yet
quite decided in its tone. The other half of the pond
is altogether deposit. It consists of the purest white
mud, boiling as briskly as the viscous nature of the
material will permit. The spurts come up in little
domes, some only the size of a thimble-top, some a
walnut, a teacup, a sugar-bowl. They blow up like a
soap-bubble, quite suddenly, and burst in a tiny foun
tain. The rings which they make in falling remain
fixed round each, so that each bubble has a number of
concentric circles surmounting it, giving a very pecul
iar symmetrical pattern, which adorns the entire sur-
1 Pitched?

^T. 28] THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS l8l
face of the geyser. ^ Sometimes, instead of one bubble
coming up like a cup, half a dozen little thimbles
dance up, each with its little rings around it. A
small island of solid mud stands to one side. This is
shaped like a small model of a mountain in stucco,
and the dancing bells aU around it give a very curious
effect. ' But the most pecuhar thing is at the junction of the
solid pink with the white. The greatest heat is appar
ently at the white end, and the pond is slowly becom
ing solid. The mud near the junction is much thicker,
and the spurts in the thicker crust much more con
strained ; the noise here is loudest, the motion slowest,
but the patterns infinitely more amusing. Here is
one circle of mud as big as a large dinner-plate ; a
ring or two, like a thick rope, surrounds it. These
ropy rims are so thick that the power below can
scarcely destroy them, and they remain constant for
several minutes at a time. The centre of the plate is
the great scene of action. At first there lies upon it
a little shape of jelly, like a custard just turned out of
its cup. Suddenly it is heaved up in the air. A
ragged mass of mud hangs in the air for a moment,
and then as suddenly another custard is lying on the
plate, just like the last. Another moment of pause,
the bottom of the plate is slowly knocked out once
more, the custard disappears, and this time a pear lies
on the plate. Then another custard, then two. Once
three came all at once. There was a whole basin of
these plates, all going through the same legerdemain
at once. This was going on in a small bay formed by
the hardened crust, standing two feet above the sur
face. I was standing on this crust (I am now), within
an inch of the edge of the boiling custards, right in
1 Rough sketch.

1 82 HENRY DRUMMOND [1879
the centre of the pond. One spurt of mud lit on my
hand from the next bay, where the most interesting
operation of all was going on. This bay was six feet
long by two and a half, yet it only contained four
spouters. The rest were all closed up. One of them
deceived me for a long time. I thought he was
stopped up, too, but he suddenly began to grunt and
throw up pellets of mud five feet in the air. One fel
low was shut up, all but a hole the size of your finger.
He was a little dome of plastic mud, and every bubble
of steam made him heave an inch or two, so that he
was riding up and down like a ship at anchor, or a
buoy in a ground swell, all the time. The little orifice
was alternately being stopped up and blown out, and
the grunting he kept up was tragic to behold. The
colour of these last was the delicate pink which made
the sight a most beautiful one, and quite destroyed
one's notion of a mud geyser. A faint steam was
rising all the time. The sky was the most exquisite
blue, the snow-shower of the past hour having cleared
off the smoke from the burning forests, which filled
the air all the past week.
'The symmetry of the bubbles is the next most note
worthy thing. The rings are perfectly formed and
rise like mounds.^ The thickened spurts obviously
mark the declining energy of the spring. The mud
is thicker, the ebullition less brisk, and here and there
in the " bays " has already become quite stiff and im
pervious to the passage of steam. One plate or cone
became silent and quite stopped up apparently while
I was standing by ; it was the one closest to the solid
mud behind, and was the next in natural course to
shut up.
'The white colour resembles molten porcelain or
^ A sketch.

'*^T.28] THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS 1 83
china. The present circuit of the pond is about 150
(paces) yards, but it is evident that at the solid end
has once been much larger. The grassless part equals
150 yards. The independence of all the geysers 
each on its own hook — sometimes one boiling, three
feet off another perfectly quiet, next one another
roarer.i Jack assures me that in [?]'s time the whole
pond was like meerschaum. The last escort made
pipes, bowls, ornaments. Next morning they were
all cracked.
' On the way back to camp shot a skunk ; immense
brushlike tail, slow motion ; only measure of defence
the smell. Small black head, glossy black fur; skin, 20
cents. Supper, mock-turtle soup, brandered elk steak,
bread, and tea. Andy cut down two trees for fire
wood. Put one bodily on fire. Intense cold. The
wolf barking, the red squirrel cracking in the wood
below. 'Thursday, Sept. nth. — Thermometer at 5.30,
outside tent, 19°. Everything froze stiff. Breakfast
of elk, green corn, jam, coffee, hard tack, bread, and
more of Andy's stories. " It does a fellow good to get
out a string of oaths — four or five miles long — to be
continued on the next page." The plain before the
camp bounded by fine forest, volumes of steam coming
up everywhere around. The white puffs in the dis
tant wood, the great clouds over the main geyser
group, the cold condensing the steam rapidly. Counted
fifty from the trail a few yards from camp. Soon
struck Madison River — peculiarity of flow, no flood
mark, uniform banks of turf, like travelling through
Hyde Park heavily timbered. The Madison Canyon
— very fine scenery, wide-timbered glen, splendid
crags here and there. Trail crosses river four or
* Here a sketch-map of all these mud geysers.

184 HENRY DRUMMOND [1879
five times. After passing through canyon crossed
and camped on meadowy bank by a small clump of
firs. Lunch.
'At 3 or 3.30 went hunting antelope with Jack ;
struck through timber for a mile and a half, crossing
little prairie. Abundant sign everywhere. Sign of
antelope in timber is unique : " been down there ? "
Struck high prairie; soon sighted game; made fine
stalk behind clump of trees ; Jack to fire, for camp
wanted meat : threw down hat, crawled on belly thirty
yards under bush and fallen timber; fired at doe on
the watch. Herd (unseen till now) all started and ran.
In one hundred and fifty yards the doe fell dead, after
running full speed all that distance. I got a long shot
with Andy's cavalry carbine at the retreating herd,
six, with one fine buck, but they were just disappear
ing over the brow of a hill. Sighted game next b)'^ a
watercourse in glade one mile off. On nearing the
place crept up a slope and saw game two hundred
yards away. Hat off, down on belly; wormed through
the grass till within a hundred and fifty yards ; wind
blowing right from me to them. Fired. As usual, all
started. Jack ran to the right to catch them as they
ran back, I to where they would round the hill. Pres
ently the magnificent buck dashed past at full speed —
flying shot, must have missed. Fired at a doe coming
behind — must have struck her originally, as, although
Jack fired at her, three bullets were in her when she
dropped. Jack had shot another through the fore legs,
which I killed with my revolver. During the retreat
Jack surprised a second herd and kiUed one more.
Total, four antelopes — all does.
' Note. — The antelope is a prairie animal. Witness
in the first place its splendid speed. It is the fleetest
of all animals, and to see a herd of six or eight dash-

^T. 28] THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS 1 85
ing along the prairie is a sight to keep the keenest
sportsman from touching his trigger. Powers of
speed like the antelope's would be useless in Switzer
land. Nevertheless, they do inhabit some districts
which are essentially timber lands, but they make
their home in the long grassy glades with which nearly
every forest in the West is studded, or in the small rich
prairies of rising ground, interspersed among the
woods. For another thing, their fur is altogether
inappropriate to forest life. If you put your fingers
into it and pull gently you can pull the whole hair out
by handfuls. A forest animal requires a fur which is
well rooted in the skin to resist the rough friction of
the trees, brush, and especially the sharp prongs and
spines of fallen timber.
'Tenacity of Life. — Jack's first shot entered at the
breast, and ploughed clean through .the body, coming
out within an inch of the tail. The animal, however,
bounded off as if nothing unusual had happened ; ran
down hill at full speed along with its companions for
one hundred and fifty yards, and then dropped stone
dead. Another, which was shot through both legs,
hobbled along a considerable distance like a kangaroo,
using the hind legs and the breast, until I shot her
dead through the neck with my revolver. The effect
of the cry, " Hoo, hoo," in making them turn round
even when scared. On the plains they feed with
buffalo in countless herds. Their fur is almost use
less, for the reason mentioned, but their skin is valu
able for gloves, gauntlets, etc. The bucks are the
most difficult to stalk. They always manage to get
into a place in the herd where no stalk is possible.
'Friday, Sept. 12th. — Broke camp precisely at
ei'^ht. Ice outside tent, sponge inside frozen into a
bo"'ulder, but the night much warmer than the preced-

1 86 HENRY DRUMMOND [1879
ing. Crossed the Madison, and followed through
woods and glades for several miles the general course
of the river, though often out of sight of its banks.
The trail lay over an ancient river-terrace (perfectly
well marked — compare terraces on Madison between
Virginia City and Bozeman), which made the riding
easy. After leaving the river struck through timber
with prairies and abundant game, antelope, everywhere
for twelve miles, when we crossed a fork of the Madi
son. The trail next led up the low Divide, across the
main chain of the Rocky Mountains through the
Tangee [?] Pass. The ascent is very gentle, and it is
almost inconceivable that this should represent the
Divide between the Atlantic [?] and Pacific waters.
On the Madison side of the water-shed we passed a
splendid beaver-dam, where the beavers are still work
ing. Jack gave us the natural history of the beaver
as we crossed the pass. After a gentle descent of a
mile or two we left the so-called waggon-road and fol
lowed the brook — the source of Snake River — down
to Henry's Lake. Camped about a couple of miles
from the lake by the creek's side, and just below a
very fine beaver-dam, which we had the opportunity to
examine. It is either now in use, or has been very re
cently abandoned. Home by three o'clock, seven hours
in saddle. Lounging [?] Creek here is full of trout
at grasshopper season, but now apparently is empty.
On Henry's Lake a company of soldiers are encamped,
for protection from the Indians. A short stone's
throw from our camp I stumbled on a rough trench or
breastwork. Jack says it was thrown up in 1877 by
General Howard, who was encamped here several days
when chasing the Nez Perce Indians. They were only
one day ahead, and sent back a band who captured his
baggage-train. General Howard followed the Indians

^T. 28] THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS 1 87
right over our route, but they were not captured till
General Miles headed them in Clark's Fork (of Yel
lowstone ?).^ Twenty-seven white soldiers were killed
during the short resistance, and some threescore Indian
braves — the number captured was three hundred and
fifty. ' We saw lodge poles frequently along the route, but
these probably belonged to a tribe of Bannock Indians
who were camped a few hundred yards from this spot
only this week. They had been up the Madison from
their reservation below Camas Prairie after antelope.
They are supposed to be friendly. We shall likely
overtake them to-morrow or next day.
' Before dinner strolled up the creek to examine the
beaver-dam more thoroughly. The creek is of the
usual character, soft turf banks of uniform depth, a
few inches, and pebbly bottom. An even flow wets
even banks, like a shallow mill-lade. Breadth quite
within a very good running jump. We traced it up
from camp to the first dam. Poplar trees and willow
brush fringed the ground, and these had been cut
through and dammed across the stream. Pebbles and
mud had been baked down upon the whole. The
dam, therefore, was a sort of wicker work, with rough,
big base, and more compact top of interlacing willow,
mud, and stones, formed into a stiff, impervious em
bankment. Along the sides of the streamlet the log
stumps were left standing about two to two and a half
feet from the ground, just gnawed off where the animal
could best reach with his teeth. This dam extended
far across the little valley beyond the bounds of the
stream a hundred [?] , and the result was the forma
tion of a swamp of quite considerable size. Here
peat formed. The beaver, as a geological agent.
1 Or Clark's Fork, south of Flathead Lake.

1 88 HENRY DRUMMOND [1879
The situation of the dam was admirably chosen. The
opening valley, opening out from the hills, a thin patch
of timber on either side to furnish the material for
building.' Here the diary abruptly closes, though the expedi
tion lasted for another fortnight. Sir Archibald Geikie
writes of it: —
' In this journey, thrown into closest contact with
him under the most varied conditions of travel, includ
ing even sometimes hardship and risk, I learned to
appreciate more than ever the beauty of his character.
His singularly placid and equable temperament was
like a kind of perpetual sunshine. Nothing seemed
ever to discompose him or overshadow that winning
smile that used to fascinate the wild men among whom
we were thrown. And yet he was singularly impres
sionable. The grandeur of the scenery through which
we passed appealed powerfully to his imagination, and
his eyes would flash with delight as each new land
scape unfolded itself before us.
' He looked on everything with the eye of a poet
first, and of a man of science afterwards. The human
interests appealed to him before he began to dissect
and compare and classify. But the marvellous interest
of the geological phenomena which unfolded them
selves as we rode on through those primeval solitudes
roused his enthusiasm sometimes to the highest pitch.
' Drummond's keen sense of humour was another
feature in his nature that came out vividly during that
memorable journey. How he would draw out our
attendants over the camp-fire at night, getting each
to cap the other's thrilling and incredible tales of
adventure ! I would sometimes watch him playing

^¦^•28] THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS 1 89
them as if they were the trout or salmon he was
so fond of alluring in the streams of his own coun
try. And how he would laugh over their exagger
ations, and suggest possible omissions and lapses of
memory ! '
After their return to Scotland Drummond wrote a
very warm letter of thanks to his chief : —

To Professor Archibald Geikie
'Possilpark, Glasgow, Nov. 22, 1879.
'. . . For my part, I feel the Western expedition
has been a very solid gain, and I know it will be
helpful to me in very many ways all my life. The
short interval since coming home has been suffi
cient to strike out of the picture all that was
merely incidental ; and now the perspective of
the whole begins to shape itself. The whole of
America impresses me now as a revelation — a
revelation in civilisation, in politics, in human
nature ; and if not a revelation in geology, a con
firmation, elevation, and consolidation, which is
more than equivalent. I feel the gain in every
department of my work. . . .
' For all your other kindnesses to me I cannot
attempt to thank you. I am sure I would find
it not only difficult, but impossible, to express
how much of all that I have enjoyed and learned
during these past months I have owed to you.
You will allow me at least this reference to it'

CHAPTER VIII
DIARIES OF TRAVEL. — II. EAST CENTRAL AFRICA
In the year 1859 David Livingstone, invested with
the powers of a British consul, led a government ex
pedition to the Zambezi. His instructions were ' to
extend our knowledge of the geography and of the
mineral and agricultural resources of Eastern and
Central Africa; to improve our acquaintance with
the inhabitants, and to endeavour to engage them
to apply themselves to industrial pursuits and to the
cultivation of their lands, with a view to the produc
tion of raw material to be exported to England in
return for British manufactures.' It was hoped that
' by encouraging the natives to occupy themselves in
the development of the resources of the country, a
considerable advance might be made towards the
extinction of the slave-trade.' Upon this expedition
Livingstone discovered Nyasa, an enormous fresh
water lake some three hundred and fifty miles long by
fifteen to forty-four broad. It is surrounded by high
tablelands, fertile, and bearing a considerable popula
tion, whose material and moral interests Livingstone
left as his last bequest to his countrymen. ' I have
opened the door,' he said ; ' I leave it to you to see
that no one closes it after me.' The task was taken
up by three British Churches. The Free Church of
Scotland, under the leadership of Dr. Stewart, founded
a station, which they named Livingstonia,^ at the south
1 The United Presbyterian Church joins with the Free Church of Scotland in
the Livingstonia Mission, paying the salary of Dr. Laws, the head of the Mission.
190

EAST CENTRAL AFRICA I9I
end of the Lake; but they afterwards transferred it
to Bandawe, about two hundred miles farther north.
The Established Church of Scotland founded a station
at Blantyre, in the Shire Highlands between the Lake
and the Zambezi. The Universities Mission of the
Church of England began work on the east of the
Lake. These missions did not confine themselves to
preaching, but among their agents are doctors and
nurses, male and female teachers, masons, carpenters,
and gardeners. About the same time a few British
traders began the cultivation of coffee and certain
cereals in the neighbourhood of Blantyre. But all
these settlements were hundreds of miles from the
coast ; and, in order to convey their supplies, as well
as to develop a commerce strong enough to supplant
the slave-trade which devastated the region, a carrying
agency was needed, with stations on the Zambezi, the
Shire, and the Lake. In 1878, therefore, the African
Lakes Company, or Corporation as it now is, was
formed by Glasgow gentlemen who were in sympathy
with the missions and with Livingstone's policy of
developing industries for the natives and keeping from
them spirits, gunpowder, and arms. The Company
was not started for gain; or for gain only in the sense
that commercial soundness is the one solid basis on
which to build up an institution that is to permanently
benefit others. A large amount of private capital has
been expended by this Company; yet, during the years
of its noble enterprise, it has reinvested in Africa
all that it has earned there. In a short time it
founded twelve trading stations, manned by twenty-
five Europeans and many native agents. It ran a
Old Livingstonia, at the south end of the Lake, was by Cape Maclear. The name
has been transferred to the Livingstonia Training Institution at the head of the
Lake, near Mount Waller (p. 205), three thousand feet above the Lake.

192 HENRY DRUMMOND [1883
steamer up the Shire, and another upon Lake Nyasa.
It started a coffee plantation and other agricultural
works. ' For the first time on the large scale it taught
the natives the meaning and blessings of work. It
acted as a check upon the slave-trade, prevented inter
tribal strife, helped to protect the missionaries in time
of war, and in short, modest as the scale was on which
it worked, and necessarily limited as were its oppor
tunities, it was for years the sole administering hand
in this part of Africa.' ^
In 1883 Mr. James Stevenson, F.R.G.S., was chair
man of the Company. It occurred to him that it
would be important to have a scientific examination
of the countries extending to Lake Tanganyika, and
this he thought Henry Drummond could carry out.
In June, Drummond went to Crieff to meet Mr.
Stevenson, and, leave of absence having been granted
to him by the College Committee, the plan of the ex
pedition was arranged. To Mr. and Mrs. Stuart
'Glen Elm Lodge, June 16, 1883.
'. . . I am going off to Africa next Wednesday.
I am going right into the heart of the country to
make a scientific exploration of the Lake Nyasa
and Tanganyika region. I shall be away a long
time, probably a year or more. The whole scheme
has come upon me like an avalanche, and I am in
a whirl of preparation.'
He crossed the continent to Brindisi, and took
steamer to Alexandria, his travelling companion being
the Rev. James Bain, of the Free Church Livingstonia
' Tropical Africa, p. 82.

^T-3i] EAST CENTRAL AFRICA 1 93
Mission. They found traces of the bombardment on
every hand, and saw the battle-field of Tel-el-Kebir,
'still thick with cartridges; the desert all round is
streaked with the marks of gun-carriages as if our
cannon had rolled over them yesterday.'

To His Brother
'S.S. Ravenna, Red Sea, July 2d, 1883.
' I take a full course of sea-bathing, and hope to
land in Africa as strong as a lion. My beard
grows mightily, although I am a terrible object
to be in the cabin of a P. and O. mail. A lot of
Indian Government agriculturists are on board,
and I am getting terribly wise in tea, coffee,
cinchona, and spices. If my wisdom can be
transferred to practice, I really think the Lakes
Company may yet get back my expenses. We
reach Aden to-morrow. The Pole Star is sinking
fast, and in a day or two I shall sight the Southern
Cross.'
At Aden, Bain and Drummond were joined by Dr.
and Mrs. Scott, of the Livingstonia Mission, and
Messrs. Hedderwick and Henderson, of Blantyre.
They had a bad voyage to Zanzibar through the mon
soon. Drummond crossed the equator in an ulster. At
Zanzibar he had his first sight of tropical vegetation,
and was fascinated with the spectacle of the bazaars.
On July 26, after a couple of days at Mo9ambique,
they reached Quilimane, in Portuguese East Africa.
Hospitably entertained there by Mr. and Mrs. Shearer,
of the Lakes Company, they started up the Qua-qua
in shallow boats — ' a splendid week, like a continual
picnic, with gipsy breakfasts and teas by the river

194 HENRY DRUMMOND [1883
bank' — to where a portage of five miles brought them
to the Zambezi and the Company's steamer.
From Quilimane Drummond kept a full journal and
also wrote regularly to his home. In Tropical Africa
he has given a charming sketch of his travels, of
the general nature of the region he crossed, and of
the geological discoveries which he made upon it.
Many of even the most finished sentences and para
graphs of his volume have been printed just as they
stand in his daily notes. But his diary contains a
great deal of interesting matter which he did not
publish ; and besides giving this and a general out
line of his journeys, I have felt it due to his memory
to state, a little more fully than he has allowed him
self to do, the interesting and original observations he
made upon the structure of the African continent.^
On the voyage up the Qua-qua, Drummond noticed
the ibises perching upon the trees — 'which struck me
as a peculiarity in waders.' ' The only annoyance was
the mosquitoes, which were very numerous, but their
bark, I honestly confess for my part, I find worse than
their bite.'
'A geological feature of considerable interest was
observed about half a mile from Mogurrumba [about
fifty miles from the sea]. Since leaving Quilimane
we had seen nothing but mud, — mud black, mud
grey, mud dry, mud wet, mud eroded, mud in slopes,
mud banks, mud channels — everywhere mud, mud,
mud. But, in a high, clean-cut bank, where the river
curved and deepened, this monotony was broken by
a dark-coloured boss of what appeared to be rock. It
1 Tropical Africa was published in 1884. Since then many editions have been
sold of it; besides 5000 of a small volume of extracts, entitled Nyasaland. A
German translation, Inner-Afrika, appeared at Gotha in 1890 ; second edition,
1891. Translations into some other European languages have also been made,
but I have not seen them.

•^T. 30 EAST CENTRAL AFRICA

195

was but a few yards in breadth, rising out of the water
to a height ^ of some six or eight feet, where it was
again lost in the universal enswathement of clay.
Had the clay been anything else, and had the place
been almost anywhere else but Africa, I should have
pronounced it a basalt dyke. But here this was out
of the question, and with some expectancy I watched
the natives pole towards the spot. A blow with the
hammer revealed, beneath the blackened crust, a dull
reddish rock, porous in texture, and considerably
decomposed. There was no doubt whatever as to
its nature. It was coral. Sponges were scattered
through it in considerable quantity, as well as other
organisms of smaller size. Possibly this may be the
old fringing reef of the continent. Nowhere else in
the Qua-qua have I seen or heard of any similar
exposure. Senor Nunes, the English consul at Quili
mane, told me that coral reefs appeared in the Zambezi
delta at two places. Is there any relation between
these three, and any coincidence of general outline
between this ancient reef and the first inland belt of
raised country — the first plateau?
'Aug. 7th, 1883. — Two or three miles above Shu-
panga^ I noticed from the steamer two or three thin
strata of what appeared to be sandstone rising above
the water-line. We had followed the exposure only
for a few hundred yards when a fine flock of guinea-
fowl appeared at the water's edge, at which we fired,
and stopped the steamer to pick up the slain. I had
thus time to bring on board three specimens — the
first a very fine grained sandstone; the second a red
dish marly sandstone also very fine; and the third a
somewhat more highly siliceous sandstone of a brick
red colour through which were scattered small peb-
1 On the Zambezi.

196 HENRY DRUMMOND [1883
blets of quartz. These deposits were buried under
ten or fifteen feet of sandy alluvium. They are only
visible for a short distance, and if the river had been
two feet higher, would have been entirely concealed.
I kept a close look-out upon the banks all day, but
saw no trace of rock until the custom-house near the
mouth of the Shire was reached. Near there two or
three low conical hills make their appearance, a fine
artificial section being obtained immediately behind
the custom-house. It is a pure white quartz; not
quartzite, but vein-quartz apparently. Distinct traces
of a matrix are visible in the section — in the shape of
small granitic or mica-schistose masses.
' A low bar of rock seems to stretch across the Shire
at the very mouth, but only a few boulders near the
side were above water. It had the same appearance
as the last.
' At the custom-house I had an opportunity of seeing
the geological structure of the low conical hills which
anticipate the rising ground of the continent. Behind
the rough shanty which serves as the custom-house a
fine section is cut in one of those hills. It seems to
consist almost entirely of a pure white ungranulated
quartz. Traces of a granitic or mica-schistose matrix
appear here and there, but the great mass is essen
tially pure quartz. The next specimens were obtained
at Chinga-Chinga, where we anchored for the night.
I sent a couple of men to the hill on shore to bring
me specimens, which I found to be quartz of the same
kind as at the custom-house. The views all the way
up the river are very fine, the valley being richly
wooded, the trees rising up all the hills, and crossing
even the loftiest parts of Morambala.
'Aug. 8th, 1883. — Our first stop was at the south
end of Morambala,' at the Company's "station " (a grass
1 On the Shire.

^T. 31] EAST CENTRAL AFRICA 1 97
shanty) presided over by a native named "Sam." . . .
Great piles of wood for the steamer are arranged on
the bank opposite Sam's house, and an hour was spent
in loading. I spent the time with my gun and ham
mer in a morning stroll, with a native as guide, through
a mile or two of the adjacent country. On every side
I found a rather poor granitic soil, with boulders of
granite scattered everywhere. It is a coarse grey
variety. ' It was about two hours' steam from Sam's when the
natives signalled to stop for the projected visit to
the hot springs. We started in single file, headed by
two natives, one of whom carried a short sword with
which he assisted in clearing a path through the long
reeds lining the bank. We waded straight inland for
a few hundred yards through grass and reeds which
were often far over our heads, when we struck a small
footpath running parallel with the flank of Moram
bala. This we followed through a country rich with
shrubs, trees, and wild flowers, for about a couple of
miles, when we reached the springs or spring, for there
is only one. (Our exact time was twenty-five minutes'
hard walking.) There is nothing of the geyser-like
character about this spring. It is a little spring of the
usual kind, bursting up among the granite pebbles,
and, but for its temperature and chemical composition,
might be the head-waters of a highland burn, or one
of those exquisite fountains which bubble up among
the granite hills of Arran. Steam was being given
off in small quantities, and a strong smell of sulphu
retted hydrogen announced the presence of the min
eral water at some little distance. Unfortunately,
neither of my thermometers registered over 150°, so
that I dared not risk them in the water, which was
plainly considerably above that temperature. Proba-

198 HENRY DRUMMOND [1883
bly Livingstone's figure, 170° Fah., expresses the exact
truth. We found it impossible to hold a finger in
the water for a single moment; but in a pool some
twenty yards beneath the opening of the spring we
enjoyed a very agreeable bath. . . . The taste reminds
one of some of the home mineral waters, such as
Bridge of Allan, the sulphurous taste not being dis
agreeably strong. The position of the spring in
Ravenstein's map is decidedly too far north. It is
quite a mile or two from the end of Morambala.
Morambala is also incorrectly placed, its direction
being not due north and south, but to the west of
north. In the Portuguese map the position is exactly
right.' The only other facts not mentioned in the volume,
which are recounted in the diary, are the tobacco
manufactured by Chipitula, the Shire chief — 'capital
stuff, a fine, mild tobacco, if anything wanting in
strength, but extremely pleasant to those who prefer
the gentler varieties of the weed ; ' the female orna
ment known as the pelele ring, 'a most hideous
fashion, especially in the older women, who wear it
of the largest possible size.
' Conceive of a thick upper lip standing out from
the face like a shelf. Let into this is a metal or ivory
bone cup, its rim flush with the surface of the skin.
The cup lies with its open mouth turned upwards just
underneath the nose,, and suggests a device for receiv
ing the drip from that organ during a cold in the head.
In the case of one old hag the pelele was quite as
large as, and exactly resembled in appearance, the
brim of the lowest segment of a pocket telescope-
drinking-cup.' On August II the party halted at the river-side,
1 Tropical Africa, p. 21.

iET. 31] EAST CENTRAL AFRICA 1 99
where for two seasons Chipitula's people have come
to manufacture salt. The natives tried to hide from
the white men the locality of the soil from which they
extracted the brine ; but a troop of women coming in
laden with the soil, and ' the natives, seeing the clue
to the mystery was in our hands, accepted the situa
tion with great merriment, and a boy was despatched
to conduct us to the spot.
'There are two characteristics of the natives. They
are full of secrets. Of the white man they stand in
constant awe, which in practical matters becomes sus
picion, and makes them continually on their guard in
case he should take some advantage of them. Ac
cordingly they always refuse to give him information
when the object for which the inquiries are asked is
not perfectly patent to them. In this case no amount
of explanation could have given them any satisfaction,
and it would have been impossible to drive the idea
out of their heads that we either wanted to make
salt ourselves or would work some charm upon it
which would spoil the supply for them for all time to
come. The second peculiarity is their fondness for
everything in the shape of a joke. The unexpected
procession of salt-bearers, whose whole appearance
showed that they had only travelled a short distance
at the very moment they were protesting the salt came
from far on the other side of the river, was plainly a
case of " caught," and like children they simply laughed
heartily all round.
' Sunday, Aug. 1 2th. — On the Shire above Ka-
tunga's, the terminus of the steamer's voyage, and
beginning of the road of sixty-five miles up the Shire
cataracts. ' The valley here is fine and rich, and heavy crops
might be expected. On reaching the edge of the val-

200 HENRY DRUMMOND [1883
ley the hills begin to rise at once, and one has a good
climb for the next three-quarters of an hour(.?). The
rock is granite (grey) and gneiss, and a few yards from
the plain the geological eye is refreshed by the sight
of a good, honest whin dyke. It ran right up the hill,
about a yard wide, with the prismatic structure well
developed. I find this only the precursor of many
other dykes, some of considerable size, and the amount
of basalt strewn over the hills almost surprised me. It
seemed to have left its influence on the soil even more
than the granite in many places where the underlying
rock was undoubtedly granite. The stain of iron quite
colours the soil over all these hills. I should describe
these lower hills as consisting of granite and gneiss,
riddled with basalt dykes of the ordinary type. (This
applies to the entire section as far as Blantyre and
onward.) '
On the 13th, in good health, none of them having
had the least touch of fever, the travellers reached
Mandala, a station of the Lakes Company, and were
welcomed by Mr. and Mrs. John Moir to their house,
' the largest for some hundreds of miles on the one
side and some thousands of miles on the other. The
Blantyre mission is a mile off.' At Mandala, Drum
mond had to wait a month, as the Lake Nyasa steamer
had just started for the north and could not return
within that time. He spent part of the interval in the
excursion to Lake Shirwa, or Chilwa, described in
the second chapter of his volume.
His companions were Messrs. Hedderwick and
Henderson of the Blantyre mission ; they had a small
caravan of ten porters, an interpreter, a boy cook,
and a youth whom Drummond constituted his body-
servant.

¦^T. 32] EAST CENTRAL AFRICA 20I
To His Mother
' Sept. 5th, 1883.
'. . . At Zomba on the Sabbath we had a service
for the natives — the real Missionary Record
kind of thing; white men with Bibles under a
spreading tree, surrounded by a thick crowd of
naked natives. We sang hymns from a hymn-book
in the native tongue to Scotch psalm tunes, and
then spoke through an interpreter. Unfortunately
the service was brought to rather an abrupt con
clusion. I had just finished speaking when a
tremendous shriek rose from the crowd, and the
congregation dispersed in a panic in every direc
tion. A huge snake had fallen from the tree
right into the thick of them. A bombsheh could
not have done its work faster, but no one was
hurt, and the beast disappeared like magic be
neath some logs. The snakes rarely do harm,
and I have never heard of a serious case.'
From Mandala, on September loth, he wrote his
father in strong praise of the Blantyre Mission,^ and
of the Company's treatment of the natives, and the
letter concludes thus : —
' Summer has well begun here, but I have never
felt the heat. I am thankful to say also that my
health is better than it has been for a long time,
and I have no doubt I shall be better every way
for this long and strange break. If all goes weH
this expedition will be of life-long service to me
in my college work, and I hope also I may have
a voice some day in our Foreign Missionary Com
mittee.'
1 Tropical Africa, p. 124.

202 PIENRY DRUMMOND [1883
After some delay two hundred carriers were engaged
for the portage to the steamer, and on September 1 1
Drummond started with Dr. and Mrs. Scott and Mr.
Bain. The Lake and the voyage upon it are described
in the second chapter of Tropical Africa. But the
following are some extracts from his journal not in
cluded there : —
' 12th Sept. — Matope being honoured with a place
in the map, we expected to find a centre of some
importance. The reality is a few grass huts on the
river-flat. Its interest for us was centred in two slen
der white poles rising above the largest of the huts —
the Company's store — which we rightly conjectured
to be the masts of the Ilala. We were welcomed
on board by Mr. Harkiss, and found lunch spread for
us inside the hut. The river looked tempting for a
bathe, but in the Shire generally the attentions of the
crocodiles are too assiduous to risk, and this place is
particularly infamous. The natives are afraid even to
stand near the water's edge, and the villagers have to
get all their supplies of water by scooping it up in
pumpkin ladles with a handle of bamboo cane some
eight feet long. I saw the tsetse fly here for the first
time. It is found on the Mandala road as far as the
Luangwa [?]. But for this we should have been helped
on our way by the Mandala donkeys, which dare not
venture in this direction more than a few miles from
Blantyre, though they go to Katunga's with impunity.
We went to sleep to-night amidst a perfect chorus of
hippopotami. Their heads were rising like buoys all
up and down the river — the female a red buoy, the
male black. Shooting at these ironclads with any
ordinary rifle is simply a waste of ammunition. On
her last voyage some got between the Ilala and the

Mr. 32] EAST CENTRAL AFRICA 203
bank while moored close in shore, and at a few paces'
distance two bullets from an " Express " were sent into
parts that ought to have been vital, but the animal
waded coolly ashore and disappeared as if nothing had
happened. Their vocal performances are somewhat
stale by this time, and are by no means musical. First
the creature slowly heaves his square skull above
water and gives vent to a tremendous sniff, as if he
had just caught a severe cold in the head. This
seems to relieve his vocal organs of a considerable
quantity of water, and he straightway proceeds to fill
the vacancy with air. This he draws in with a series
of terrific grunts suggestive of a huge trombone
worked by a blast furnace, and sufficiently startling
when heard at close quarters. The performance con
cludes by the creature raising himself bodily in the
water almost up to the middle, and this achieved he
sinks out of sight with a sudden plunge.
' My beard is now of age, and I look very old and
important. 'Thursday, 13th Sept. — The Ilala was off by
ten, with thirty on board, all told. This included
our own party — Dr. and Mrs. Scott, and Mr. Bain ;
seven boys from Bandawe who had been sent by Dr.
Laws to be vaccinated at Blantyre (the lymph at Ban
dawe being exhausted and smallpox raging); seven
men who are to accompany me to Tanganyika; Jingo,
Chessiemaleera, Mrs. Scott's native maid, Mr. Har
kiss, Mr. Wells, "Bandawe," the "steward," native
deck hands, stokers, etc.
' Two or three hours' steaming brought us to Pimbe,
where limestone is said to be found. It is being
tried just now at Mandala; and as I was anxious to
see it in situ, I got a native to take me to the place.
We struck across a flat at the back of the smafl

204

HENRY DRUMMOND [1883

village for half a mile, and then reached a low range
of hills running almost parallel to the river, and a
few miles in length. We skirted the base of these
for another half-mile and then crossed a small wood
ridge into a dry watercourse occupying a valley of
some little depth. Among the boulders of this dried
" burn " blocks of limestone were scattered in con
siderable quantity. The surrounding rock was gneiss,
but the bed of limestone could not have been far off,
as the hills were of small size. I did not wish to
detain the steamer, or would certainly have followed
it up to the limestone. It is a dazzling white marble
with black mica in small spangles scattered through
it. In the bed of the stream I also found blocks of
fine basalt, and a good deal of quartz was lying all
over the hills.
' 14th Sept. — Towards the head of Lake Pomalombe
the hills approach on the east side. Large trees clothe
the flats along their bases, among them a number of
fan-palms, but few of any size. The few miles of
winding river between Lake Pomalombe and Nyasa
traverse a country of great beauty. The baobab,
tamarind, and fan-palm grow in profusion, and shelter
one or two of the largest villages I have yet seen in
Africa. One of the largest of these is M'Ponda's,
exquisitely situated among trees on the slope of the
west bank. A bold spur of red granite on the oppo
site side runs to within half a mile of the water's edge.
Behind this are ranges of low hills, succeeding one
another in an unbroken line as far as the eye can
reach. A similar range rises in the distance behind
M'Ponda. As it stretches away northward the hills
increase into the mountains which mark the south
west end of Lake Nyasa, and under a spur of which
nestles Livingstonia. We passed through this on a

^T. 32] EAST CENTRAL AFRICA 205
fine afternoon, the cool breeze from the distant lake
tempering the heat and giving to the whole journey
the aspect of a tour among the English lakes. But
for the difference in the vegetation, palpable only at
close quarters, the sudden apparition of a hippopota
mus crossing the steamer's bows, or the spectacle of
a naked savage fishing in his canoe, there is nothing
in the general surroundings of the upper Shire to
remind one that he is out of Europe. The villages,
however, are certainly unlike anything one has ever
seen before. There is one above M'Ponda's, occupy
ing nearly half a mile of the river-bank. The huts
are huddled together for the most part without any
attempt at order, a few being reduced to something
like neatness by a high stockade, which gives in the
distance to the whole the appearance of an English
cottage with its garden. At close quarters, however,
the huts are more like the moss summer-houses one
finds in country seats than human habitations. They
are all of the same toadstool pattern, and miniature
toadstools are often built at the side to form barns.
Smaller toadstools still are built on high piles and
connected with the ground by rude ladders. These
are the fowl-houses, which have to be garrisoned in
this fashion for fear of leopards, wild-cats, hyenas,
and other beasts of prey.
' i6th Sept. — At ten native service in the school;
large turnout of natives and my men from Ilala.
Mr. Harkiss conducted, and gave an address. After
dinner we went to a native funeral.-^ The cortege had
come a couple of miles, and were waiting for the
white men under some trees. They consider it a
great honour to have white men present on such an
occasion, and have been used to it in the mission
1 Cf Tropical Africa, p. 155.

2o6 HENRY DRUMMOND [1883
days. The body — a native in his prime — was merely
wrapped in calico (his own suit), and placed in two
palm-mats, formed into a litter with two rough
branches, and carried by four men. The burial-place
was the wood behind the station at the rise of the
hill. The funeral itself was interesting as a mixture
of the heathen and Christian mode of sepulture. Had
it been in the old days it would have been very dif
ferent, but the whole of the tribes are gradually
" reverting to type." The grave was at least ten feet
deep by eight in length. Some sixty natives stood
round about, an equal number of women remaining in
the background about fifty yards off. Two long strips
of bark were laid across the grave — a copy and
reminiscence of the ropes used by the English. These
ropes were held by four natives while the body was
slowly lowered. This was done with great decorum,
and up to this point the funeral might have been that
of an Englishman conducted by his countrymen.
But now commenced the heathen or native ceremonies.
First, the dead man's two knives were handed down
to the two men who stood beside the corpse in the
unfilled grave. These were placed beside the body.
His bow and arrows followed — the bow with the bow
string cut across with a knife, a most touching symbol.
Then, with some ceremony, his pipe, the long stem
covered with blue and white beads, was laid beside
his head. Next followed a laree calabash cooking;-
vessel, a smaller one with a handle used as a drinking-
cup, two baskets — one large and one small. These
were arrayed about the body. About a foot above
the body a groove was cut in the earth all round,
and into this were then fitted a number of strong
sticks. These were then covered with leaves and
twigs, and all was ready for the soil to be thrown in.

J£r. 32] EAST CENTRAL AFRICA 207
The mounds of earth were slowly scraped in with the
small native hoes, assisted by a shovel borrowed from
the Mission. When all was finished two field baskets
were broken up with an axe and thrown upon the
grave. By this time I began to realise what all this
meant. It was the burial with the dead of all his
earthly possessions. This man probably owned not
another article in the world. I never realised so much
as here the absolute simplicity of the native life. Even
the unsmoked tobacco was to be laid over his ashes.
It was strewn near a small fire kindled under a tree,
but when we tried to find out the exact mode in which
it was to be disposed of the information was refused.
Chimlolo told us they would come back and finish
that part of the ceremony when we had gone. No
word was spoken by the natives of the nature of
a service. They were mostly grave, sober-looking
men in middle life, and the faces of some were
fine and intelligent. A white man's funeral in Scot
land could scarcely have been attended by more intel
ligent-looking men, and one could not help feeling
keenly for them in what they lacked. All the native
graves around had their pots and baskets over them
— some had empty cases from the English — all
holed. ' Chimlolo, on this occasion, was dressed in his best
Sunday clothes, and nothing could illustrate better
the folly of encouraging the natives to don European
garments. He had on an ancient and discoloured
tweed coat over his naked body, a pair of rough pilot-
cloth trousers over his naked feet, and on his head a
faded green helmet, which bore the legend "31st Lan
arkshire Rifle Volunteers." Yesterday, with his fine
frame wrapped in his robes, he looked every inch a
chief. To-day he was a perfect object. He resembled

208 HENRY DRUMMOND [1883
nothing so much as the negro loafers who lounge
about the quays in the Southern States.'
On the 19th September the //«/« reached Bandawe,
the central mission station of the Free Church of
Scotland. Drummond's visit and the communion
service in which he participated are described in
Tropical Africa} To' his Father
'Karonga's, N. End of Lake Nyasa,
Sept. 28, 1883.
' . . . We stayed at Bandawe from Thursday at mid
night till Monday at midday. . . . Dr. Laws goes
home in a month. He has been seven years here
without a break, and much needs a holiday. . . .
The native service on Sunday was a grand sight.
Five or six hundred were present, all squatting
on the ground and listening with all their might.
I had the pleasure of talking to them a lot. Dr.
Laws translating. There was also a good Sunday-
school and an English service in the evening,
which I took. These were sad days for the
Mission, however. The steamer had gone round
to a bay twenty miles up the coast for repairs, and
came back on Saturday with the flag floating at
the half-mast. All knew that this meant death,
and a crowd gathered on the beach. It was too
stormy for a landing, and no boat or canoe could
venture out, so we waited in suspense. At length
a board was hoisted, on which the telescope was
at once focussed. In chalk we read the words,
" Mr. Stewart." The steamer had met some na
tives coming down the Lake shore from here,
and they brought the news. Mr. Stewart's name
1 Page 148.

^T. 32] EAST CENTRAL AFRICA 209
you must have heard. He is a civil engineer,
and was at the head of the operatives on Mr.
James Stevenson's road from here to Tangan
yika. He laid out Livingstonia, Blantyre, and
Bandawe, and has been a foremost figure in
mission work in Africa for several years. He is
a cousin of Dr. Stewart of Lovedale. On reach
ing this place, we found the flag on the store also
half-mast, so we knew it was too true. He died
of a complaint contracted by a residence in India
— jaundice. He lies near where I write, under
a huge baobab tree. He chose the spot himself
only six weeks before for the captain of the Ilala,
over whom he read the burial service, one other
white man only being present. One of the Com
pany's men had to do the same service for him.
I was looking forward with great pleasure to
meeting him here. He has few relations living,
only a sister, Mrs. Vartan of Nazareth.
' We were from Monday to Thursday in getting
here. This included a whole day on shore cut
ting wood. The men are now busy unloading
our things, and I think I shall get under way
to-morrow. Bain may possibly wait here for a
fortnight yet, as things are not quite ready for
him at Mweni-wanda. But if he came, he would
only accompany me some fifty miles farther. He
is very well and in capital spirits. His manse
will be something to look forward to on his home
ward march. My caravan is almost ready for
the start. I brought twenty men with me in the
steamer, and will not need many more. Some
were brought from Mandala, the rest from Ban
dawe. Dr. Laws has given me one of his best
natives to act as captain over the men. "James"

2IO HENRY DRUMMOND [1883
is a really trustworthy man, and I am very fort
unate in having got him, though he knows no
English. He was one of three natives who sat
down to the Lord's Table with us on Sabbath
last at Bandawe. I have got a thoroughly good
tent and any quantity of provisions and calico
(money), and I think the journey wiU be most
enjoyable. After this is over, I shall track home
wards as rapidly as possible.'
Drummond started from Karonga's on Septem
ber 29, and began his tramp northwards across the
plateau towards Lake Tanganyika. He left white
men behind him. He had a caravan of twenty-eight
blacks, including his three faithfuls — Jingo, Moolu,
and Seyid. Not one could speak a word of English.
' They belonged to three different tribes, and spoke as
many languages ; the majority, however, know some
thing of Chinyanja, the Lake language, of which I also
had learned a little, so we soon understood each other.'
Drummond has given, in Chapter V. of Tropical Africa,
some extracts from his diary on this journey, illustra
tive of his general experiences. The following addi
tions are taken, some from the same source, others
from his letters home.
After entering the fringe of hills, bordering the
higher lands as described on page 92 of Tropical
Africa, he took some geological notes.
'Sept. 29th. — A herd of cows browsing along the
banks and the newly cut road give to this part quite a
homelike character. For about two miles the road
winds along with the stream through a richly wooded
valley. The mark of the pick is still fresh upon the
great rocks which flank the narrow glen, and here are

Mt. 32] EAST CENTRAL AFRICA 2 I I
not only the best, but the only artificial, geological sec
tions in Central Africa. The hills rise high above the
river on either side, and their structure is evident from
a hundred well engineered bits of the road as it cuts
room for itself alongside the river channel. A fine
study in metamorphic rocks. (Bits of mica-schist of
many varieties alternate with bands of quartzite ?)
These beds are all thin, seldom more than a few yards,
and are pitched at a very high angle, in several places
being all but vertical. Gneiss also gradually appears,
and the different rocks alternating repeatedly add con
siderable variety to the section. Scarcely two of the
beds are alike. Here is a coarse schist (granite ?)
with plates of black mica three inches in length. Next
it a band of the most pellucid quartzite. A variegated
bed of waving gneiss follows, to be succeeded by a
schist (granite), in which the flakes of mica are so
small as only to be distinguishable by their mass.
(Others of the schists are strongly talcose ?) The
quartzites run through every shade from white to iron
brown, one very beautiful variety being a delicate
salmon pink. I describe these thus minutely, for in
another year or two the geologist may look for them
in vain, or only expose a fresh section with much labour.
All these varieties may be found within half a mile,
and probably a hundred yards might be found in which
the whole series was represented.
' Sept. 30th. — Rested all day, being Sabbath. Held
service in the morning with the men. They gathered
in front of my tent after breakfast, I sitting on a box
at the door. Gave out a hymn verse by verse, from
Dr. Laws's book, three or four joining in the singing
to the tune of " Scots wha hae " (!). I then read the
Lord's Prayer in Chinyanja, the natives repeating as
they have been taught at the Mission service. Then

212 HENRY DRUMMOND [1883
James gave a short address which I should have given
a great deal to have fully understood. We then sang
another hymn, " Come to the Saviour " ; I offered
prayer in English, and James closed with prayer in
Chinyanja, or rather Atonga.
' This day month, August 30th, Mr. James Stewart
died in this place — a hundred yards, I beheve, from
where I write.
' Wednesday, Oct. 3rd. — After crossing the valley,
the path — the road is not cut here yet — struck over
a steep ridge of sedimentary rocks, coarse sandstones,
or fine conglomerates, with one or two beds of lime
stone. We then descended into another long and
narrow valley in which lay the dry bed of a consider
able stream. The path follows this for a mile, but
leaves it shortly after a stagnant pool is passed, the
road recommencing at this point. It is freshly made,
and winds up the hill in long sweeping curves. Fresh
exposures of purple, chocolate, and dark red sandstone
occur on the roadside. These evidently belong to
the same series as those in the opposite valley. They
are all inclined toward the earth at an angle of about
35°. They soon give place to the old series of gneisses
and granites which occupy the country now as far as
Mweni-wanda, possibly as far as Tanganyika. These
granitised beds are exposed in all the burns (all dry),
which are numerous along the line of march. They
are all pitched at a very high angle — all but vertical.
Quartz predominates apparently in the composition of
the granite, and the path is littered with quartz peb
bles. In this respect the rocks probably differ from
the Blantyre beds, where there is an unusually large
proportion of black mica, which accounts for the
greater fertility of the latter district. From Mara-
moura to Kamera the country cannot be described as

^T. 32] EAST CENTRAL AFRICA 2 I 3
poor ; the soil is thin and strong, covered with trees of
a uniform height of about twenty feet, thinly planted,
with grass and underwood not luxuriant. Large trees
are absent. The general features of the country are
the same as far as the eye can reach on either side,
undulating hills of thin forest unvaried by any excep
tionally distinctive features. The " billows " are all well
rounded, and present their long axis towards the lake
which receives their drainage.'
Under the same date occurs the following interest
ing note upon African habits: —
'After leaving the sandstones (a short distance) the
new road is left to the right, the men insisting on
striking across country, but in reality the road is only
made for a few hundred yards farther. I do not sup
pose the roadway is constructed much farther, but at
any rate it proved a superfluity in this case. Mr.
Ross, one of the engineers at work on the road, told
me that his own men who had helped to make it, in
taking him to Karonga's (where I met him, the inci
dent happened that very morning), left the road at
one point to cross a hill by the native path instead of
rounding it by the road. He recalled them at once, a
fine sense of loyalty to the undertaking, but on sight
ing the point of re-convergence he was disgusted to
see the tail of his caravan defiling into the main road,
and now considerably in advance of him, although
they were formerly too far behind to hear the order.
These natives were all carrying heavy loads. Even
where they use the road they never vary their cus
tom of walking in Indian file, so that a beaten path
exists in the centre of the road itself. The difference
between the English road and the native's path is
simply this — the former, made with line and level, is
straight in detail but winding as a whole; the latter.

214 HENRY DRUMMOND [1883
made by naked feet and instinct, is winding in detail
but straight as a whole. The native strikes a bee-
line to his destination, but the exigencies of the case,
the avoidance of trees, logs, and large stones, cause it
to be irregular throughout.' ^
On the 3d and 4th of October Drummond noted
the almost entire absence of water from the country
through which he was passing, till he struck the main
stream, an enticing little river, and fine volume of
water. 'The path crosses it at some gneiss blocks.
I spent the rest of the day plashing and wading about
the river-bed.
'Towards nightfall a small native caravan arrived at
the crossing and camped on the opposite bank. I
^ound it was a sub-chief under Mweni-wanda, whose
name is Wanimaver, travelling to the coast. The old
fellow came across to pay his respects to the white
man, accompanied by two or three of his counsellors.
A native carried a small stool, which he placed for
him in front of my tent. I did not know the natives
enjoyed this luxury, but probably the age of the chief
demanded it. He told me he was ill, and was on his
way to a medicine man at Karonga's village. I shared
my cocoa with him, and presented him with a little
salt and a needle. He seemed much awed all through
the interview. Next morning he was over by daylight
to wish me good-by. He seemed a simple, kindh'-,
childlike old man, quite the chief in appearance.
His sole garment was a maize-coloured and faded
drab loin cloth. His men, meantime, were up the
trees adjoining the river throwing down great branches,
with which they soon made him a very pretty bower
by the river's brink. The camp-fire twinkling through
this; the native music played before the tent — a sere-
^ Cf. Tropical Africa, pp. 34-36.

I£^. 32] EAST CENfRAL AFRICA 2 1 5
nade to the chief by three voices and some stringed
instrument ; the brawling river ; the young moon and
the bright starlight, — made up a very pretty tableau
for my after-supper smoke on the grass by my own
camp-fire.' On Friday, 5th, he arrived at Kamera, and on the
6th at Mweni-wanda's village, and Chirenje, 'a future
Free Church station.' There he paid his men, and
checked Mr. Bain's goods which arrived by another,
caravan. He stayed in the rough mission-house for a
week, shooting, collecting, talking with Mweni-wanda,
and entertaining Mr. Grifiiths, of the London Mis
sionary Society, on his way home from his station on
Lake Tanganyika. On Friday, the 12th, he started
again and travelled that and the next day by the
Stevenson road till it stopped at 18J miles — 'a fine
avenue through a level or gently undulating country.'
His camp was at Zockye's village. 'After a twenty-
mile tramp in the sun, this village, with its dirty water,
its shocking sanitary conditions, almost shadeless
stream, and staring crowds, was simple torture, and I
confess the reasons against enduring other forty days
of it by going on to Tanganyika seemed at that
moment most convincing.' Next day he moved on to
the camp beyond Chewakunda, where he spent the
week so beautifully described on pages 109 ff. of Trop
ical Africa. In addition to the observations recorded
there he read a number of books, ' Howells's Undis
covered Country, Old Mortality, Miss Edwards's
Modern Poets, and much of the Revised Version.'
'On Monday, ist, service as usual, James (Moolu)
very eloquent on " Lazarus." ' They started (as Trop
ical Africa says, page 11 2) on the 2 2d and marched
northwest. 'This day the tropics have dried up my
stylograph.' The next part of the diary is in pencil.

2i6 HENRY DRUMMOND [1883
He stalked, shot at, and missed some fine hartbeest.
He was going to sit down, when, in the very place he
had chosen, he
' Observed a curious patter among the leaves. It
was a puff adder. I drew my revolver and shot it,
but the brute slowly sank down the bank and lay
down, as I thought, to die, by the water. Some
hours after, when I sent for it, it was gone. A
day or two later my men were frightened to death
by finding it at the pool where they drew water for
the camp. It was still alive, but I finished it with
another shot. It was not very lengthy, but very
fat in the girth. The men said it was a python,
but I have my doubts, especially as they also said
its bite was certain death — a fact which was quite
evident from the shape of the jaws. It had two
bags on the side of its head with poison enough
to kill a village.'
The journal for October 24 and 25 is fully given in
Tropical Africa. Till the 30th they stayed (because
of the bearer wounded by the buffalo) in the same
'enchanting camp,' and then 'steered west and south
west up a valley running into the Lejange, with steep
sides. The main rock is gneiss, but here and at the
former camp there are beds of mica schist, very hard
and compact for schists, however.' They crossed the
watershed of the range, descended a little, and camped
eight miles from their previous camp at about 4900
feet above the sea. On October 31 he sent back to
Mweni-wanda for a medicine chest and 'some books,
as my small box was read to death. Spent Monday
studying White Ants. There was much thunder, and
rain fell uninterruptedly from three to six, but as it
was not heavy my tent held out.'

•^T. 32] EAST CENTRAL AFRICA 2 I 7
But the rainy season had commenced and it was
time to turn. On the 24th of October he had written
home : —
' I started from the Lake with thirty-two men, most
of them from a distance, but I had to engage
some local men to take extra loads. I had the
universal fate of African travellers, for a number
deserted at the first hill. I got their places
filled, but gradually the local men dropped off,
and now I have only seventeen left. These
are all good men and true, but I have had to
leave many stores at a log cabin at Mweni-wanda.
The crippling of my caravan made me consider
seriously whether I ought to go the whole way
to Tanganyika, and you will perhaps be glad to
hear that I have decided to turn now. I am
within 130 or 140 miles of it, but the rainy season
is due immediately and I should catch it coming
back in all its fury. I have enjoyed such perfect
health that I do not think it is right to run un
necessary risk. I could probably weather anything
in my tent, but my men would suffer severely.
They are not accustomed to this high country,
and already many of them have had fever.
Scarcely a day passes but I have to doctor some
of them. Besides this, the rest of the way is just
the same thing over again, and it would be dreary
work toiling all the way back over exactly the
same ground. All things considered, therefore,
I have resolved to wander slowly back to Nyasa
and make my way to Quilimane as the rain per
mits. I may weather out the first plumps in the
aforesaid log cabin, which is to be Bain's manse
and where he will now be. Word will be sent there

2l8 HENRY DRUMMOND [1883
when the Ilala arrives at Karonga's to take me
down the Lake again.'
Besides, as he confessed afterwards, he was beginning
to feel lassitude and depression, the precursors of fever,
though he did not yet know them as such.
On October 31 they moved to a deserted village and
felt safe from wild beasts behind its stockade. The
wounded man was still in evil plight. They remained
there till November 3, when a letter came from Mr.
Bain, with a postscript from Mr. Fred Moir (returning
from Tanganyika), that they would wait for Drummond
at Mweni-wanda. Carrying the wounded man in a litter
he reached Mweni-wanda on November 5 and stayed till
the 14th. 'Moir and Lieutenant Pully went off to
shoot elephants at Kimbashi. Much tempted to go
with them. The steamer went for their mails after
they had been five or six days in the field. They
sent eighteen tusks back, capital sport.'
On November 15 he started for the Lake and on the
1 8th camped fifteen miles from it beside Mr. Munro, the
engineer who was at work on the road, and Mr. Bain,
who like himself was waiting for the steamer. It was
here that he made his discovery of fossils — he believes
' the only fossils that had ever been found in Central
Africa.' They lay in ' thin beds of very fine light grey
sandstone and blue and grey shales, with an occasional
band of grey limestone — but especially in the shale,
one layer being one mass of small Lamellibranchiata.
Though so numerous, these fossils are confined to a
single species of the Tellinidcs, a family abundantly
represented in tropical seas at the present time and
dating back as far as the Oolite. Vegetable remains
are feebly represented by a few reeds and grasses.' ^
1 Tropical Africa, ' A Geological Sketch,' p. 192.

Mr. 32] EAST CENTRAL AFRICA 219
But here is his journal : —
'Monday, Nov. 19th. — Terrific thunderstorm with
heavy rain broke out late last night. I awoke, lit a
candle, and sat watching for the first sign of leakage
in my tent. A trench had been dug all round, but
the slope of the road made a perfect torrent sweep
past, and I had to keep building up the banks. One
trench ran parallel with my bed, as the side of the tent
was tilted aside to meet the hill, so that I could see
from where I lay the brown torrent sweeping sticks,
leaves, and insects before it. The wind rose to a
hurricane, and I was afraid every moment I would
be unroofed and left to weather the storm in the
open. But my tent behaved bravely and the com
bined elements failed to dislodge me. A few drops
only got through. Bain, who shared Munro's tent,
was less fortunate, in spite of his tent having a good
fly. The rain soon penetrated both fly and canvas
and flooded him out of bed at midnight. They were
in a terrible plight all night, and Bain was down with
fever in consequence a couple of days after.
' On the Sunday morning, when sitting at breakfast
on the newly made road, I saw at my feet a small slab
of slate with markings which struck me at once as
familiar. I eagerly seized it, and saw before me a fos
sil fish. I had marked this very spot on my way up
country as a place for a possible " find " in this direc
tion, and I had planned to spend two or three days here
fossil-hunting on my way back. I had little idea that
so fine a section would be waiting me ; and the road-
cutting here was a most singular coincidence, as this
was the only mile of rock between Tanganyika and
the mouth of the Zambezi where I should have wished
such a thing, or where I would have expected to find
fossils. Monday, therefore, I devoted to a regular

2 20 HENRY DRUMMOND [1883
fossil-hunt, but I am sorry to say with no very satisfac
tory result as far as fish were concerned. I got sev
eral teeth, however, innumerable fish-scales, and a great
number of shells, these last all belonging to a single
species. I set all the boys to work, and offered a knife
to whomsoever would bring me a fish, but although
several of them worked hard they all failed.'
The fossil fish remains were submitted to Dr.
Traquair of Edinburgh, whose identification of them
is given in full in Tropical Africa, pages 193-195.
He says of the largest : —
'. . . Belonging to the order Ga-noidei, this fish is with
equal certainty referable to the family PalcBo-niscidce, but its
genus is more a matter of doubt, owing to the fragmentary
nature of the specimen. Judging from the form and thickness
of the scales I should be inclined to refer it to Acrolepis, were it
not that the dorsal and anal fins seem so close to the tail, and so
nearly opposite each other ; here, however, it may be remarked
that the disturbed state of the scales affords room for the
possibility that the original relations of the parts may not be
perfectly preserved. I have, however, no doubt that, as a
species, it is new ; and as you have been the first to bring
fossil fishes from those regions of Central Africa, you will
perhaps allow me to name it Acrolepis {f) Dru-mmmtdi.
' No. 2 is a piece of cream-coloured limestone with numer
ous minute, scattered rhombic, striated, ganoid scales, which
I cannot venture to name, though I believe them to be palseo-
niscid. . . . Among these minuter relics is a scale of much
larger size, and clearly belonging to another fish. A little way
off is the impression of the attached surface of a similar scale,
and there are also two interspinous bones probably belonging
to the same fish. This is probably also a palaeoniscid scale,
which we may provisionally recognise as Acrolepis {?) Afri-
caniis. . . . No. 5 is a piece of grey, micaceous shale, with
scales of yet a fourth species of palaeoniscid fish ; . . . the
outer surface not being properly displayed, renders it impos
sible to give a sufficient diagnosis. No. 6 is a piece of the

^T. 32] EAST CENTRAL AFRICA 221
same shale having the clavicle of a small pal^oniscid fish,
which it is, however, impossible to name.'
'These fossiliferous beds,' adds Drummond, ' seem to occupy
a comparatively limited area, and to have a very high dip in
a southeasterly direction. At the spot where my observations
were taken they did not extend over more than half a mile of
country, but it is possible that the formation may persist for a
long distance in other directions. Indeed, I traced it for
some miles in the direction in which, some fifty or sixty miles
off, lay the coal already described,^ and to which it may possi
bly be related.'
It was in the same camp, twelve miles north of Ka
ronga's, that Drummond made a discovery of a very
different kind, and one of greater personal interest to
himself, — the phenomenal success among his country
men of his book on Natural Law, while he had been
wandering in these savage regions.
'Thursday, Nov. 22d. — After I had gone to roost,
sometime about midnight I was aroused by talking in
Munro's tent. Could it be the arrival of natives with
the mails from the coast ? " Mails," came in response
to my shout ; and in a few moments a boy came in with
a huge packet of letters and papers. My lamp was lit
in a twinkling and I was for the next three hours de
vouring the first news I had had from home for five
months. Letters from all the family twice over, as the
bag contained two months' despatches. Spectator with
critique enclosed — which much surprised me. I had
almost forgotten about the book ! Sleep was hard after
so much interesting news, and it was early morning be
fore I dropped over.'
On the 26th they marched for Karonga's, ' Bain very
weak with fever, so our progress was very slow.' After
three days at Karonga's they embarked on the Ilala
on the 29th, and coasted along till opposite the re-
1 Tropical Afi-ica, -p-p. 187, 188.

222 HENRY DRUMMOND [1883
ported coal-bed south of Mount Waller. ' Landed and
spent the afternoon among the coal. Stewart's descrip
tion is accurate as regards the topography, but he is
wrong geologically.' The matter is fully discussed in
Tropical Africa, pages i88, 189, with the conclusion
that ' the Lake Nyasa coal, so far as opened up at
present, can scarcely be regarded as having any great
economical importance, although the geological inter
est of such a mineral in this region is considerable.'
' Probably,' he says in his journal, ' the coal is a mere
fragmentary portion thrown down by a " fault." '
On November 30 he was at Deep Bay, where they
slept on shore through heavy rain that nearly put out
their carriers' fires. ' This was about midnight. It is
wonderful how they manage to keep hold on " motu "
(fire) under the most trying circumstances. The rain
was enough to quench anything, but they must have
kept some embers screened in their hands, which they
had carried to the hut and back.'
On December i (with a ton of ivory aboard) they
anchored at Bandawe, partook of the Lord's Supper at
the service next day (Sunday), and witnessed the bap
tism of five native converts. Sailing down the Lake
with Dr. and Mrs. Laws on board, they reached Ma
tope on December 8, and stayed there, waiting for car
riers, till the 1 3th, ' killing time and catching fever.'
On the 14th they camped in rain at the first stream
to the south of Matope.
' Dec. 15th. — Off with the sun, walked hard till 10
o'clock, when we reached stream and took breakfast.
Then all started for Blantyre, still 10 or 12 miles off.
I was last to leave, as I felt lazy — the same inertia
that I had so often felt up country, and which I now
knew to be incipient fever. Lay down, with Jingo and
another of my men with the N'tonga, a few hundred

^T. 32] EAST CENTRAL AFRICA 223
yards from the start, and rested quite two hours.
Meantime a thunderstorm was raging ahead, and the
rain threatened to reach us every moment. However,
we had not a drop; but I had not gone 500 yards
before the ground became quite wet, and we were soon
almost wading in the stream of muddy water which
rushed down the path. Rain itself we had none.
There might have been five or six miles of this, and
then, at the stream at Mulunga's village, the wet
ground as suddenly ceased. I learned afterwards that
Dr. Laws and the others had got over this rain-zone
before it came on, and escaped quite dry. We both
must have made a narrow escape.
' Stopped at the burn to make a hasty cup of tea,
and had just finished when I saw Mr. Macllwain
coming to meet me on one of the donkeys. I thanked
him with all my heart, and after he had a cup of tea
he walked by my side into Blantyre (four or five miles).
At B. I was welcomed by Messrs. Scott, Henderson,
Hedderwick, and all the staff, and, after a plate of soup
at the Manse, went on to Mandala.
'Sunday, Dec. i6th. — Felt rather lazy about going
to church, but, as I wished to go, a donkey was placed
at my disposal, which I accepted. I felt unaccounta
bly tired, but had no other symptom. In the evening
I did not go out, but, feeling rather knocked up, went
early to bed. Dr. Laws insisted that I had fever; and
when I took my temperature and found it read a degree
or two above the normal, 98.6, I was as much aston
ished as disgusted. I took no medicine, but heaped
on clothes to induce perspiration, which came in an
hour or two and necessitated two or three changes of
pyjamas. I had no sickness, but slight oppression and
headache of a new variety, though not very severe.
Slept fairly.

2 24 HENRY DRUMMOND ['884
' Monday, Dec. 1 7th. — My fever was short-lived,
though I kept my bed all day. I fancy I might have
been up. Was glad to get it over. There seems now
no doubt that I had a good deal of fever up country
without my knowing it. Certainly I can now account
better for the want of spirit, want of appetite, laziness,
weakness, and general limpness which I felt so often.
Indeed, for a month or six weeks, this was almost my
normal state. Yet, at the time, I did not realise the
extent of it, but set it down to sheer laziness. No
doubt my cinchonised condition helped me greatly.
'Tuesday, Dec. i8th. — Up even to breakfast,
though feeling a little weak and top-heavy. This
giddiness remained all day.'
There had been great illness at Blantyre while
Drummond was up country, and the only two white
children in the community had died. Drummond
stayed a whole month at Mandala, hospitably enter
tained by Mr. and Mrs. John Moir, and without advent
ure or incident, save numerous cases of fever in the
little colony, and the arrival of the first consul ap
pointed to the region. Captain Foote, R.N., and his
family. On January 15 Drummond started down
stream for Katunga's, where his journal closes. He
retraced his journey of some months before, descended
the Shire and Zambezi, crossed the portage, and came
down the Qua-qua in a boat with eight rowers to
Quilimane — finding the country, because of the rains,
in a very different aspect from that he had seen on his
way up.
' My faithful Jingo was with me to the last. I had
serious thoughts of taking him home, but at last reluc
tantly resolvfed to leave him in Africa, as I felt sure he
would weary away from his own tribe. He was a most
useful servant, and every white person I met begged

^T. 32] EAST CENTRAL AFRICA 225
me to hand him over to them when I left the country.
Black servants very soon get spoiled, but my boy was
awarded first prize by universal consent. He actually
belonged to me as long as I was in the country ; and if
I had wished to keep him, I should simply have had to
send a few yards of cloth to his chief. I was really
very sorry to part with poor Jingo, and he looked very
lugubrious over it hkewise. He came on board with
me, carrying my umbrella as his last service, and I
took him round the great ship. He was utterly lost
and bewildered, and I should give a good deal to hear
his report to the natives up country of all the won
ders he saw at Quilimane. It seems quite strange to
be afloat once more, and I am almost as bewildered as
poor Jingo ! '
From Quilimane Drummond sailed in the Currie
liner Dunkeld to East London, which he reached
on the 2 ist of February. In South Africa he visited
King Williamstown, Pirie, and Lovedale, the famous
mission-station under Dr. Stewart of the Free Church
of Scotland, where he stayed the first half of March,
Fort Beaufort, Grahamstown, Port Elizabeth, and
Uitenhage, the home of his old college friend Pater
son, who died there in 1875. Cape Town was 'dirty,
windy, and city-like,' so he went to Wynberg — ' out of
sight the loveliest place I have seen in South Africa '
— and spent a fortnight wandering about the base of
Table Mountain. There he heard of the death of the
Shire chief Chipitula, whom he had visited : shot in a
quarrel by an English trader, who was also killed.
' This is a serious matter and may lead to further dis
turbances, as the whites are all looked upon as one
tribe, and the next European who passes will have to
look out. I do not think the affair will be carried
farther owing to circumstances, but there is no saying.

2 26 HENRY DRUMMOND [1883-84
Anyway I am glad to be now on the safe side of it.
It is a rough country up there, say the best for it.' On
the 9th of April he sailed from Cape Town, and by
the end of the month was in England.
Central Africa left a deep mark upon Drummond.
He accomplished his mission and was able to give
to the African Lakes Company a valuable report on
the geology and resources of the great country which
they were administering. He added infinitely to his
knowledge of natural history, and did original work
by his discovery of fossils and by his observations
of the effect of white ants upon soil.^ But it was
not along any of these lines that the country left its
chief influence upon him. He had entered Africa
in perfect health and at the best season ; with almost
boyish glee he had revelled in his journey of exciting
scenes and adventures as ' one continual picnic from
first to last.' Then he met the first European graves
— Mrs. Livingstone's, Bishop Mackenzie's, the pathetic
cemetery at Old Livingstonia.^ He saw the mission
aries laid down with fever, some like his compan
ion, the heroic Bain, suffering in solitude hundreds of
miles from another white man. The news of Stewart's
sudden death smote him at Bandawe. A white mother
died in childbirth — every white birth in Central Africa
up to that time had cost a life — and the only two Brit
ish children in the land died while he was up country.
In short, Drummond saw all the cruel sacrifices, insepa
rable from the first heroic assaults of Christianity upon
the heathendom of the Dark Continent. He saw, too,
the slave-trade in its most ghastly features, the cruel
Arab dealer, the tracks dotted with human bones, the
1 See Tropical Africa, Chapter VI„ 'The White Ant: a Theory.'
2 Tropical Africa, pp. 15, 16, 22, 23, 41-45.

Mr. 32] EAST CENTRAL AFRICA 227
stockades with human heads impaled on them. Then
came his own fits of lassitude and depression, attacks
of fever in his tent under the pitiless rain, and a
month of weakness and inertia. All this marked him
for life. When he returned to Scotland we noticed a
splash of grey hair upon his head. And although be
yond this he seems to have suffered from his African
travel no other physical injury, there is little doubt that
his spirit was affected by all he had seen and suffered.
This is visible between his letters on arriving and
his letters on leaving the Continent. It coloured his
views on certain aspects of life and religion. Up till
1883 Drummond had never suffered personally, except
from the long trial of uncertainty with regard to his
vocation. He had never known loneliness. Death
had not come into his family, and hardly within his
sight. To a friend who had lost a little nephew in
1877 he had said, ' I cannot write on these things, for
I know little of their reality or awful mystery.' But in
Africa he learned to know. When on his work with
Moody he had almost fiercely resented the statement
of a speaker that suffering was inseparable from Chris
tian service. But now he knew that it was so ; and I
do not think it is a fault of memory to say that from
1884 onwards there came upon his always pure and
sympathetic temper a certain tinge of sadness with
which we had not been able to associate him in pre
vious years. Upon his return to Scotland he said to
a friend, ' I've been in an atmosphere of death all the
time.'

CHAPTER IX
THE FAME OF NATURAL LAW
While Drummond was in Central Africa his book
achieved a most amazing popularity. No one was
more amazed at it than himself. He had left Ensr-
land within a week of its publication, in June, 1883,
and was beyond all news till the following November.
Then suddenly, one midnight, between Nyasa and
Tanganyika, a bundle of letters was thrust into his
tent. He jumped from bed, and, hastily lighting a
candle, fed his long famine of tidings from home.
Nothing had changed there except his own reputa
tion. He read that his volume had passed immedi
ately through a first and a second edition, that the
reviewers were carried away by it, and that in especial
the Spectator could recall ' no book of our time (with
the exception of Dr. Mozley's University Sermons)
which showed such a power of relating the moral and
practical truths of religion, so as to make them take
fresh hold of the mind and vividly impress the imagi
nation.' This review enforced the already great popu
larity of the volume; and, by the time Drummond
reached England in the following May, the popularity
had risen to fame. At the end of the eighth month
seven thousand copies had been sold, and the circu
lation still went up by leaps and bounds. The more
important Reviews printed long articles upon Natural
Law. While some of them disputed both its theories
and conclusions, others considered it ' the most impor-
228

THE FAME 0¥ NATURAL LAW 229
tant contribution to the relations of science and religion
which the century had produced ; ' and all attributed
its extraordinary success ' to its undoubted merits, —
the originality of its ideas and its style.' ' A pioneer
book'; 'full of the germs and seeds of things'; 'a
remarkable and important book, the theory which is
enounced may without exaggeration be termed a
discovery ' ; 'the reader is stirred to the depths of his
spiritual nature ' ; ' an unspeakably fascinating volume,'
— these are but a few drops of the almost weekly
showers of praise which were poured upon Natural
Law during the first year of its life. But not even such
praise can measure the extent of its vogue among the
people. The book was read almost everywhere. At
the end of the second year thirty thousand copies had
been sold ; at the end of the third, forty thousand ; at
the end of the fifth, sixty-nine thousand, and still the
numbers grew. To-day the sales have reached one
hundred and twenty-three thousand in Great Britain
alone. About this rush of public favour one fact is conspic
uous — it was proportionally much greater in Eng
land and in America than it was in Scotland. The
principle that a prophet has less honour in his own
country does not explain this, for no part of the Eng
lish-speaking race exceeded in admiration for Drum
mond his own countrymen, and especially his private
friends. But the hostile criticism, which the main
idea of the book had received from the Glasgow Club
to which it was first communicated, was repeated
nowhere more persistently than in Scotland, and by
none with greater conviction than by a few of the
author's closest companions.
The causes of the immediate popularity of Natural
Law are obvious. With the exception of a few pas-

2 3°

HENRY DRUMMOND

sages the book is beautifully written. But the clear
and simple style is charged with an enthusiasm and
carries a wealth of religious experience which capture
the heart, and tempt the thoughtful reader to become
indifferent to almost every prejudice which the intro
duction has excited in his mind. A teacher who, with
such gifts, founds his teaching upon the facts of Chris
tian experience, is always sure of a welcome ; and the
welcome wiU be the more cordial if he expounds these
facts, as not arbitrary, but subject to reason and law
— and this apart altogether from the question whether
the laws he alleges be the true ones. When, besides,
he deals with the relations of science and religion, he
presents a subject that is not only of great intellectual
interest to most persons of education, but to many
thousands also is a topic of the most acute personal
significance. Among the letters which Drummond
received between 1883 and 1892 are a large number
from men and women of all degrees of culture, whose
faith, once strong, had been shattered by the new con
victions of science, and who looked for the reconcilia
tion of the claims of science with religion as they that
look for the morning. Science had proved the uni
verse to be subject to exceptionless laws ; and the
form under which those persons had received religion
— as if it were outside of reason and independent, if
not defiant, of law — had collapsed beneath their im
pressions of science. They were now not concerned
whether Drummond made out a case for the special
laws which he illustrated, nor whether his main thesis,
that physical law continues within the spiritual sphere,
had been proven. It was enough for them that they
encountered a teacher who expounded, defended, and
enforced their deepest religious experiences upon what
appeared to be the dominant intellectual methods of

THE FAME OF NATURAL LAW 23 1
their generation. There were also a number of scien
tific men who had not passed through a definitely
Christian discipline, and who called themselves agnos
tic, but who yearned to receive from the methods they
avowed gifts to the religious side of their nature, and
a number of these also felt that what they needed they
got from Drummond. Then, too, devout and poetic
souls who rejoice in Nature as the sacrament and
divine expression of spiritual truth, welcomed the book
as though it were a consummate interpretation of this.
And finally, there were crowds of commonplace men
and women who were touched by neither the poetic
nor the scientific spirit, but who were in need of the
pure comfort, the shrewd counsel, and the lofty ideals
in which the volume is rich, or who in their weariness
of the world rested simply in its pure light and peace.
Of all these classes, illustrations may be given from
the heap of letters which the author of Natural Law
received from every part of the world. To his biog
rapher, who has gone through them, these letters have
brought an almost overwhelming impression of the
hunger of this generation for religion and the spiritual
life. Next to Drummond's experiences during the
Great Mission of 1873-75, this correspondence must
have helped to develop his wonderful expertness in
dealing with the men and women of his time in their
religious needs and aspirations.
The first letter we may take is one of scores of its
kind. The writer gives her name and address in a
town of New York State. The date is late, Decem
ber 9, 1893, but Drummond had received many similar
tokens within a year of the publication of the book.
'I know you are a grand good man, while I am
only a poor working- woman ; but if you would really
care to know, your book has comforted many a weary

232 HENRY DEUMMOND
hour of my life. I have read it over and over again,
thoughtfully, and sometimes prayerfully, until I know
many of its pages by heart, and so can always have
them with me to make me better, more thoughtful of
my fellow-men, and more faithful to God. I thank
you for giving it to the world, for I may have it to
purify my heart and life. Your book is one of my
treasures, and has made me realise and believe the
most momentous truth that Christ must be in the
Christian, and created a longing in my own heart to
love Him more and serve Him better.'
Another wrote, echoing beautifully the expressions
of many: ' Your book has been a benediction to me; '
and numbers traced to it their conversion from wild
and profligate lives, or from a careless and formal
Christianity. The late Mr. Campbell Finlayson, in
sending to Drummond his very able criticism of the
volume, added that it ' has interested and stimulated
the minds of many who, like myself, are unable to
accept some of its conclusions.'
But welcomes more specific than these were given
by authorities in the departments both of science and
religion. It was one Anglican divine who wrote the
article in the Spectator. Another said enthusiasti
cally, 'it was the best book he had ever read upon
Christian experience.' Several men, well known for
their contributions to theology, congratulated Drum
mond on having placed the argument for the spiritual
life upon a sound basis. One wrote thus in June,
1884: —
' I daresay from the seven thousand purchasers of
your book on Natural Law you have had more letters
than you care for, but I trust you will not allow this
to deprive me of the pleasure of saying how deliohted
I have been with it. I feel that you have added

THE FAME OF NATURAL LAW 233
enormously to the avenues of my own spiritual exist
ence, and therefore I warmly thank you for it. I re
gard the application of your method as most meanful
{sic), and think your conclusions impregnable. You
have provided a splendid apparatus of additional
inductive probability to show the existence of a
spiritual world, which to those who are prepared to
accept it must be final. I am not sure, however, of
its effect upon those who start with the denial of its
existence.' On the part of many men of science the book re
ceived an immediate and a cordial welcome. A great
London physician said of it in March, 1884: 'One of
the best books I have ever read — I have given away
six copies of it.' From this side take the following,
written in July, 1883, — about a month after the book
was published, — by one of the foremost authorities in
his own branch of science : —
'My dear Sir, — I have just been reading with
extreme interest your very able and suggestive book.
Natural Law in the Spiritual World, and cannot
refrain from writing you these few words of thanks
for the strengthening of my own convictions, which
you have given me. It is now many years since I felt
that Christianity is not in harmony with the Science
of Nature, and that to commend it to students of
Nature some other mode of presentment was re
quired. Long pondering over the question in my
own case has led me through much difficulty and
doubt and pain to see the matter just as you see it,
and I can hardly say how glad I am to find these
notions, or rather convictions, so cleariy and convin
cingly set forth as they are in your work. I believe
your book will be of inestimable value to many a
troubled and distracted soul. Living as I did for

234

henry drummond

many years a somewhat lonely life in the country,
practically cut off from personal converse with fellow-
workers, I yet was well aware that materialistic views
of life were rampant amongst biologists, but until
I came to  to reside I was hardly prepared to
find materialism so victorious. And yet among the
many positivists with whom I have recently come in
contact, there is much doubt and restlessness. Their
religion of death and annihilation is not a religion of
peace. And I have been quite touched by the avidity
with which they will listen to any argument that seems
to open for them a possible means of escape from their
melancholy conclusion. One of my students, who
called for me last Sunday evening, told me, with the
tears in his eyes, that he would fain believe as his
mother taught him, but that his scientific training
would not let him. It is very sad to think how many
hearts are breaking — how many souls are being
eclipsed all around one. But the dawn, I feel assured,
is breaking. I do not know any thoughtful Agnostic
who does not doubt his own conclusions, and who
would not readily escape them if he could. Such a
book as yours will appeal with great force to all such,
and it will give me the greatest pleasure to recom
mend it to every thoughtful biologist I encounter.'
These typical letters, which represent the kind of
effect the book so suddenly produced, I give without
the names of the authors, for some of them are dead,
and some who live may no longer adhere to the opin
ions they then expressed. It is remarkable, indeed,
how many, both on the evangelical and the scientific
sides of life, at first welcomed the book as a proof of
religion and a reconciliation of her claims with those
of science, but afterwards fell away from this opinion.
Besides the gratitude which a book wins from those

the fame of NATURAL LAW 235
whom it has helped in the hard struggle of head or
heart, there are two other standards by which its
power may be measured — the serious criticism which
it calls forth from philosophic minds, and the fascina
tion it creates upon all the restless race of faddists,
quacks, ' cranks,' and monomaniacs in general. Natu
ral Law in the Spiritual World triumphantly passed
both of these tests.
To take the latter first — I suppose Drummond had
more correspondence with theorists and with dreamers
than any other author of our generation. Their name
was legion. A number hailed him with eerie joy as a
fellow-spirit. They have been working, they write, for
years in the same direction; they have reached the
same conclusions by 'electro-biology,' 'medical psy
chology,' 'mind-healing,' 'Christian science,' 'interpre
tation of prophecy,' and I know not what else, and
they are eager to point out defects and omissions in
Drummond's arguments which can be repaired only
by their peculiar methods. They are generally retired
army officers, doctors without practice, dreamy school
mistresses, lonely squatters. Some are retired profli
gates, into whose minds, swept empty of vice but also
destitute of principle, the devils of vanity, curiosity,
audacity, paradox, and unreason appear to have rushed
with riotous vigour. One extraordinary letter comes
from a man who describes himself as ' fifty-nine years
of age, converted at fifty-six from a life of sensuality,'
and now recovering health and social usefulness
through 'Christian Science,' to which he welcomes
Drummond as a powerful adherent. Some offer the
author an additional chapter in which his principle is
applied to the phenomena of reproduction. Others
tell him that he has sinned by forgetting the tri
partite constitution of man, and disclose to him three

236 henry drummond
analogies of life where he has discovered only two.
And, of course, there are more than one — fortunately
far away in Australia and the Western States of
America — who propose marriage to him. It is all a
curious chapter in the history of human delusions.
Of a different class are those who claim Drum
mond's adhesion to their own denomination or partic
ular heresy. It was very natural that Swedenborgians
should assert that many of his positions have been an
ticipated in ' the divine correspondences ' of their mas
ter; and no doubt they were right in pointing out
that the Swedenborg's method of working down from
the spiritual to the physical was preferable to Drum
mond's of working up from the physical to the spirit
ual. A similar claim with even more justice was
made by the disciples of James Hinton. It was
equally natural for those Christians who believe in
the theory of conditional immortality — that short
cut through many mazes — to read Natural Law as a
corroboration of their creed. Perhaps the greatest
number of letters which Drummond received upon
his volume came from such promoters of the applica
tion to the future life of the doctrine of ' the survival
of the fittest.' Then the foes of ' Bibliolatry,' as they
call it, congratulate him on having removed religion
from a Scriptural basis, though they ' look with suspi
cion upon his employment of so many texts ' to illus
trate his arguments.
The letters which criticise omissions in Natural
Law are not only proofs of the unreasonableness
of the writers, but form an impressive tribute to the
power of a volume which could evoke such colossal
expectations of what its author might have done, had
he wiUed, in meeting the intellectual demands of his
age. Many blame him for not settling all the great

THE FAME OF NATURAL LAW 237
problems of religion and life. Upon a number ot
these problems some letters dwell with an ignorance
and a hunger which pathetically reveal how much in
tellectual starvation may linger in our midst within
sight and touch of the rich supplies that it desperately
supposes do not exist. A squatter, writing from ' the
lonely wilds of the Australian bush,' thanks Drum
mond for ' a great intellectual treat,' but angrily asks
him, — with pretty much the same petulance as a sav
age beats his fetich or a mediaeval churchman used to
sulk at his saint, — why he has not settled other diffi
culties. Why has he not dealt with ' the atrocities of
the Old Testament,' ^ ' with the miracles of the New,'
' with the virgin birth of Christ,' 'with the ultimate fate
of the heathen,' — and so forth. The same questions
followed Drummond wherever he lectured during the
next ten years and were sent up on scraps of paper to
every platform on which he appeared. ' What is your
theory of the Atonement ? ' ' Can you explain it on
the principles of your volume ? ' ' What place do you
leave for free will ? ' ' Does man's immortality depend
on the gift of free grace?' 'Why were the Jews, on
your theory, specially selected by God ? ' ' Why was
Jesus Christ born a Jew ? ' Every kind of question,
soluble and insoluble, relevant and irrelevant to the
volume, was thrown at the head of the author. But
with some pertinence the questions on free will and
'conditional immortality ' far outnumber all the rest.
The many gleams of reasonable objections to Nat
ural Law which these letters and questions reveal
were formulated with great ability, in a number of
serious articles and pamphlets, the long list of which,
though they are in the main hostile, bear unmistak
able tribute to the impression made by the book on
1 See below, p. 400.

238 henry DRUMMOND
the mind of our generation. Appended is a catalogue
of the greater number.^ The most able and effective
are the treatises by Mr. Campbell Finlayson and 'a
Brother of the Natural Man.' I do not know who
wrote the article in the British Quarterly; that in
the Church Quarterly was, though generally hostile
to Drummond's logic, by Mr. Lyttleton, the author of
the previous article in the Spectator which had so
largely helped to lift the book into fame.
But, from the first. Natural Law encountered more
than criticism of this honest and able kind. No
volume of our time has provoked more bitter and pas
sionate blame. It roused both the odium theologicum
and that which is scarcely less savage, the odium scien-
1 I . Biological Religion ; an essay in criticism of ' Natural Law in the Spiritual
World.' By T. Campbell Finlayson. London : Simpkin, Marshall, & Co. Bd. -zs.
2. On 'Natural La-w in the Spiritual World' , by a Brother of the Natural
Man. Paisley: Gardner. Paper, is.
3. Drifting Away. Remarks on Professor Drummond's 'Natural Law in the
Spiritual World.' By the Hon. Philip Carteret Hill, D.C.L. London: Bemrose
& Sons, (>d.
4. 'Natural La-w in the Spiritual World' Examined. By W. Woods Smyth.
London : Elliott Stock. Bd. \s. 6d.
5. Remarks on a book entitled 'Natural Law in the Spiritual World.' Being
the Substance of Four Lectures given in London by Benjamin Wills Newton.
London : Houlston & Sons. Paper is. <jd.
6. A Critical Analysis of Drummond's ' Natural La-w in the Spiritual
World.' With a Reply to some of its conclusions. By E. C. Larned. Chicago :
Janson, M'Clurg & Co.
7. Review of 'Natural Law in the Spiritual World.' By J. B. Fry.
8. Drummond and Miracles. A Critique on ' Natural Law in the Spiritual
World.' Paisley: Gardner, is.
9. The Laws of Nature and the Laws of God. A Reply to Professor Drum
mond by Samuel Cockburn, M.D., L.R.C.S.E. London: Swan Sonnenschein.
Bd. 3^. dd.
10. Mr. Drummond' s Book. With special references to Biogenesis. Shrews
bury : Adnitt & Naunton. 61/.
II. Are Laws the Same in the Natural and Spiritual Worlds? By A. C.
Denholm. Kilmarnock: Herald Office. 2d.
i-i. Are the Natural and Spiritual Worlds One in Law? By George F.
Magoun, D.D., Iowa College. Reprinted from the Bibliotheca Sacra.
Besides articles in the Church Quarterly for January, 1884, and in the
British Quarterly.

THE FAME OF NATURAL LAW 239
tificum. An ' Old Man,' signing himself ' Agnostic '
and writing from the Atheuceum, flings in Drum
mond's face the differences of doctrine among Chris
tians, assails him with quotations from Schopenhauer,
and rails at him for daring to believe either in a revela
tion, or a spiritual world, or a God. ' The whole thing
is an enigma beyond the grasp of the human intellect! '
On the religious side there arose a most extraordinary
irritation. Certain evangelicals caught at the state
ment on page 30 of Natural Law, that it (religion) has
not yet been placed on that basis which would make
them (many of its positions) impregnable. They took
this as meaning that Drummond did not recognise
the authority of the Bible as the witness of God's most
gracious dealings with the race, whereas what he
meant by ' religion ' in the sentence they quoted was
not the teaching of the Bible, but the experiences of
the Christian believer. These, he felt, had been treated
in too loose a way ; he examined them as facts, and
attempted to explain the laws by which they are gov
erned. Sheer misunderstanding of this provoked
many to virulent attacks upon him. They withdrew
from religious associations of which he was a member ;
they would not speak from the same platform ; they
published pamphlets against him, and wrote him bitter
and contemptuous letters. They said, ' He founds
religion upon science, and to do so is to be an infidel.'
It was extraordinary how they succeeded in poisoning
against him the minds of a number of people with
whom he had shared the work of the Great Mission
of 1873-75. There were hot controversies in many
evangelistic committees as to whether he should be
asked to conferences and conventions ; and some
societies cancelled their invitations to him to lecture.
One religious paper, which had reported his work with

2zlO HENRY DRUMMOND

Moody, and to which he had often contributed, not
only styled Natural Law a dangerous book, but gave
orders to its reporters at a large convention in America
not to take down anything that Heniy Drummond
might say. His services as an evangelist, his character
and influence, the great amount of positive Christian
doctrine that he taught, were all ignored by these hot
hunters of a fancied heresy. They would have been
(from their own point of view) more profitably occu
pied in proving it a fallacy. But this none of them
seemed to see. Drummond met all attacks upon him
with great good temper ; and where the assailants were
old comrades in religious work, or had any other right
to be answered — and even in many cases where they
had no right to be answered at all — he replied with
gentleness and courtesy. One never heard him say a
word against the most violent of his opponents. But
of his temper towards his critics there will be more
to say in connection with his later works.
A few lines may be added upon the vogue which
Natural Law in the Spiritual World enjoyed upon
the Continent of Europe.
Within a very short time after its publication in
England reviews of it appeared in religious and lit
erary journals in France, Germany, and Scandinavia.
But the news of its religious value was more widely
scattered over these countries, as well as in Holland,
Italy, and Russia, by private correspondence. In a
year or two requests for permission to translate it were
received by Drummond from every land in Europe
except Turkey and Greece. There are two transla
tions into German,^ the eariier of which appeared in
1886. In 1885 the French edition was ready, and by
1 The first was published through the Hinrichs'sche Buchhandlune of Leiozi^
Das Naturgesetz in der Ceisteswelt, and had a large circulation; the other, by

THE FAME OF NATURAL LAW 24 1
1887 Danish, Dutch, and Swedish translations were
published. The book appears to have excited the greatest
attention in Germany, Scandinavia, and Russia, if we
may judge both from the letters Drummond received,
and the number of pamphlets published, in the lan
guage of these countries, both in defence of the book,
and in controversy with its main positions. It is
almost superfluous to give a resume of these letters
and pamphlets ; in substance they reflect the British
and American letters summarised above. They con
tain the same fervent testimonies from individuals who
have been lifted to faith and a better life ; the same
inquiries from evangelical Christians as to Drum
mond's attitude to the doctrines of Christianity ; the
same bitter attacks upon his belief in evolution ; the
same solid discussions of his argument ; and the same
eerie ejaculations of sympathy and welcome from
persons who believe they have found in him a prophet
for their particular ' revelations,' and ' systems of
thought.' One Swede begs Drummond to tell him
how exactly the manifestations of new truth which
Natural Law contains were let down from heaven.^
There are letters of gratitude and inquiry from sev
eral of the Russian sects. Some sign themselves
' disciples ' and ' devoted adherents.' In Germany, as
in England, though of course in less proportion, a
Velhagen Klasing of Berlin, reached by 1897 a circulation of 4000. It was done
by Miss Julie Sutter, to whom also was intrusted the German translation of
Drummond's Christmas addresses.
^ ' Do tell me if you have holy treasures lying by, containing sacred revelations
from the realms above? You m-ust have them, or you could not have written as
you have written. . . . You must, like Daniel and other great seers, have seen
visions; you must have been introduced, " whether in the body or in the spirit,"
into the far regions of spiritual spheres. If I dare ask you these questions, it is
because I do not hesitate to tell you it has only been through such means that I
have formed my opinions, and only through some special grace that I believe you
could have come to such clearness.' There are nine pages of this.

242

HENRY DRUMMOND

small literature appeared both of articles and pam
phlets, and — one symptom among many others — a
new magazine, to which many good names were
attached, promised in its prospectus to give an
' exakt-naturwissenschaftliche Seelenanalyse (nach Art
Drummond's).' The book does not appear to have
impressed any German authorities in Natural Science
in Germany as upon its first appearance it did impress
some such in England. But it received attention
from theologians ; and many capable writers discussed
it seriously and with respect. Their hostile criticism
was largely on the lines on which criticism had been
directed in Great Britain. It is summed up by
Dr. Otto Zockler — a scholar and a thinker of repute
as well in this country as in his own — in the follow
ing words : —
' One may grant that the criticism of Drummond, which
has appeared in quite a considerable number of pamphlets
and articles, has given expression to much that is correct.
Such an acknowledgement, however, must not be allowed to
mislead us into ignoring the high value of the healthy
stimulus which has proceeded from Drummond's writings.
If several English critics have complained of Drummond's
" evolutionist gospel " as scarcely different from ordinary
Darwinism, and as issuing in " Entwickelungsunglauben "
(development-infidelity) [sic], there is not only strong exag
geration in such a complaint, but also disregard of the fact
that the Glasgow scholar has several times expressed him
self — especially in The Ascent of Man — against the unlimited
vahdity of the Darwinian principle of the " Struggle for
Existence." And if one of the German critics — Oberpastor
Dr. Joh. Liitkens, of Riga, in the brochure Henry Drummond' s
Traktate geivUrdigt in drei Brief en an eine Freundin ^ (which,
we may remark in passing, is one of the most solid we know)
— has found fault with the Pelagian tendency of Drummond's
1 Riga, Hoerschelmann, 1891.

THE FAME OF NATURAL LAW 243
ethic (das Pelagianisierende der Drummondschen Ethik), its
mitigation (Verflachung) of the conception of sin, and its dis
regard of God's free pardoning grace in Christ, he does so
only by ignoring the profound manner in which the greater ^
work of the noble Scotsman speaks of the necessity of the
new birth. He forgets that the individual's utter inability to
deliver himself from the yoke of sin and of death is for
Drummond a fact of fundamental importance, and that, when
Drummond takes the field against the superficial and shallow
(am Peripherischen haftende) modes of thought of one-sided
modern moralists, he at the same time declares war against
Pelagianism.' 1 1.e. than his booklets.

CHAPTER X
EVOLUTION AND REVELATION
Much of the hostile criticism of Natural Law which
has been described in the last chapter turned upon the
question of Drummond's attitude to the relations of
science and religion, and upon the view which he took
of the authority of the Bible. Upon those topics, he
published, soon after his return from Africa, three
articles, two in the Expositor ior 1885,^ on the 'Con
tribution of Science to Christianity,' and one in the
Nineteenth Century for February, 1886, on ' Mr. Glad
stone and Genesis.' The growth of his opinions can
not be sufficiently traced without some quotations
from these : —
The former articles open with a beautiful introduction,
which describes the expansion, by modern science, of 'the
intellectual area of Christianity,' and the power of Chris
tianity to assimilate new facts without either false hopes or
false fears.
' It knows it can approve itself to science, but it has been
taken by surprise, and therefore begs time. It will honestly
look up its credentials and adjust itself, if necessary, to the
new relation. Now this is the position of theology at the
present moment. And theology proceeds by asking science
what it demands, and then borrows its instruments to carry
out the improvements. The loan of the instruments consti
tutes the first great contribution of science to religion. What
are these instruments .? We shall name two — the Scientific
Method and the Doctrine of Evolution. The first is the
1 Third Series, Vol. I.
244

^T. 33] EVOLUTION AND REVELATION 245
instrument for the interpretation of nature; the second is
given us as the method of nature itself. With the first of
these we shall deal formally ; the second will present itself
in various shapes as we proceed.'
After stating that science has had no exclusive right to the
use of the scientific method, but that theologians have em
ployed it again and again, Drummond says that the things
on which the method insists are chiefly two — the value of
facts and the value of laws. ' On bare facts science from
first to last is based. Now if Christianity possesses anything,
it possesses facts. So long as the facts were presented to
the world Christianity spread with marvellous rapidity. But
there came a time when the facts were less exhibited to men
than the evidence for the facts. Theology, that is to say,
began to rest upon authority. . .. . Then there came another
time when this authority appealed to the secular arm. It is
these intermediaries between the facts and the modern ob
server that stumble science. It will look at facts, and facts
alone. The dangers, the weakness, the unpracticableness in
some cases of this method are well known. Nevertheless, it
is a right method. It is the method of all Reformation ; it
was the method of the Reformation. . . .
' Now Christianity is learning from science to go back to its
facts, and it is going back to facts. Critics in every tongue
are engaged upon the facts ; travellers in every land are
unveiling facts ; exegetes are at work upon the words, scholars
upon the manuscripts; sceptics, believing and unbelieving,
are eliminating the not-facts ; and the whole field is alive with
workers. And the point to mark is that these men are not
manipulating, but verifying, facts.
' There is one portion of this field of facts, however, which
is still strangely neglected, and to which a scientific theology
may turn its next attention. The evidence for Christianity is
not the Evidences. The evidence for Christianity is a Chris
tian. The unity of physics is the atom, of biology the cell,
of philosophy , the man, of theology the Christian. The
natural man, his regeneration by the Holy Spirit, the spiritual
man and his relations to the world and to God, these are the
modern facts for a scientific theology. We may indeed talk

246 HENRY DRUMMOND [1885
with science on its own terms about the creation of the world,
and the spirituality of nature, and the force behind nature,
and the unseen universe ; but our language is not less scien
tific, not less justified by fact, when we speak of the work of
the risen Christ, and the contemporary activities of the Holy
Ghost, and the facts of regeneration, and the powers which
are freeing men from sin. There is a great experiment
which is repeated every day, the evidence for which is as
accessible as for any fact of science; its phenomena are
as palpable as any in nature ; its processes are as explicable,
or as inexplicable ; its purpose is as clear ; and yet science
has never been seriously asked to reckon with it, nor has
theology ever granted it the place its impressive reality de
mands. One aim of a scientific theology will be to study
conversion and restore to Christianity the most powerful
witness. . . .
' But not less essential, in the scientific method, than the
examination of facts, is the arrangement of them under laws.
And the work of modern science in this direction has resulted
in its grandest achievement — the demonstration of the uni
formity of nature. This doctrine must have an immediate
effect upon the entire system of theology. For one thing,
the contribution of the spiritual world to the uniformity of
nature has yet to be made. Not that the natural world is to
include the spiritual, but that a higher natural will be seen
to include both. . . .
' There may be laws, or actings, in the spiritual world, which
it may seem to some impossible to include in such a scheme.
God is not, in theology, a Creator merely, but a father; and
according to the counsel of His own wih He may act in
different cases in different ways. To which the reply is that
this also is law. It is the law of the Father, the law of the
paternal relation, the law of the free-wih ; yet not an excep
tional law, it is the law of all fathers, of all free-wills.
Besides, if in the private Christian life the child of God
finds dealings which are not reducible to law, grant even their
lawlessness if that be possible, that is a family matter, a rela
tion of parent and child, similar to the earthly relation, and
scarcely the kind of case to be referred to science. Into

Mt.33] EVOLUTION AND REVELATION 247
ordinary family relations science rarely feels called to intrude ;
and it is obvious that in dealing with this class of cases in the
spiritual world, science is attempting a thing which in the
natural world it leaves alone. If ethics chooses to take up
these questions, it has more right to do so; but that there
should be a reserve in the spiritual world for God acting tow
ards His children in a way past finding out is what would be
expected from the mere analogies of the family. . . .
' The relations of the spiritual man, however, are not all, or
nearly all, in this department. There are whole classes of
facts in the outer provinces which have yet to be examined
and arranged under appropriate laws. The intellectual gain
to Christianity of such a process will be obvious. But there
is also a practical gain to the religious experience of not less
moment. Science is nothing if not practical, and the scientific
method has little for Christianity after all if it is not to exalt
and enrich the lives of its followers. It is worth while, there
fore, taking a single example of its practical value.
'The sense of lawlessness which pervades the spiritual
world at present reacts in many subtle and injurious ways
upon the personal experience of Christians. They gather the
idea that things are managed differently there from any
where else — less strictly, less consistently ; that blessings or
punishments are dispensed arbitrarily ; and that everything
is ordered rather by a Divine discretion than by a system
of fixed principle. In this higher atmosphere ordinary
sequences are not to be looked for — cause and effect are
suspended or superseded. Accordingly, to descend to the
particular, men pray for things which they are quite unable
to receive, or altogether unwilling to pay the price for. They
expect effects without touching the preliminary causes, and
causes without calculating the tremendous nature of the
effects. There is nothing more appalling than the wholesale
way in which unthinking people plead to the Almighty for
the richest and most spiritual of His promises, and claim
their immediate fulfilment, without themselves fulfilling one
of the conditions either on which they are promised or can
possibly be given. If the Bible is closely looked into, it
will probably be found that very many of the promises have

248 HENRY DRUMMOND [1885
attached to them a condition — itself not infrequently the
best part of the promise. True prayer for any promise is to
plead for power to fulfil the condition on which it is offered,
and which, being fulfilled, is in that act given. We have
need, certainly in this sense, to know more of prayer and
natural law. And science could make no truer contribution
to modern Christianity than to enforce upon us all, as un-
weariedly as in nature, the law of causation in the spiritual
life. The reason why so many people get nothing from
prayer is that they expect effects without causes ; and this also
is the reason why they give it up. It is not irreligion that
makes men give up prayer, but the uselessness of their
prayers. ' One other gain,' he continues, ' may be expected to Chris
tianity from the wider use of the scientific method. It must
attract an ever-increasing band of workers to theology. . . .
We are warned sometimes that this method has dangers, and
told not to carry it too far. . . . The danger arises, not from
the use of the scientific method, but from its use apart from
the scientific spirit. For these two are not quite the same.
Some use the scientific method, but not in the scientific spirit.
And as science can help Christianity with the former, Chris
tianity may perhaps do something for science as regards the
latter. And so just is the remark of "Natural Religion"
that the true scientific spirit and the Christian spirit are one,
that the Christian world is probably prepared to accept
almost anything the most advanced theology brings, provided
it be a joint product of the scientific method with the scien
tific spirit — the fearlessness and originality of the one tem
pered by the modesty, caution, and reverence of the other.
' To preserve this confidence and to keep this spirit pure is
a sacred duty. There is an intellectual covetousness abroad
just now which is neither the fruit nor the friend of a scien
tific age — a haste to be wise, which, like the haste to be rich,
leads men into speculation upon indifferent securities, and can
only end in fahen fortunes. Theology must not be bound up
with such speculation. ... 1 The one safeguard is to use the
inteUectual method in sympathetic association with the moral
^ Here comes a fine quotation from Bacon's Works, v. 132, 133.

/Et. 33] EVOLUTION AND REVEL.^TION 249
spirit. The scientific method may bring to light many fresh
and revolutionary ideas ; the scientific spirit will see that they
are not given a place as dogmas in their first exuberance ;
that they are held with caution and abandoned with generos
ity on sufficient evidence. . . .
' So much for the scientific method. Let us now consider
for a moment one or two of its achievements. . . .
' Itself at an elementary stage, we should be wrong to look
[to it] for any very pronounced contribution as yet to the
higher truths of religion. We should expect the first effect
among the elements of religion. We should expect science
to be fairly decided in its utterances about them, to become
more and more hesitating as it runs up the range of Christian
doctrine, and gradually to lapse into silence. Proceeding upon
this principle, we should go back at once to Genesis. We
should begin with the beginnings, and expect the first serious
contribution to theology on the doctrine of creation.
' And what do we find ? We find that upon this subject of
all others science has most to offer us. It comes to us, not
only freighted with vast treasures of newly noticed facts, but
with a theory which by many thoughtful minds has been ac
cepted as the method of creation. And, more than this, it
tells us candidly it has failed — and the failures of science
are among its richest contributions to Christianity — it has
failed to discover any clue to the ultimate mystery of origins,
any clue which can compete for a moment with the view of
theology. ' Consider first this impressive silence of science on the
question of origins. Who creates or evolves ; whither do
the atoms come or go .'' These questions remain as before.
Science has not found a substitute for God. And yet, in
another sense, these questions are very different from before.
Science has put them through its crucible. It took them
from theology, and deliberately proclaimed that it would try
to answer them. They are now handed back, tried, unan
swered, but with a new place in theology and a new power
with science. ... If there are answers to these questions,
and there ought to be, theology holds them. ... In its
investigations of these questions science has made a dis-

250

HENRY DRUMMOND ['§

covery. It has seen plainly that atheism is unscientific. It
is a remarkable thing that, after trailing its black length for
centuries across European thought, atheism should have had
its doom pronounced by science. With its most penetrating
gaze science has now looked at the back of phenomena. It
says : " The atheist tehs us there is nothing there. We can
not believe him. We cannot teh what it is, but there is cer
tainly something. Agnostics we may be, we can no longer
be atheists." '
He illustrates this by the passages from Huxley's Lay Ser
mons, quoted above in Chapter VI.^
' When we turn now to the larger question of the creation
of the world itself, we find much more than silence, or a per
mission to go on. We find science has a definite theory on
that subject. It offers, in short, to theology a doctrine of the
method of creation in its hypothesis of evolution. That this
doctrine is proved yet, no one will assert. That in some of
its forms it is never likely to be proved, many are convinced.
It will be time for theology to be unanimous about it when
science is unanimous about it. Yet it would be idle to deny
that in a general form it has received the widest assent from
theology. But if science is satisfied, even in a general way,
with its theory of the method of creation, "assent" is a cold
word for theology to welcome it with. It is needless at this
time of day to point out the surpassing grandeur of the new
conception. How it has filled the Christian imagination and
kindled to enthusiasm the soberest scientific minds is known
to all. For that splendid hypothesis we cannot be too grate
ful to science, and that theology can only enrich itself which
gives it even temporary place. There is a sublimity about
the old doctrine of creation — we are speaking of its scientific
aspects — which, if one could compare sublimities, is not sur
passed by the new ; but there is also a baldness. . . . The
doctrine of evolution fihs a gap at the very beginning of our
religion ; and no one who looks now at the transcendant spec
tacle of the world's past, as disclosed by science, will deny
that it has filled it worthily. Yet, after all, its beauty is not
the only part of its contribution to Christianity. Scientific
1 P. 150.

Mr. 33] EVOLUTION AND REVELATION 25 I
theology required a new view, though it did not require it to
come in so magnificent a form. What it wanted was a credi
ble presentation, in view especially of astronomy, geology, and
biology. These had made the former theory simply unten
able. And science has supplied theology with a theory which
the intellect can accept, and which for the devout mind leaves
everything more worthy of worship than before.'
'We might pass on,' the second lecture begins, 'to mark the
effects [of science] upon many other theological truths [than
that of creation]. One shall be the doctrine of revelation it
self. According to science, as we have already seen, evolu
tion is the method of creation. Now, creation is a form of
revelation ; it is the oldest form, the most accessible, the most
universal, and still an ever-increasing source of theological
truth. ' If, then, science, familiar with this revelation, and know
ing it to be an evolution, were to be told of the existence of
another revelation — an inspired word — it would expect that
this other revelation would also be an evolution. Such an
anticipation might or might not be justified ; but from the law
of the uniformity of nature there would be, to the man of
science, a very strong presumption in favour of any revelation
which bore this scientific hallmark, which indicated, that is
to say, that God's Word had unfolded itself to men, like His
works. ' Now if science searches the field of theology for an addi
tional revelation, it will find a Bible awaiting it — a Bible in
two forms. The one is the Bible as it was presented to our
forefathers ; the other is the Bible of modern theology. The
books, the chapters, the verses, and the words are the same
in each; yet in form they are two entirely different Bibles.
To science the difference is immediately palpable. Judging
of each of them from its own standpoint, science perceives,
after a brief examination, that the distinction between them
is one with which it has been long familiar. In point of fact,
the one is constructed, like the world, according to the old
cosmogonies, while the other is an evolution. The one rep
resents revelation as having been produced on the creative
hypothesis, the Divine-fiat hypothesis, the ready-made hypoth-

2C2 HENRY DRUMMOND [1885
esis; the other on the slow-growth or evolution theory. It
is at once obvious which of them science would prefer — it
could no more accept the first than it could accept the ready-
made theory of the universe.
' Nothing could be more important than to assure science
that the same difficulty has for some time been felt, and with
quite equal keenness, by theology. The scientific method in
its hard, scientific theology has been laboriously working at
a reconstruction of biblical truth from this very view-point of
development. And it no more pledges itself to-day to the in
terpretations of the Bible of a thousand years ago than does
science to the interpretations of nature in the time of Pythag
oras. Nature is the same to-day as in the time of Pythago
ras, and the Bible is the same to-day as a thousand years ago.
But the Pythagorean interpretation of nature is not less objec
tionable to the modern mind than are many ancient interpre
tations of the Scriptures to the scientific theologian.
' The supreme contribution of Evolution to Religion is that
it has given it a clearer Bible. Science is the great explainer,
the great expositor, not only of nature, but of everything it
touches. Its function is to arrange things and make them
reasonable. And it has arranged the Bible in a new way,
and made it as different as science has made the world. It
is not going too far to say that there are many things in the
Bible which are hard to reconcile with our ideas of a just and
good God. This is only expressing what even the most de
vout and simple minds constantly feel, and feel to be sorely
perplexing, in reading especially the Old Testament. But
these difficulties arise simply from an old-fashioned or un
scientific view of what the Bible is, and are similar to the
difficulties found in nature when interpreted either without
the aid of science, or with the science of many centuries ago.
We see now that the mind of man has been slowly devel
oping, that the race has been gradually educated, and that
revelation has been adapted from the first to the various and
successive stages through which that development passed.
' The moral difficulties of the Old Testament are admittedly
great. But when approached from the new standpoint, when
they are seen to be rudiments of truth spoken and acted in

^T. 33] EVOLUTION AND REVELATION 253
strange ways to attract and teach children, they vanish one
by one. For instance, we are told that the iniquities of the
fathers are to be visited upon the children unto the third and
fourth generation. The impression upon the early mind un
doubtedly must have been that this was a solemn threat which
God would carry out in anger in individual cases. We now
know, however, that this is simply the doctrine of heredity.
A child inherits its parents' nature, not as a special punish
ment, but by natural law. In those days that could not be
explained. Natural law was a word unknown, and the truth
has to be put provisionally in a form that all could under
stand. And even many of the miracles may have explana
tions in fact or in principle, which, without destroying the
idea of the miraculous, may show the naturalness of the
supernatural. ' The theory of the Bible, which makes belief in a revela
tion possible to the man of science, Christianity owes to the
scientific method. It is not suggested that the evolution the
ory in theology was introduced to satisfy the mind of the
scientific thinker, any more than that his appreciation of it is
the test of its truth. As regards the latter, it is to be weighed
on its own evidence and judged by its fruits ; and as regards
the question of origin, its ancestry is much more reputable,
for it was not a concession to any theory, but rose out of the
facts themselves. Indeed, long before evolution was formu
lated in science, discerning minds had seen, with an enthusi
asm which few could at that time share, the slow, steady,
upward growth of theological truth to ever higher and nobler
forms. . . . [He here quotes John Henry Newman on the
development of theology.] However physical science may
have contributed to this result, it is certain that the method is
not the creation of science. ...
'Evolution is the ever-recurring theme in theology as in
nature. We might indeed almost have grouped the entire
contribution of science to Christianity around this point. No
truth now can remain unaffected by evolution. Evolution has
given to theology some wholly new departments. It has
given to it a vastly more reasonable body of truth about God
and man, about sin and salvation. It has lent it a firmer base.

254

HENRY DRUMMOND [1885

an enlarged horizon, and a wider faith. But its great contri
bution, on which all these depend, is to the doctrine of
revelation. ' What, then, does this mean for revelation ? It means, in
plain language, that Evolution has given Christianity a new
Bible. Its peculiarity is that in its form it is like the world in
which it is found. It is a word, but its root is now known,
and we have other words from the same root. Its substance
is still the unchanged language of heaven, yet it is written in
a familiar tongue. The new Bible is a book whose parts,
though not of unequal value, are seen to be of different kinds
of value, where the casual is distinguished from the essential,
the local from the universal, the subordinate from the primal
end. This Bible is not a book which has been made ; it has
grown. Hence it is no longer a mere word-book, nor a com
pendium of doctrines, but a nursery of growing truths. It is
not an even plane of proof texts without proportion, or
emphasis, or light and shade; but a revelation varied as
nature, with the divine in its hidden parts, in its spirit, its
tendencies, its obscurities, and its omissions. Like nature, it
has successive strata, and valley and hilltop, and mist and
atmosphere, and rivers which are flowing still, and here and
there a place which is desert, and fossils too, whose crude
forms are the stepping-stones to higher things. It is a record
of inspired deeds as well as of inspired words, an ascending
series of inspired facts in a matrix of human history.
' Now it is to be marked that this is not the product of any
destructive movement, nor is this transformed book in any
sense a mutilated Bible. All this has taken place, it may be,
without the elimination of a book or the loss of an important
word. It is simply the transformation by a method whose
main warrant is that the book lends itself to it.
' It may be said, and for a time it will continue to be said,
that the Christian does not need a transformed Bible; and
fortunately, or in some cases unfortunately, this is the case.
For years yet the old Bible will continue to nourish the soul
of the Church, as it has nourished it in the past; and the
needy heart will in all time manage to feed itself apart from
any forms. But there is a class, and an ever-increasing class,

Mr. 33] EVOLUTION AND REVELATION 255
to whom the form is much. Theology is only beginning to
reahse how radical is the change in mental attitude of those
who have learned to think from science. Intercourse with
the ways of nature breeds a mental attitude of its own. It is
an attitude worthy of its master. In this presence the student
is face to face with what is real. He is looking with his own
eyes at facts, at what God did. He finds things in nature
just as its Maker left them; and from ceaseless contact with
phenomena which will not change for man, and with laws
which he has never known to swerve, he fears to trust his mind
to anything less. Now this Bible which has been described
is the presentation to this age of men who have learned this
habit. They have studied the facts; they have looked with
their own eyes at what God did; and they are giving us a
book which is more than the devout man's Bible, though it is
as much as ever the devout man's Bible. It is the apologist's
Bible. It is long since the apologist has had a Bible. The
Bible of our infancy was not an apologist's Bible. There are
things in the Old Testament cast in his teeth by sceptics to
which he has simply no answer. These are the things, the
miserable things, the masses have laid hold of. They are the
stock-in-trade to-day of the free-thought platform and the
secularist pamphleteer. And, surprising as it is, there are not
a few honest seekers who are made timid and suspicious, not a
few on the outskirts of Christianity who are kept from coming
farther in, by the half-truths which a new exegesis, a recon
sideration of the historic setting, and a clearer view of the
moral purposes of God would change from barriers into bul
warks of the faith. Such a Bible scientific theology is giving
us, and it cannot be proclaimed to the mass of the people too
soon. It is no more fair to raise and brandish objections to
the Bible without first studying carefully what scientific theo
logians have to say on the subject, than it would be fair for
one who derived his views of the natural world from
Pythagoras to condemn all science. It is expected in criti
cisms of science that the critic's knowledge should at least be
up to date, that he is attacking what science really holds, and
the same justice is to be awarded to the science of theology.
When science makes its next attack upon theology, if indeed

256 HENRY DRUMMOND [1886
that shall ever be again, it will find an armament, largely
furnished by itself, which has made the Bible as impregnable
as nature.
' One question, finally, will determine the ultimate worth of
this contribution to Christianity. Does it help it practically .'
Does it impoverish or enrich the soul ? Does it lower or exalt
God.? These questions, with regard to one or two of the
elementary truths of religion, have been partially answered
already. But a closing illustration from the highest of all
will show that here also science is not silent.
'Science has nothing finer to offer Christianity than the
exaltation of its supreme conception — God. Is it too much
to say that in a practical age like the present, when the idea
and practice of worship tend to be forgotten, God should wish
to reveal Himself afresh in ever more striking ways ? Is it
too much to say that at this distance from creation, with the
eye of theology resting largely upon the incarnation and work
of the Man Christ Jesus, the Almighty should design with
more and more impressiveness to utter Himself as the Wonder
ful, the Counsellor, the Great and Mighty God.? Whether
this be so or not, it is certain that every step of science
discloses the attributes of the Almighty with a growing
magnificence. . .'
So much for the Expositor articles. About a year
after they were published, Drummond wrote for the
Ninetee7tth Century a short article entitled ' Mr. Glad
stone and Genesis.' It appeared ^ under one on the
same subject by Mr. Huxley. Mr. Gladstone and Mr.
Huxley had been waging a controversy upon the rela
tions between the teaching of Genesis and that of
modern science upon the creation or evolution of life.
In an article on the ' Dawn of Creation and Wor
ship,' Mr. Gladstone committed himself to three propo
sitions : The first, that, according to the writer of the
Pentateuch, the ' water population,' the ' air population,'
and the ' land population,' of the globe were created
' February, 1886.

iET. 34] EVOLUTION AND REVELATION 257
successively in the order named ; the second, that this
has been ' so affirmed in our time by natural science
that it may be taken as a demonstrated conclusion and
established fact ; ' and the third, that the fact of this
coincidence of the Pentateuchal story with the results
of modern investigation makes it ' impossible to avoid
the conclusion, first, that either this writer was gifted
with faculties passing all human experience, or else his
knowledge was divine.' And accepting, of course, the
second of these alternatives, Mr. Gladstone declared :
' So stands the plea for a revelation of truth from God,
a plea only to be met by questioning its possibility.'
In answer to this, Mr. Huxley had little difficulty in-
showing that Mr. Gladstone's second proposition was
' not merely inaccurate, but directly contradictory
of facts known to every one who is acquainted with
the elements of natural science,' and arguing that
therefore the ' third proposition collapses of itself.' In
other words, Mr. Gladstone based his ' plea for a revela
tion of truth from God ' upon the agreement, which
he asserted, of the first chapter of Genesis with the
discoveries of modern science. Mr. Huxley denied
that agreement, and concluded that with it there dis
appeared all argument for a divine revelation. It was
at this point that Drummond intervened, with the
assertion that the question which the two antagonists
debated, that, namely, of the harmony between Genesis
and modern science, was absolutely irrelevant to the
problem of revelation. On the one side he accepted
Mr. Huxley's statement that it is impossible to harmo
nise Genesis and science ; on the other side, he de
nied that the contradiction between them was fatal to
the belief that Genesis contains ' a revelation of truth
from God.'
He showed how from the standpoint of the new

258 HENRY DRUMMOND [1886
science of Biblical criticism ' the problem of the recon
ciliation of Genesis with geology simply disappears.
The question, in fact, is as irrelevant as that of the
Senior Wrangler who asked what Milton's Paradise
Lost was meant to prove.' Biblical criticism, he says,^
has pronounced the Bible 'to be absolutely free of natu
ral science ' — he means, of course, in its modern shape.
' The critics,' he continues in the rest of his article, ' find
there history, poetry, moral philosophy, theology, lives and
letters, mystical, devotional, and didactic pieces ; but science
there is none. Natural objects are, of course, repeatedly
referred to, and with unsurpassed sympathy and accuracy of
observation ; but neither in the intention of any of the innu
merable authors nor in the execution of their work is there
any direct trace of scientific teaching. Could any one with
any historic imagination for a moment expect that there
would have been .' There was no science then. Scientific
questions were not even asked then. To have given men
science would not only have been an anachronism, but a
source of mystification and confusion all along the line. The
almost painful silence — indeed, the absolute sterility — -of
the Bible with regard to science is so marked as to have led
men to question the very beneficence of God. Why was not
the use of the stars explained to navigators, or chloroform to
surgeons .' Why is a man left to die on the hillside when the
medicinal plant which could save him, did he but know it,
lies at his feet ? What is it to early man to know how the
moon was made } What he wants to know is how bread is
made. How fish are to be caught, fowls snared, beasts
trapped and their skins tanned — these are his problems.
Doubtless there are valid reasons why the Bible does not
contain a technological dictionary and a pharmacopceia, or
anticipate the Encyclopcedia Britannica. But that it does not
inform us on these practical matters is surely a valid argu
ment why we should not expect it to instruct the world in
geology. Mr. Huxley is particular to point out to us that the
1 After repeating the paragraphs of his Expositor article given above on pp
251 fr. ^^'

^T. 34] EVOLUTION AND REVELATION 259
bat and the pterodactyle must be classified under the "winged
fowl" of Genesis, while at a stretch he believes the cockroach
might also be included. But we should not wonder if the
narrator did not think of this.
'Scientific men, apparently, need this warning, not less
than those whom they punish for neglecting it. How igno
rantly, often, the genius of the Bible is comprehended by
those who are loudest in their denunciations of its positions
otherwise, is typically illustrated in the following passage
from Haeckel. Having in an earlier paragraph shown a
general harmony between the Mosaic cosmogony and his
own theory of creation, he proceeds to extract out of Genesis
nothing less than the evolution theory, and that in its last
and highest developments : —
' " Two great and fundamental ideas, common also to the
non-miraculous theory of development, meet us in this Mosaic
hypothesis of creation with surprising clearness and simplicity
— the idea of separation or differentiation, and the idea of
progressive development or perfecting. Although Moses looks
upon the results of the great laws of organic development
... as the direct actions of a constructing Creator, yet in
his theory there lies hidden the ruling idea of a progressive
development and a differentiation of the originally simple
matter." ^
' With the next breath this interpreter of Genesis exposes
"two great fundamental errors" in the same chapter of the
book in which he has just discovered the most scientific
phases of the evolution hypothesis, and which lead him to
express for Moses "just wonder and admiration." What can
be the matter with this singular book ? Why is it science to
Haeckel one minute and error the next ? Why are Haeckel
and Mr. Huxley not agreed if it is science ? Why are Haeckel
and Mr. Gladstone agreed if it is religion ? If Mr. Huxley
does not agree with Haeckel, why does he not agree with Mr.
Gladstone .'
' George Macdonald has an exquisite little poem called
"Baby's Catechism." It occurs among his children's pieces :
1 Haeckel, History of Creation, vol. i. p. 38.

26o HENRY DRUMMOND [1886
' "Where did you come from, baby dear?
Out of the everywhere into here.
Where did you get your eyes so blue ?
Out of the sky as I came through.
Where did you get that little tear?
I found it waiting when I got here.
Where did you get that pearly ear?
God spoke, and it came out to hear.
How did they all just come to be you?
God thought about me and so I grew."
' For its purpose what could be a finer, or even a more true,
account of the matter than this ? Without a word of literal
truth in it, it would convey to the child's mind exactly the
right impression. Now conceive of the head nurse banishing
it from the nursery as calculated to mislead the children as to
the origin of blue eyes. Or imagine the nursery governess,
who has passed the South Kensington examination in Mr.
Huxley's " Physiology," informing her pupils that ears never
"came out" at all, and that hearing was really done inside,
by the fibres of Corti and the epithelial arrangements of the
maculas acusticae. Is it conceivable, on the other hand, that
the parish clergyman could defend the record on the ground
that " the everywhere " was a philosophical presentation of the
Almighty, or that " God thought about me " contained the
Hegelian Idea ? And yet this is precisely what interpreters
of Genesis and interpreters of science do with the Bible.
Genesis is a presentation of one or two great elementary
truths to the childhood of the world. It can only be read
aright in the spirit in which it was written, with its original
purpose in view, and its original audience. What did it
mean to them ? What would they understand by it ? What
did they need to know and not to know ?
' To expand the constructive answers to these questions in
detail does not fall within our province here. What we have
to note is that a scientific theory of the universe formed no
part of the original writer's intention. Dating from the child
hood of the world, written for children, and for that child-spirit

^T. 34] EVOLUTION AND REVELATION 26 1
in man which remains unchanged by time, it takes colour and
shape accordingly. Its object is purely religious, the point
being, not how certain things were made, but that God made
them. It is not dedicated to science, but to the soul. It is a
sublime theology, given in view of ignorance or idolatry or
polytheism, telling the worshipful youth of the world that the
heavens and the earth and every creeping and flying thing
were made by God. What world-spirit teaches men to finger
its fluid members like a science catalogue, and discuss its
days in terms of geological formations ? What blindness pur
sues them, that they mark the things He made only with their
museum-labels, and think they have exhausted its contribution
when they have never even been within sight of it ? This is
not even atheism. It is simple illiterateness.
'The first principle which must rule our reading of this
book is the elementary canon of all literary criticism, which
decides that any interpretation of a part of a book or of a
literature must be controlled by the dominant purpose or motif
of the whole. And when one investigates that dominant pur
pose in the case of the Bible, he finds it reducing itself to one
thing — religion. No matter what view is taken of the com
position or authorship of the several books, this feature
secures immediate and universal recognition.
' " Mais s'il en est ainsi (says Lenormant), me demandera-
t-on peut-6tre. Ou done voyez-vous I'inspiration divine des
dcrivains qui ont fait cette archeologie, le secours surnaturel
dont, comme chrdtien, vous devez les croire guides ? Ou ?
Dans I'esprit absolument nouveau qui anime leur narration,
bien que la forme en soit restee presque de tout point la
meme que chez les peuples voisins." ^
' A second principle is expressed with such appositeness to
the present purpose, by an English commentator, that his
words may be given at length : —
' " There is a principle frequently insisted on, scarcely denied
by any, yet recognised with sufficient clearness by few of the
advocates of revelation, which, if fully and practically recog
nised, would have saved themselves much perplexity and
1 Les Origines de I'Histoire, Pref., xviii.

262 HENRY DRUMMOND ['886
vexation, and the cause they have at heart the disgrace with
which it has been covered by the futile attempts that have
been made, through provisional and shifting interpretations,
to reconcile the Mosaic Genesis with the rapidly advancing
strides of physical science. The principle referred to is this :
matters which are discoverable by human reason, and the
means of investigation which God has put within the reach
of man's faculties, are not the proper subjects of Divine
revelation ; and matters which do not concern morals, or bear
on man's spiritual relations towards God, are not within the
province of revealed religion." ^
' Here lies the whole matter. It is involved in the mere
meaning of revelation, and proved by its whole expression,
that its subject-matter is that which men could not find out
for themselves. Men could find out the order in which the
world was made. What they could not find out was, that
God made it. To this day they have not found that out.
Even some of the wisest of our contemporaries, after trying
to find that out for half a lifetime, have been forced to give
it up. Hence the true function of revelation. Nature in
Genesis has no link with geology, seeks none and needs
none : man has no link with biology, and misses none. What
he really needs and really misses — for he can get it nowhere
else — Genesis gives him ; it links nature and man with their
Maker. And this is the one high sense in which Genesis
can be said to be scientific. The scientific man must go
there to complete his science, or it remains forever incom
plete. Let him no longer resort thither to attack what is not
really there. What is really there he cannot attack, for he
cannot do without it. Nor let religion plant positions there
which can only keep science out. Then only can the inter
preters of Nature and the interpreters of Genesis understand
each other.'
From all this it is apparent how far Drummond had
travelled from the positions of the older orthodoxy
which he described in the college essay, quoted on
pages 46, 47. These positions had been the intel-
1 Quarry, Genesis, pp. \2, 13.

^T. 34] EVOLUTION AND REVELATION 263
lectual basis of the Christian faith for centuries. To
question them seemed to many to be treason; to
abandon them, madness. But Drummond was forced
from them by his study of facts in the departments of
natural science and of Biblical criticism and Biblical
theology. And upon the new positions to which he
was led he has evidently found a basis for his faith
more stable than ever the older was imagined to be,
richer mines of Christian experience and truth, better
vantage grounds for preaching the gospel of Christ,
and loftier summits, with infinitely wider prospects of
the power of God and of the destiny of man.
Drummond's exposition of revelation, as also an
evolution, needs to be supplemented by only one
remark, which, when he wrote his articles it was not
possible to make with confidence. Recent researches
into the origins of the Old Testament have proved
that the factor in the extraordinary development of
moral and religious truth, which is so discernible in
the history of Israel and in their gradual ascent to
the loftiest heights of spiritual knowledge from the
low levels of life which they had once occupied with
their Semitic neighbours, was the impression upon
the people as a whole through the wonderful deeds of
their history and the experience of their greatest
minds of the character of God. But to impress the
character of God upon a people so sensitive and so
responsive is revelation in its purest and most effective
form.

CHAPTER XI
1884-1890
THE PROFESSORSHIP AT GLASGOW— THE GROSVENOR HOUSE
ADDRESSES— ASSOCIATED WORKERS' LEAGUE — POLITICS AND
HOME RULE FOR IRELAND — REFUSAL TO STAND FOR PAR
LIAMENT — SWITZERLAND — HIS FATHER'S DEATH — FIRST AT
TEMPTS AT THE ASCENT OF Af^A^- SECOND SERIES OF
GROSVENOR HOUSE ADDRESSES —THE '88 CLUB — SWITZER
LAND AND VENICE — MEETING WITH BROWNING — COLLEGE
SETTLEMENTS — PREPARATIONS FOR AUSTRALIA — OPINIONS
ON MEN, BOOKS, AND MOVEMENTS
Soon after he returned from Africa Henry Drum
mond was promoted by the Church to the status of a
Professor of Theology.
In April, 1883, Mr. James Stevenson, of Largs, had
offered to the Free Church funds sufficient for a consid
erable increase of the salary of the Science Lecturer
in Glasgow College, provided that the office was
raised to an equal rank with that of the four Pro
fessors who formed the Senate. The General As
sembly of 1883 accepted Mr. Stevenson's offer, and
remitted the proposal of the Professorship to the Pres
byteries. By a majority of four to one these decided
in its favour, and by 260 votes to 167 the General
Assembly of 1884 'enacted and ordained that the
Theological Faculty of Glasgow shall consist of five
professors instead of four, the addirional professor
being a professor of Natural Science.' The title was
interpreted in the same sense as that of the corre
sponding chair in New College, Edinburgh, — so its
occupant, Professor Duns, wrote to Drummond, —
264

1884 265
which had been chosen ' as sufficient to secure the
intimate theological relations of the chair, and to give
free scope for the Professor to deal with all the ques
tions of a physico-theological kind sure to turn up as
science advances. The place of the chair in a theo
logical college was from the first held to settle its
character and scope.' The Assembly reserved the
right to revise the constitution of the chair whenever
Natural Science should be included in the Arts cur
riculum of the universities.^
On May 31 Drummond was unanimously elected
to the new chair, and the Assembly instructed the
Presbytery of Glasgow to arrange for his ' ordination
and induction.' This took place on November 4 in
College Free Church, according to the simple Scottish
rite, and by laying on of the hands of the Presbytery?
This rite is the same in the case whether of a min
ister or of a professor, for the Church of Scotland
recognises no difference between her teachers and her
^ The deliverance of the Assembly of 1884, constituting the chair, declared:
'In accordance with the wishes of James Stevenson, Esq., who has provided the
endowment, that in the event of such arrangements being made for the teaching
of Natural Science as part of the M.A. curriculum in the universities as may
malte it inexpedient or unnecessary to keep up this chair on its present footing,
it shall be competent for the Church to revise the constitution of the chair, and
to determine the subjects to be taught as may then be most suitable, retaining
the basis of the relation of science and theology, and adding such subjects as
are cognate.' — Assembly Blue Book, 1884, pp. 69, 70.
^ There had been some uncertainty about this. Drummond was ordained an
elder of the Church on his appointment to the lectureship, and Mr. Stevenson
wrote Principal Rainy and Dr. Melville, the Principal Clerk of Assembly, that
surely it was not necessary to ordain him as minister. Dr. Melville replied that
the Assembly wished to place the Professor of Natural Science on the same foot
ing as his colleagues, but that Drummond's ordination to the ministry need not
prejudice any future appointment to the chair of a layman, who was an elder.
This was what Mr. Stevenson had wished to secure. Probably also Drummond
himself had been anxious not to be ordained as a full minister of the Church ; for
after the ordination, and to the end of his life, he persisted — to the amusement of
his friends — that he had never been ordained as a minister. The fact, however,
is beyond all doubt. On November 4, 1884, he received by the hands of the
Glasgow Presbytery the full orders of the Presbyterian Church.

266 HENRY DRUMMOND
pastors, but lays them under the same vows and ordains
them all as ministers of Christ's Gospel and of His
Sacraments. The form is as follows: After public
worship the candidate stands up before the congrega
tion. In answer to the questions of the presiding
minister he declares his ' belief in the Scriptures of the
Old and New Testaments as the Word of God, and
the only rule of faith and manners ' ; his acceptance of
the doctrines of the Church as defined in the Westmin
ster Confession of Faith ; ^ his adherence to the Presby
terian form of church government ; his loyalty to the
' spirituality and freedom of the Church under the sole
headship of the Lord Jesus Christ,' for which the Free
Church of Scotland testified and separated from the
State in 1843; and that 'zeal for the honour of God,
love to Jesus Christ, and the desire of saving souls are
his great motives and inducements in entering into
the function of the Holy Ministry.' Having signed the
formula the candidate kneels before the Moderator
(that is, the presiding minister), who offers the
ordination prayer, the other ministers of the Presby
tery standing round. When the prayer invokes the
Holy Spirit upon ' this our brother whom we solemnly
ordain and set apart to the office of the ministry,'
the Presbytery lay their hands upon the head of
the kneeling man. At the close of the prayer, he
stands up and receives his induction from the Mod
erator ' in the name and by authority of the Lord Jesus
Christ,' and the Presbytery give him the right hand of
fellowship. He is then suitably charged by one of the
ministers, and his congregation, or students, as the
case may be, are also exhorted. When Drummond
was ordained, the presiding minister was the Reverend
1 Which confession is now interpreted according to a Declaratory Act passed
by the General Assembly in 1893.

1884 267
George Reith of College Free Church, who delivered
the following charge : —
'Your appearance this day reminds us of the faith our
Church wisely reposes in a trained and cultivated ministry.
No wise man will undervalue culture, especially in the line
of scientific investigations — the peculiar feature of our time.
The more of culture a man has the better for his hearers.
But, after all, we may mistake wherein lies power, and
besides it is not with a few cultured sceptics a Church has to
do. It is with the great masses of men. I very sincerely
rejoice that you have earned, I will not say a better title to
your chair, but I do say an equally valid title, by your sym
pathy with the evangelistic work of our Church, and your
very considerable practical acquaintance with it. A professor
is all the better for having known the practical work of the
ministry ; and in your case, though the name has been want
ing, the thing has been there. We look to you as one espe
cially qualified to show how culture and sympathy with evan
gelistic work are to go hand in hand. We look to you to
impress your students with the love of men. You can teach
them what culture can, and what it cannot do. You can
teach them — and from your lips it will come with additional
emphasis — that to gain men we must lay down our lives for
them, and that our true power is the power of the Master we
serve, the love that moves to daily self-sacrifice.'
Professor Drummond then delivered his inaugural
address on the ' Contribution of Science to Christian
ity ' — virtually the same as the articles in the Expos
itor, summarised in the previous chapter.
To fames Stevenson, Esq.
'3 Carlton Gardens, Kelvinside, Glasgow,
November 13, 1884.
' Thank you for your very kind note on the morning
of my induction. There was more interest in the
starting of this chair than in anything that has

268 HENRY DRUMMOND
happened publicly in the history of this Glasgow
College. The inauguration was advertised for
the College Hall, but the audience would have
filled it three or four times, and we had to have
it in Mr. Reith's church. I am quite sure there
is a great and increasing interest in the subject.
The Philosophy men find it hard to believe that
the day of science has come, but I am sure four-
fifths of our Church are not only favourable, but
enthusiastically favourable, to our science chairs.-^
' I believe in the work of this chair more and more
every day. Indeed, perhaps it is due to you that
I should tell you what I have not told any one
here, that I lately refused a very lucrative govern
ment appointment lest it should hinder me in
my new work.' ^
' Our session,' wrote Principal Douglas to Mr. Steven
son on December 8, ' has begun this winter, I think,
well. Drummond is very popular with the young
men, and I hope you will have evidence that he is
exercising a healthy and powerful influence.' There
were ninety-five regular students (twenty-five of them
in their first year), and twenty non-regular. The
course through which Drummond took his class con
tinued to be the same as it had been.^ He lectured
four hours a week, and, besides expounding the prin
ciples of modern science and their relation to religion,
taught the elements of botany and geology, and, I
believe, a little zoology. It is clear that in the short
session — the lectures numbered about eighty — a
thorough treatment of these sciences was impossible,
iThis was not the case. The chair would never have been created but for
Drummond's personality, and Mr. Stevenson's generous offer.
^ The secretaryship of the Shipping Commission.
^ See above, page 130.

1884 269
and students who had already taken any of them at
the University must have found Drummond's teach
ing rudimentary. But, as an ' old student ' has said,^
' Drummond did his students a world of good by
teaching them some of the general principles which
underlie all science, and by making them feel that
truth is indivisible, whether it be of science or religion.
He taught his students at least not to fear science ;
and if they could not get a complete reconciliation,
meanwhile they must work with broad, flexible hy
potheses which would keep their minds from harden
ing and narrowing. Once a week at College he used
to give his class special lectures, beginning with the
evolution of the world, and coming down to the evolu
tion of life. These were intensely interesting, and
had a certain apologetic purpose, and were more use
ful than the mere teaching^ of the rudiments of science.'
Probably Drummond did even more good to his
students in another way. The education of nearly all
of them had been confined to languages, literature,
and philosophy, with some mathematics. He drew
their attention to the common facts of nature. About
three weeks after the beginning of the session, he used
to set what he called an ' ignorance examination.'
The questions were such as : ' What are air, water,
earth.? What is the use of a leaf.? What makes a
leaf fall.? What is the use of a flower? What do
frees live on .? What makes the sea salt .? Why are
mountainous districts rainy ? What colour or colours
are the stars ? Define a volcano. What happens
chemically, first in striking, second in burning, a
wooden match.? Name any two of Mr. Darwin's
works, and their theses. Define Natural Selection.'
No marks were given for the answers. Each paper
1 Article in the Woman at Home for 1897, by H. B.

270 HENRY DRUMMOND
was treated as if anonymous, but it was carefully
reviewed before the whole class, and thus students
received a healthy knowledge of their ignorance,
both of the common facts of nature and of the
dominant methods of science.
Drummond remembered his ordination vows, and
welcomed his work in the College for the time which
it left him to minister to a far wider congregation in
the matters of morality and religion. Of this ministry
an enormous increase was brought to him by the fame
of his book. Having read his African journal, one
is tempted to regret that he did not spend a quiet
year in elaborating the results of his travels into a
careful treatise upon the geology and resources of the
Zambezi and the Nyasa regions. He could have given
us such a work, and it would have established his
scientific reputation upon a height from which his
subsequent ministry might have been directed with
perhaps even greater force than it actually achieved.
That he considered the question is clear from the
following letter from R. W. Barbour : —
The Free Manse, Cults, Aberdeen, 17th August, 1884.
' Henry is here and it is good to entertain angels
awares or unawares. I expect the Lord often looked
like he does, a mere man of the world, dining out
and living in rich men's houses — to the Pharisees at
least. ' Henry says it is his birthday — he is thirty-three
to-day — but it has felt liker my own. He spoke to us
to-night on Paul's Hymn of Heavenly Love in the
thirteenth of First Corinthians, and it was like being
in heaven or in sight of it, to hear him. One had the
sweet pain of seeing something which he might strive
after for many days.

1884 271
'Monday, 8.20 p.m.
' I have just been down seeing Mr.  , who was
announced at eight. I went in fear and trembling,
lest he should be going to raise a cry about Drum
mond's doctrine, or ask me to hold a franchise meet
ing, but — it was ordinary business. I expect Henry
will leave to-day to see after his MSS. for winter.
He is hesitating whether to give some time to vigor
ous scientific work, as a monograph on some of his
African spoils, or whether to go in entirely for evan
gelism. I think the latter will have it.'
The latter did have it, and could not but have it.
Since his return from Africa Drummond was met by
numerous appeals for counsel in religious difficulties
and for assistance in moral and social work. He
found door after door opened to him among classes of
men to which the ordinary ministers of religion had no
access, or having access, upon which they had no real
influence. Into two spheres, especially, there seemed
to be a strong call for him to enter. His work in one
of these, the life of our universities, was large enough
to need here a chapter to itself. At present we may
take the other.
So distinguished a writer as the author of Natural
Law in the Spiritual World was bound to be sought
after by the more religious portions of what is termed
'Society.' By 1884 the evangelical movement in
Great Britain had lost much of the doctrinal influence
which it previously exercised upon the higher ranks
of the community. The more serious among the
younger generation of these were loyal to Christ,
anxious for His sake to do good works, but, like many
men and women of their time, in considerable intel
lectual uncertainty. In the author of Natural Law
they discovered a teacher, with a strong fresh mind

272

HENRY DRUMMOND

of his own; not only a subtle expert in religious
experience, but one who enforced the principles of
Christianity apart from ecclesiastical formulas. From
such persons of position there came in April and May,
1884, a number of letters, either addressed to Drum
mond himself asking an interview, or addressed to
those who knew him asking an introduction. When
the writers met him they found a man of sim
plicity and winsomeness, courteous, unassuming, and
generous in the communication of his apparently
exhaustless stores of experience in dealing with men
and women with religious difficulties. Our national
life is probably nowhere so sensitive to influence as
throughout its upper ranks, and the individuals who
had been benefited by Drummond busied themselves
to extend the boon throughout their class. The cor
respondence which ensued is one of very great interest,
but it involves the views and personal experiences of
so many who are still alive, that it is impossible to
quote largely from it. Among the new friends
found by Drummond were Lord and Lady Aberdeen,
with whom his relations for the rest of his life were
most close and affectionate. The following; corre-
spondence with Lord Aberdeen relates to a movement
for which Drummond's help was asked, and which
took shape not only in the remarkable addresses de
livered in Grosvenor House, but in the still more prof
itable enlistment of a number of the families of
London society in various forms of philanthropy.
The nine months which intervened between his return
from Africa and the date at which this new crusade
opened, Drummond spent in a visit to the Perth Con
ference ; in an autumn visit to Haddo House,^ with
addresses and lectures in the neighbourhood; in a
^ Lord Aberdeen's.

i885 273
visit to the Y.M.C.A. Convention in Dublin ; in his
winter work at college; in lecturing on Africa in
Liverpool, before the Edinburgh Philosophical Insti
tution, and elsewhere ; and in organising the religious
movement among the students of the Scottish uni
versities. To the Earl of Aberdeen
'3 Carlton Gardens, Glasgow, March 5, 1885.
' I quite thought I should have been able to have
answered your letter and Lady Aberdeen's to
day. But light comes very slowly; and though I
have been thinking over the request very seriously,
I am still in the twilight. I fear I must therefore
beg you to allow me a few more hours before
writing in defalk My difficulties are: —
'I. To lecture in the circumstances named would
be a matter of very great delicacy and difficulty,
and to prepare a set of lectures worthy of the
object would require months of careful prepa-
ration._
'2. I am seriously involved just now in the work
among students. This is spreading daily, and is
now extending to the other universities. Whither
it may develop one cannot foresee ; but, as nothing
like this has ever happened in my lifetime, I am
not sure but that my immediate duty lies here.
We have many plans for April, and there are very
few men among the professors who give any help.
What makes me shrink from the idea of running
away from it prematurely is the profound convic
tion that this university movement is a distinct
work of God — such a work as I, after consider
able experience of evangelistic work, have never
seen before.

2 74 HENRY DRUMMOND
'I must not disguise from you, also, that I would
have little faith in my lecturing producing any
permanent result. The lecture, as a weapon,
always has seemed to me a poor influence in
religion; and although, as Lady Aberdeen very
kindly says, my book has won for me some friends,
I cannot shut my eyes to the fact that it has also
won me many enemies — witness the critic who
dances upon me so mercilessly in this month's
Contemporary.
' I should really have some faith in addresses of a
simple kind — not written lectures, but clear state
ments of what Christianity really is, what personal
religion really is, and evangelical matter generally.
To attempt this would be very much more trying ;
but if the call came I would feel that I dared not
shrink from it. . . .' 'March 7th, 1885.
' Your most considerate letter, this moment handed
to me, relieves me much. It was the word lecture
that frightened me. This simplifies matters
greatly.'
Finally Drummond agreed to give three addresses
in the ballroom of Grosvenor House, the Duke of
Westminster's, on the afternoons of the last Sunday
in April and of the first two in May. Between the
second and third he joined us at our club, held this
year at Grasmere, and told us of his new work. The
only record I have been able to discover is one by
Robert Barbour in a letter to his wife.

^88s 275
From Robert W. Barbour
'Prince of Wales' Hotel, Grasmere, May 5, 1885.
' I slipped along the passage here, guided by the sound
of friendly voices, and slapped Ewing on the shoulder
as he was entering the room. Such a burst of greet
ings met me from half a dozen voices and faces:
Frank's and Henry's and George's, Mr. Stalker's, Mr.
Ross's, Mr. Brown's, and Mr. Skene's. Mr. Watson is
going abroad, so cannot come. The change from the
darkness and the raw night air with a chill north wind
blowing in my face as we drove, my dogcart-man and
I, the ten miles along the lakes from Windermere, to
the light and warmth of our snug dining-room, was
very pleasant. I think the faces all look older —
perhaps having missed a year makes a difference —
and I am older too. The time alone last year drew
me apart from every one, I think, only to be nearer of
course, but still not to depend on any one outside so
much henceforward. Henry looks least changed. His
Master makes him ever young.^ He came up from
London, where he has been giving addresses in Gros
venor House these two Sabbaths past. At supper
Mr. Stalker was the chief talker, taking off (in a
genial sympathetic way) several of Henry's " colts," and
what things they had said and done in his pulpit.' "
'May 6th.
' We are just in from a herrlicher Tag. We started
at 10.30 for Helvellyn. . . . The climb was be
guiled by Henry telling me of the Grosvenor House
meetings. They are held in the ballroom of the
1 At another ' Gaiety ' meeting Barbour had described Drummond ' princely
and bevritching as ever.'
2 These were the members of the Students' Holiday Mission. See below, pp.
327 ff-

276 HENRY DRUMMOND
duke's house, which may hold 650. The invitation
is made through the society column of the Mortting
Post. Any one who wants to come may call for a
ticket at Lord Aberdeen's. The first day the place
was filled, and none were turned away. The second
another room was thrown open. There is no service
— just an address for an hour. The first day Forster,
Childers, etc., were sitting next to him on the platform
and the room was full of members of the Upper
House. They came expecting to hear a lecture on
science, but Henry took the simplest evangelical sub
ject he could — about Conversion. He never felt so
horrid in his life, but I think he must have been
greatly helped. At the end he asked them to engage
with him in prayer. He said it seemed to take them
by surprise, but they all knelt down. It is a wonder
ful opportunity God is giving him, and he is wonder
fully fitted for it. Looking at him moving among
us, I have the feeling I used to have about  :
it is a noble creature of God. We must remember
him there again next Sunday.'
How those meetings impressed a part of London
society may be seen in the following extracts from an
article in the World, May, 1885, entitled 'Wanted, a
Religion': —
' Mr. Drummond has struck out a completely new line of
his own, in which there is nothing that is not dignified, noth
ing that is not telling. To be able to collect, even under a
ducal roof, on fouri successive Sunday afternoons, four or
five hundred people, many of them of the highest distinction,
social and intellectual, is a triumph of ingenious ingenuity
\_sic']. Mr. Drummond has invented a gospel, which, if not
entirely new, has just enough novelty about it to pique and
interest the fashionable public, and which can be perfectly
1 Three?

i88s 277
well reconciled with the somewhat effete, but always to be
respected, evangel of the New Testament. He applies the
principle of evolution, the law of the survival of the fittest, to
spiritual existence. He does not consign to perdition all
who fail to lead a highly spiritual life here. He only reminds
them that they are not qualifying themselves for the life to
come. For the effect he has produced, everything depends
upon his management of his material. Sometimes his reli
gion and his science have fused their currents and travelled
in a common stream. Sometimes they have run in parallel
channels. Sometimes their relations have been of a different
kind, and the lecturer has employed religion as the gilding
of the pill of science, or science as the rationalising witness
to religion. But whatever the method adopted, the result
produced has been the same; and the audience has departed
profoundly impressed by the words of wisdom and solemnity
issuing from the lips of a young man with a good manner,
a not ill-favoured face, a broad Scotch accent, clad in a
remarkably well-fitting frock coat, and reciting, after his
prelection, the Lord's Prayer in a tone of devout humility
remarkable for the professors of the period. Mr. Drummond
has, in fact, produced upon his hearers the impression that
the teachings of science are, upon the whole, in favour of
revealed religion. . . .
'Nothing could be easier, and nothing could be more con
temptible, than to disparage or satirise the serious struggle
which society is now making to obtain from some one of its
many spiritual teachers a new revelation, or, if not that, to have
its feet directed into the ways of a new religion. Nothing,
again, could be easier than to take a more or less humorous
view of Mr. Drummond's dissertations at Grosvenor House.
Naturally, the professional religionists are a little jealous
of his success. The Church papers hint that he is an ama
teur and a quack. But then that is only professional jealousy.
There seems to be no reason why evangelists like Mr. Drum
mond should not cooperate with the salaried interpreters of
another evangel, now some nineteen centuries old. Or it
may be said that Mr. Drummond would scarcely take a lead
ing part in a performance which certainly seems to have a-

278 HENRY DRUMMOND
good deal that is artificial about it, if he had any store of the
sincerity and earnestness which ought to be the attributes of
the religious teacher. Upon this it is enough to observe that
audiences as fastidious and discriminating, and as highly edu
cated, as any in the world, have been won over by his utter
ances. That he will produce a moral or social revolution is
no more to be anticipated than that he will change the future
history of the human race. But that he will be instrumental
in effecting an appreciable degree of improvement in our social
tone is far from impossible. He may, indeed, almost claim to
have done this already. He has caused society to talk, not
only about himself, but about the subjects which he expounds.
Perhaps the interest he has created in the topics that throng
the borderland between physics and faith may not be perma
nent. But what is permanent in these times .-' And it is quite
enough to know that his words do, for the time, provide mat
ter for reflection. Granting even that religion, or the new
blend between science and religion, is taken up by society as
a species of diversion, and occupies the same moral level as
philanthropy, charity organisation, domiciliary visits paid to
the poor at the East End, music, old china, or lawn tennis,
that is no reason why it should be discouraged. It is better
for society to be occupied in this manner than in many others
which might be mentioned. And, indeed, to those who look
a little beneath the surface, there is something not only in
structive, but pathetic, in the avidity with which English
society, supposed to be irreligious, but really the most reli
gious in the world, snatches at the spiritual mixture prepared
for it by Mr. Drummond. What — such is the question
which presents itself to many minds — might not be hoped
for, if some new and authentic revelation were to be delivered
to society by a greater even than Mr. Drummond.?'
No one, however, can estimate the force of the
Grosvenor House addresses who has not seen some,
at least, of the appeals which they called forth. As
always when he spoke, Drummond drew to himself
the secrets of many lives, and became, to a large num
ber of them, an influence of light and hope. The fol-

i88s 279
lowing letter from himself reports the beginnings of
an effort to organise women of the West End of Lon
don into an Associated Workers' League, for social
and religious help among the poor : —
To Mrs. Simpson, Edinburgh
'37, Grosvenor Square, London, July 10, 1885.
' . . . You ask me what I have been doina; ? Meet-
ing, meetings, meetings. These have been mostly
in private houses, and we are now seeking a little
fruit. It ripens slowly in this climate, but there
are signs of life on every hand. The latest devel
opment is a " Workers' League " to set all the
unemployed in the West End to work.'
The League was started in July at a drawing-room
meeting, at which Drummond gave an address, de
scribing the need for ' some kind of link among
workers with a view to assistance in their difficulties
and encouragement in their efforts. The objects of
the League were to introduce those desiring work to
fields of usefulness best suited to their special gifts ; to
reinforce existing agencies with workers ; to form a
workers' exchange ; and to help workers in the country
during their temporary residence in London by bring
ing them into contact with actual work there.' The
proposal was eagerly welcomed, and many names
were given in at the first meeting. In the second year
ninety-eight were added, and by 1890 the total mem
bership was 240. Reports were periodically asked
from workers, and the endeavour was made to inspire
in the members ' the true temper of work, as distinct
from mere busyness in good works.' An appeal, signed
by Lady Tavistock, says : —
' Thought must be below all, and deep purpose and

28o HENRY DRUMMOND
much dependence on God, or our efforts will degener
ate into mere restlessness, and we shall exhaust our
selves and other people, while we effect nothing of any
permanence or value.'
In the end of May, 1885, Drummond was the guest
at Holyrood Palace of Lord and Lady Aberdeen,
while the former filled the office of the Queen's Lord
High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the
Church of Scotland. In July he was back in Lon
don, holding meetings and organising the Associated
Workers' League, as above described. August he
spent at home in Stirling, and fishing at Lairg in
Sutherland. In September and October he passed
some weeks at Haddo House, and went to the Aber
deen meeting of the British Association, at which he
read a paper before the Geological Section. On Sunday
evenings he gave addresses, in the chapel of Haddo
House to congregations consisting of the household,
the guests, and residents in the neighbourhood.
'Haddo House, Sept. 17, 1885.
' All the wise men from the Association are here,
resting after their labours — among them Lord
Rayleigh, Sir John and Lady Lubbock, Lady
Boyle, Professor Masson, Mr. Du Maurier of
Punch, and other celebrities.' 'Friday, Sept. 25, 1885.
' Still in the North, though I am now wearying to
have done with it. But I have a service on Sab
bath and one or two of an important nature next
week, which will keep me a few days longer.
Most probably I will wind up Haddo with a
meeting on Sabbafh week.'

i88s 281
The following letter from Robert Barbour gives a
portrait of Drummond, as he showed to his friends in
those days. The rapid descent upon them and the
swift flight were very characteristic : —
' Study Room, Cults, Monday night,
'Oct. 10, 1885.
' I have had a great treat to-day.
' As I was seeing A. into the train, who should seize
me by the arms but Henry ! He was the old charac
ter — black and white check tweeds, brown hat, dark
green plaid, and princely swing — stepping into the
12.20 for Aboyne. He was fresh from Haddo, where
he has been spending the time since the British
Association salmon-fishing and men-fishing together.
Lubbock, Sedgwick, Trevelyan, etc., were among his
companions. . . . Each Sabbath evening he has
spoken there in the chapel, suiting his theme to the
special guests. On Saturday they had a kind of
Perth Conference, with two or three hundred of the
farmers' wives and daughters around, to start the
Haddo House Association's work for the year.
The earl and Henry were the speakers.
' I left my errands and came back to Cults by the
12.30, deposited his wraps at the Manse, and then had
a glorious two hours' walk in the face of the bracing
west wind, gazing with delight at the autumn woods
and the grand blue hills and moors behind, round by
the back of Hillton on to the Skene Road and so
home by Countesswells and Craigton. " Das war
eine Freude, nicht wahr ? " . . . M. gave us dinner,
all her pieces de persistance et resistance with coffee.
' Then followed a chat, face to face and heart to
heart, by the study fire, and a solemn moment of
prayer. And so the Bird of Paradise spread his
wings, and I saw him no more.'

282 HENRY DRUMMOND
In October Drummond spent a week geologising,
in preparation for a case in the Court of Session,
to which he was summoned as an expert witness;
and in the end of the month he started his short
mission in Oxford, which we may reserve for the
general history of the Student Movement in next
chapter. From Oxford he returned to the winter ses
sion in Glasgow. Here are a few extracts from his
letters during ' a terribly busy ' session — his classes at
college, lectures in many places, social operations in
Glasgow, and a series of addresses to the Edinburgh
students : —
' I am glad you are taking to Emerson. I have
been reading Herbert Spencer this week, and I
must say with great admiration. I read through
Queen Mab, which is cleverly done, but does not
come to much except destruction. The best
thing in it is where the author calls the Thirty-
nine Articles " tinned theology."
' Here I was suddenly interrupted by the advent of
the Edinburgh deputation — four students, whom
it really does one good to see. Only they won't
go away. They have been five hours in the
house already. . . .
' I had a great day with the students. They sat
eleven hours, and we went the whole round of
the theologies. Their request was that I should
go to Edinburgh every Sunday in February and if
possible March. I hope at least to do something.
... On Sunday there is to be a monster meet
ing here at which Dr. Barbour and I are to
speak. It was begun by the Edinburgh students,
and I took it last night and found over a thousand
people present.

i88 5-1886 283
'I have just (Dec. 12, 1885) finished an article for
the January Nineteenth Century} You wiU be
shocked to hear that it is not about beetles, but
about Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Huxley. I fear it
is really hard on Mr. Gladstone ; it certainly is,
though I have been as gentle as I could. But I
could not help the thing: it is a real duty; Sir
 also works on Mr. Gladstone's lines,
and they do incalculable harm to men of science,
so I write to repudiate their whole position in the
name of scientific theology. ... In the original
MS. I had in a page of admiration, but, on second
and third thoughts, I reluctantly compelled my
self to exclude it. It was not germane to the
subject, and would not come in without a sense
of forcing, which would have spoiled every
thing. . . .'
' New Year's Day, 1886. — I look over the clean fig
ures of our Almanac and the yet as blank pages
of its diary with strange wondering as to what
they hold in store. We ought all to be getting
into the heart of our life-work now, and, in feel
ing how much there is to do and how short the
time is, one cannot but pray that no day of it
may be misspent.'
To Drummond and his correspondents, the year
1886 was to bring many changes and many cares. In
February the political life of the nation was convulsed
by Mr. Gladstone's return to power and his declara
tion of a policy of Home Rule for Ireland. The Earl
of Aberdeen was appointed Viceroy of Ireland, and
offered Henry Drummond a post on his staff. He
replied as follows : —
1 See above, end of chap. x.

284 HENRY DRUMMOND
To Lord Aberdeen 'Glasgow, Feb. 12, 1886.
' My immediate feeling (after the blush of thanks,
which you will so fully understand that I need
not open with any formal reference to it) — my
immediate feeling is one of intense shrinking
from a post of such honour and publicity. I feel
it is not for me at all. As I have often told you,
the Tub is the place for me and not the Castle ;
and, at the moment, I do not see how I am to dis
place this feeling. But, of course, one's mere
feelings are neither here nor there, and the real
consideration is what is right. Now, I am not
sure that it would be right for me to do this —
right in connection with one's real work and
mission in life. I need not enlarge upon this;
you will know what I mean. Try for a moment
to look at it from my point of view — not that you
have not done that, but I mean in this relation —
in relation to my friends and my audience, past
and future. For Mrs. Grundy I do not care, I
hope ; but for others, for the students and for
those to whom one may yet speak of a Spiritual
World, one would like to avoid even the appear
ance of ambition. Is it not so ? On the other
hand, what more could I do in an official relation
than as a full private .? The difference could
only be in name ; and, if that name involves a
loss in the highest sense without there being any
real gain, ought I to seek it? This is how the
thing strikes me at the moment. I wish I could
talk it over with you, for writing is so stupid ; but
I have told you frankly what is in my mind. If
I could be of real use in the more official capacity.

i886 285
that of course would weigh ; but I can be of none,
and I am fearful lest I injure any evangelistic
work that may be given me to do. The Edin
burgh work has broken out in a marvellous man
ner last Sunday, and I shall be going there for
some time, so that the summer may have calls
upon me which I cannot now foresee. So please
leave me to think over it for a few days, and
judge this base ingratitude as gently as you can.'
The result was that he did not accept the post. In
April, in the midst of work for the student movement
at Edinburgh, Aberystwyth, and elsewhere, he paid
a flying visit to Ireland to lecture before the Royal
Dublin Society on Africa, and to prepare for a student
deputation to Trinity College. He was the guest of
the Viceroy, and re-crossed the Channel with Mr.
John Morley.
' Mr. Morley told me en route that he had come
away from Ireland with at least one very definite
impression — the extraordinary and widespread
influence for good throughout the country of the
present vice-regal reign, or, as I ought to put it,
reigns. I think I shall get to Killin on Monday.'
It was at Killin that year that our club met, the last
time we were all together, for Ewing left soon after
wards for Melbourne. Naturally we discussed the
Home Rule question, on which we were divided, and
the impending General Election. Drummond quietly
stated both sides of the case and gave his reasons for
adhering to the portion of the Liberal party which fol
lowed Mr. Gladstone. He had not been converted
by Mr. Gladstone's own judgment, nor had he the
materials to form an independent opinion. Some of

286 HENRY DRUMMOND
his nearest friends were hotly opposed to Home Rule ;
his youthful experiences in Dublin had given him
distrust of the Irish party ^ and his natural caution
in such matters was so great that none of us would
have been surprised if he had not taken a side. But
he had been impressed by the evidence of Lord Spen
cer, Sir Robert Hamilton, and other statesmen respon
sible for the government of Ireland, who had declared
for Home Rule ; he recognised that the policy was in
agreement with the Liberal principles which he had
always professed, and he was attracted by the moral
possibilities which he felt it to contain. Probably, too,
he judged, as many other Liberals did, that even if
Home Rule were never carried in the form in which
Mr. Gladstone projected it, — and in a few weeks this
was to become very likely, — Mr. Gladstone's policy
had already created at least the kind of atmosphere
in politics in which alone the Irish problem could
ripen to a solution. And this may be said to have
come to pass, for on whatever side of the question
men have taken their stand, they must allow that Mr.
Gladstone's effort has succeeded in making our former
policy towards Ireland impossible, and has been the
real cause, for instance, of the possibility of the Local
Government Act recently passed by Parliament. In
such opinions and expectations Drummond had been
fortified by his recent visit to Ireland,^ his conversa-
^ See above, p. 37.
2 On this point Mr. Gladstone had requested his opinion and he sent it. He
received the following reply : — • JO Downing Street, Whitehall, June i, 1886.
' Dear Mr. Drummond, — I have handed your letter to Mr. Gladstone, who
desires me to ask you to excuse him if he does not write himself as he is 30 very busy,
and to say that he is greatly obUged to you for what you have written. Your tes
timony as to the change wrought in Irish feeling is very remarkable and has
afforded Mr. Gladstone the highest satisfaction. Yours very truly,
' H. W. Primrose.'

i886 287
tions with Mr. Morley and Sir Robert Hamilton,
and his experience of the effect upon the people of
the reign of a Viceroy who represented a Govern
ment pledged to Home Rule. So he was not only
prepared to give his vote for this at the coming-
election, but to speak in public on its behalf with
conviction and even with enthusiasm.
The diminished Liberal party endeavoured to in
duce Drummond to take a further step. They were
in sore need of candidates at the election — candi
dates of his class and culture — and he was urgently
requested to stand for several constituencies.^ The
Partick Division of Lanarkshire was especially import
unate, and Mr. Gladstone himself wrote a strong letter
of persuasion. But Drummond was wiser than his ad
visers, and, as at so many other periods of temptation,
refused to launch upon a line of life which would have
distracted him from the vocation that he felt and had
now so amply proved to be his own.
' 3, Park Circus, Glasgow, June 17, 1886.
' I found in possession of my Tub a horrid monster
— a deputation from the Partick Division of Lan
arkshire. All past refusals were fruitless, although
I had an hour with their chairman yesterday, and
they came to renew the attack. I fought single-
handed for three hours, with what result you
know.'
1 There are letters to him from Partick, West Edinburgh, and the Inverness
Burghs.

288 HENRY DRUMMOND
To the Right Honourable W. E. Gladstone
Copy dated June 15, 1886.
' My dear Mr. Gladstone, —
' A letter from you on the subject of going into Par
liament I feel to be a most sacred call. It has
touched me unspeakably. I am entirely un
worthy of a thing so high and generous, and it is
with a deep sense of responsibility that I now
try to trust myself to reply.
' After the most serious and anxious consideration I
fear I must ask your forbearance for an answer
in the negative. I shall not waste your time by
entering on the many reasons which contribute
to a decision which I offer you with the profound
est respect and regret, but as far as my present
light goes I feel that I can serve you and the
great cause better in other ways than by myself
entering Parliament. What little I can do as
regards the present crisis I think I can do to
equal purpose apart from the House of Commons,
and in the long run for the good ends of which
this is but a part.
' I believe that by working in the fixed walk of life
which seems to be assigned to me, and which re
fuses, in spite of private struggles and the per
suasion of the wisest friends, to release me for
this special service, I can do more for every cause
of truth and righteousness.
' What personal regrets and regards mingle with
this letter you can form little idea of ; and I shall
not attempt to express my sense of gratitude for
the extraordinary honour and kindness of your
letter. — With great respect, I remain,
' Sincerely yours,
' Henry Drummond.'

i886 289
But while refusing to stand for any constituency,
Drummond gave help to several Liberal candidates.
He went the round of the Ayr Burghs with his friend.
Captain Sinclair, and spoke also in Possilpark and at
Kilmarnock. He was warmly attacked both by friends and by
strangers. ' A torrent of wrath from  over the advertise
ment of the Home Rule meeting.  is not
satisfied yet, and the general public is treating
me to anonymous letters. But really neither are
at all severe, and I am very far from complaining.'
His critics could have no idea of how seriously
and how religiously he took up the work of which
they complained. His few speeches were very care
fully planned ; they rang high and true, and, as I find
from some notes to friends, he did not appear on those
political plafforms without the same kind of prepara
tion that he invariably made for his religious addresses.
When defeat came he reverently considered the mean
ing of it, and his letters to those to whom it shut doors
of usefulness, hardly opened, are among the finest he
wrote. Drummond spent July fishing in Sutherlandshire
and came to Glasgow for August.
' I have been working like a tiger. No Scotch
moor is quieter than Glasgow just now, and I
have not seen one white man since I came back.
Half the churches were closed on Sunday, and I
worshipped in the slums. . . . Germany is tak
ing shape, and I must work, work, work.'

290

henry drummond

This was for a visit to the German universities.
But first Drummond went to Switzerland with his
sisters for part of September. To Lady Aberdeen
'Hotel Axenstein, Lake of Lucerne, Sept. 2, 1886.
' There is but one spot in the world, and its name is
Axenstein. In all my wanderings I never saw
anything to approach the place from which I now
scribble. I know you are a heretic about Swit
zerland, but ten minutes of this would win you for
evermore. The scenery is of the very noblest
type — mountain, lake, and forest — and this hotel
is surrounded with shady walks, with views break
ing out everywhere of the most bewildering beauty
and sublimity. And — but really you are laugh
ing. Do excuse me, for I had to blow this off
before writing one word. I have often marked
this spot in my knapsacking days — a forest ledge
two thousand feet high, on a precipice falling
sheer into the lake, with a great eagle's nest of a
hotel — and I always looked forward to the quiet
visit which has now come. We had engaged
rooms in Paris on Tuesday, but the heat and
noise were intolerable, so we took the first ex
press and came right on to Lucerne, and then
here by steamer. My main mission to Paris was
to see Pasteur and go over his laboratory, but I
found he had just left for a holiday. We got
here yesterday afternoon, and we feel we would
just like to stay here all the time.
' No words can — but I must not begin again. . . .
' On the Calais ferry I crossed with Count  ,
and had an interesting talk with him. He has

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291

given up the Consulate (from political motives)
and has nothing to do but travel. I feel very
sorry for him, for he is an exceptionally good
Frenchman. You would have been intensely
amused to see the letter of introduction he gave
me to a friend of his in Paris. I was " un savant
tres-religieux, et au meme ¦mom.ent double\ment\ un
homme du monde I " Part of the humour of the
thing consisted, as I afterwards discovered, in his
friend Count T. being the leading man at the
Paris Jockey Club ! '
'Hotel Rlffel-Alp, Zermatt, Sept. 12, 1886.
' I am very glad you are president. This sentence
is good and contains all you want for a text to
speak on : " These girls must be met, not by au
thority, but with sympathy and respect." I am
sure these people will trust you and allow you to
say almost anything you like, and I should not
be afraid to speak plainly. It is a fine opportu
nity, though a very delicate one, to help on the
modern movement towards a more real and solid
faith and a truer Christianity. And I am sure we
can do much without breaking with the evan
gelicals. . . . Last Sunday I went to church
twice ^ and got two very fine sermons from Dr.
Laidlaw of Edinburgh.' ' Vallourmanche, Sept. 15.
' I am at this moment in a rustic inn in the most glo
rious valley in Piedmont. This is the most deli
cious travelling in the world. One wanders where
one hkes, stops where one likes, the weather is
perfect, the scenery glorious, the wine good, and
1 At Interlaken.

292 HENRY DRUMMOND
the inns as sweet as the Alpine roses. To-mor
row we make for Milan, and on Saturday start for
the Italian lakes.'
Drummond stayed on in Switzerland to prepare his
German addresses. He had many opportunities of
helping those in religious doubt whom he met at table
or by the wayside, and who like all their kind were
drawn to open their hearts to him. On October i6th
he left for Tiibingen. I do not know whether he
visited other universities, but by October 25th he was
in Bonn, of which we will hear afterwards.
By November 2 he was in Glasgow, and ' in a
whirl of work.'
To Lady Aberdeen
'Dec. 16, 1886.
' One sees one's life in perspective when one goes
abroad, and to be spectators of ourselves is very
solemn. I have been reading a new book this
week which brings out in a startling light the old
distinction between "the ourselves' in us and our
mere outward talents. Those last are but the
Weapons ; the Warrior is within. The Weapons,
it says, are but the accidents of birth, and no more
to be placed to our credit than gold or clothes or
worldly possessions. Yet how often we think the
Warrior is well if but the Weapons do their
work; and how much self-satisfaction is based
upon what we, i.e. the Weapons, not we have
done; how little upon what we, the real we are.
But the measure of the success of our life can
only lie in the gains of the last, in the stature of
our manhood, in the growth in unworldliness
and moral elevation of our inner Self. But I
wonder what makes me ramble on like this.

i88f 293
Alas — it is the memory of a remorse which
always follows one in one's own holidays. The
text I oftenest think on then is this : " What is
the Man profited if he gain the whole world —
morally or spiritually — and lose his own soul.'"
To Lord Aberdeen'^ 'Glasgow, Jan. 6, 1887.
' My dear Aberdeen, — First, please look at the
queer stamp on the outside of this letter. As
Viceroy (temporarily Ex.) I thought you would
like to see the new symbols of the Crown, and
ordered a complete set, — for everything is changed
except the penny ones this Jubilee year; but
the telegraph boy who was despatched to the
General P.O. for them — the local offices have to
use up the old ones — is probably playing snow
balls somewhere in the city, so I fear this must
go before I can send them. I do not know if
you have a weakness for stamps, but I confess
this relic of boyhood still survives in me. Per
haps, however, in present circumstances, you
would prefer the boy to send you the snowballs.
'Pour moi, I have nothing to report. My life
flows on in silence, almost in solitude. These
winter months I am the pure Diogenes. I read
a little science, write ein wenig, skate when the
frost pleases, and walk three or four times a week
with Dods. I like it all, nevertheless, very much.
I think I was made to remain " in der stille'.'
' I begin Edinburgh on Sunday. It haunts me like
a nightmare. The responsibility of these coming
Sundays I feel almost more than anything in
my life.'
1 In India.

294

HENRY DRUMMOND

To Lady Aberdeen 'Glasgow, Jan. 20, 1887.
' We had a splendid meeting last Sunday ; and on
Sunday week the students open a campaign
among the bigger Edinburgh schoolboys. We
have got the athletic men, whom the schoolboys
all know, to take this in hand, and I think it
ought to succeed.
'Mr. Barbour, Senior, died on Saturday night. I
was present at the time ... a very quiet and
beautiful end. Robert is in Corsica for his health,
and will feel it much. I go to Bonskeid on Sat
urday for the funeral.
'Jan. 27, 1887. — Edinburgh was splendid on Sun
day.
' Feb. 1 7. — Edinburgh is as good as ever, both the
boys and the students. Much happier. " The
Lord is good to all."
' March 3, 1887. — Symptoms you now openly avow
of having caught the Travel Fever in earnest. I
have seen premonitory symptoms of this for some
time, and in A.'s last letter it had gone the length
of " spots',' but I held my counsel and kept silent,
knowing the hour was at hand. And now it has
come, and I make merry. But is it not good.?
And really wholesome and tonic, and expansive
all round ? And what a new proportion it gives
to things ; for example, " God so loved the World','
and " The City had twelve gates, and every one a
Pearl''
' But what it is exactly that travel gives, and is, one
can scarcely define, though not the least of it

i887 295
must be the immensely bigger Environment to
think in.
' I had forgotten that Emerson did not appreciate
roving, but then he was an American, and their
big country saves them from insularity, so they
did not need it. Speaking of Emerson, I heard
this of him lately : Himself tottering on the verge
of the grave, he went to Longfellow's funeral.
(L. was his oldest friend.) For some time he
stood looking at the dead poet's face, and then
said, " He was a beautiful soul . . . but ... I
forget his name ! " (I do not know in the least
what recalls this here, but, as you see, I am just
chatting to-night.)
' In Edinburgh the current is flowing deep and strong.
I do not think I would exchange that audience for
anything else in the world.'
Through March the Edinburgh meetings continued
large and enthusiastic. They closed with a Com
munion Service on the third Sunday. For the first
few days of April Drummond took his own class as
usual to Arran, and throughout the month was busy
arranging the Students' Holiday Mission.
' Glasgow, May 10, 1887.
' Moody writes urgently about going to America for
a students' gathering, and I think I must go. I
am also asked to give some lectures at Chautauqua
(excuse the word), and thereafter may evangelise
about among the American and Canadian colleges.
If I go, it will be in the beginning or middle of
June.'
In America he arrived on the i8th of June. But
his work there was among the coUeges, and falls to be
described in another chapter.

2q6 HENRY DRUMMOND
From America Drummond returned to find his
father dangerously ill. To a friend watching beside
her mother's bed he wrote as follows : —
'Glenelm, Stirling, Nov. io.
'This is sad news your telegram brings me. I
wonder much how it is at  to-day. I suppose
 will have come, but nothing in the world
can take off the awe and solemnity of a time like
this. I did not tell you before — for you have
enough to bear — that I am one with you in
trouble. They wrote to Queenstown to prepare
me for it, but the meeting has been a great shock.
The doctors seem to fear the worst, and I am
living here at present, and going in to Glasgow
every day for a few hours. So you will know
how I can partly understand what is going on
with you.
' How suddenly the water deepens sometimes in
one's life ! How fast the bottom shelves, and yet
how little one knows the depths that lie beyond
— or whether the currents are to be swift or still !
' W^ell, I suppose it must be better, this deeper sea,
than the shallows where the children play. But
this is not my line to talk aloud like this: so
basta! But I must add this. One thing I am
learning, slowly, to believe in prayer. So I pray
for you all.'
' 14th Nov. — The thing that crushes is to look on
silently at the unalleviable pain of those we love.
But God knows the end; and it is His natural
order that generation after generation should
pass away.'
' 1 6th Nov. — I have been reading an exquisite essay
by Edwin Arnold on Death, which I shall send

i88f 297
you some day. After all, what an entrancing
thing Death is ! I am glad I am an evolutionist,
yet its surroundings are very terrible, in your case
terrible unspeakably.'
'I Sth Nov. — I look eagerly for every report from
 . The last looks as if there might be a
resurrection. But living or dying we are the
Lord's. Trouble is not such a new thing to you.
But it is to me, and I hear it saying many things.
Some I never knew before ; others one has heard,
but never believed ; others one has heard often,
and as often forgotten. But the great benedic
tion of it seems to lie less in the personal ele
ments than in the larger views one gets of what
is permanent, eternal, and most worth living for.
' My father lived for these things if ever man did.
' Pardon me writing more. He is sinking fast, and
the end must be near.'
' 22d Nov. — I hope you have found all well on your
return. It is a kind of shock always to come back
from a place of great and solemn experiences and
find things all going on as if nothing had happened.
We tread the winepress alone. And yet it is sight
and healing that the world should be so busy and
unsympathetic'
'29th Nov. — My father lingers on. We can fore
cast nothing.'
' loth Dec. — I begin to think my father is rallying
in earnest'
'31st Dec. — This is the last time I shall write 1887.
I have lots to say, but the post goes earlier to
night, and I must commit my wishes to the south
wind. Nun Gott sei mit, durch dieses fahr I
And please see the blue in the sky, and there is
always more than we can see.'

298 HENRY DRUMMOND
'ISt Jan. 1888. — The end has come now. My
father has begun the New Year. He passed
away this morning at five o'clock. You did not
know him, but he was a good soldier.'
The winter and spring of 1888 were spent by Drum
mond on his college class, and on what had now be
come his yearly meetings for the Edinburgh students.^
He also did some literary work.
' Jan. 28th. — I have become a veritable hermit-crab,
so far as that is consistent with about ten meet
ings per week. In the intervals of making new
addresses ^ I am doing a little (strictly private and
confidential) to the Ascent of Man, but the prog
ress is miserable.'
' March 5th. — I am too exhausted after this to add
more. The Tub has been as still as the Pacific
since you left. Little has happened to the Ascent.
Edinburgh has been unusually absorbing. I have
stitched together a wee book on Africa ; written a
college lecture or two ; prepared an article for the
Britannica ; ^ and consumed infinite smoke. C'est
tout.'
There was the usual visit to Arran with his students
in the end of March, and assistance, all that and the
next month, to a friend who was standing for a vacant
constituency. Concerning certain intrigues in regard
to which he is tempted to say, ' " The more one knows
of men," says my favourite Artemus Ward, " the more
one thinks of dogs." '
On the Higher Education of Women he writes : —
I See next chapter. 3 On the Zambezi.
2 For Edinburgh students.

i888

To Lady Aberdeen

299

' The main thing surely is that it be real, and not
the mere accretion of further " accomplishments."
I do not think it has touched this ideal yet, cer
tainly not in the case of men. Wise women, bal
anced women, are what are needed, not accom
plished ornaments — or bores. Specifically, then,
they should be educated to be E. women and not
second-rate E. men. Hence (don't laugh) the three
things they should know from the foundation to
the top before they put on any stucco are : (Mind)
Education (What ? Why .? How ?) ; (Body) Physi
ology and Ethics ; Psychology and (Soul) Theol
ogy, or Theology alone. Apart from the obvious
reason, and the importance of it, in these days
when even our novels are theological, or sham-
theological, women should know their way about
here. Then your Political Economy would come
in, etc., etc'
In May Drummond received a remarkable requisi
tion to deliver another series of religious addresses at
. Grosvenor House during the London season. It was
signed with the following names : Aberdeen, Arthur
James Balfour, W. St. John Brodrick, George N,
Curzon, R. Munro Ferguson, Alfred Lyttelton, W. S.
Murray (of the Grenadier Guards), George W. Russell,
John Sinclair, and J. E. C. Welldon. To Captain
Sinclair, who acted as secretary, Drummond replied : —
'GLASG9W, May 5, 1888.
' I feel very unequal to this piece of work, but after
the most serious consideration I feel bound to
face it. The kind interest of yourself and of your
fellow-conspirators in the matter is of itself almost

300

HENRY DRUMMOND

enough to determine my decision ; and on all
grounds I am persuaded I ought at least to make
the attempt.
' With reference to the points you raise let me
say: —
' I. That I am strongly of opinion that only
three addresses, and on the Sundays you name,
should be announced. When a long series is in
timated, men imagine they can go at any time;
and a main object should be to keep the first day's
audience through the course rather than to have
new men coming in at the end. An isolated ad
dress is almost useless. If it turned out to be
advisable to have a fourth, it could be intimated
at the third meeting without the necessity of
issuing fresh tickets. But on all grounds, I think
we should wait developments before announcing
more than three.
' 2. I am quite at a loss for the title of my sub
ject. Robert Elsmere is a good suggestion, but
would scarcely give scope for what one would
really like to say, and would give rather a polemi
cal or apologetic cast to the address. Would it
not do to name no subject? None was an^
nounced last time. With this precedent, and the
fact that the addresses are on Sunday, the sug
gestion of a religious subject might perhaps be
strong enough without a direct statement. I fear
no title would quite cover the ground one would
like to go over.
' 3. As the limitation to Men only might create
an impression that the subject necessitated this,
and was of a private character, would it not be
well to put a footnote on the card in small type
to some such effect as this : —

i888

301

' " The limitation strictly to men is necessitated by
the accommodation."
' I hope these suggestions will not be out of keeping
with your own views.'
In accordance with this, a circular was drawn up
and signed by the requisitionists, intimating meetings
for men only, on Sundays, 3d, loth, and 17th June, at
4 P.M. ' The great square room was densely crowded
by an interested and representative gathering — poli
ticians, clergymen, authors, artists, critics, soldiers, and
barristers, with a large sprinkling of smart young men,
whose appearance would scarcely have suggested a
vivid interest in serious concerns.'^ The addresses
(I do not know in what order) were on ' Evolution
and Christianity,' ' Natural Selection in Reference to
Christianity,' and the ' Programme of Christianity.'
After distinguishing between religion and theology
and emphasising Christianity as life. Professor Drum
mond said that the truth of Christianity is manifest in
the fact that there is no real civilisation without it,
and that the purer the form of Christianity, the greater
the development of civilisation. ' Show me,' he said
¦ with Matthew Arnold, ' ten square miles outside of
Christianity where the life of man or the virtue of
woman is safe, and I'll throw over Christianity at
once.' He defined its place in the evolution of the
universe and of man as the crown and consummation
of the process. He showed its adaptability to the most
pressing requirements of the individual and of society,
accounted for its apparent failure to accomplish its
mission by the unfaithfulness of Christians to their
own ideal, and compared the efficacy of Christ's Gos
pel in ministering to such common ills as poverty,
'^ Pall Mall Gazette, June nth.

302

HENRY DRUMMOND

distress, melancholy, and bad habits, with that of
Socialism, Political Economy, and Natural Morality.
The address upon ' Natural Selection in Reference to
Christianity ' applied the latter to the individual. They
were often told, he said, that so far from religion being
a question of the survival of the fittest, it was the very
opposite ; that nature and religion here parted com
pany ; that while in nature the race was to the swift
and the weak went to the wall, in religion the weak
and heavy-laden were helped and the bruised reed was
not broken. Yet, he thought, the same law held good
for both. Illustrating the meaning of the term ' sur
vival of the fittest ' by the case of the tadpole, which
when the pond dies and myriads of other organisms
die, yet survives and develops into another creature,
because it is surrounded with a mysterious apparatus
which enables it to effect that transformation under
different vital conditions. Professor Drummond said
that when they came to religion they found exactly
the same state of matters. . . . At the dissolution of
their bodies those who had here, in their being, some
where, an apparatus for living in an unseen environ
ment would survive, and they would survive because
they were fit, and not because they were worthy of
eternal life. . . . They were told by many that all men
at last would have eternal life, that God was good, and
that it was out of the question to conceive that any
should not survive. He knew nothing about the
survival or non-survival of those who had not the
special apparatus for developing ; but they had little
reason to believe that if a man had not developed in
him the faculties for communicating with the spiritual
world, he would have that kind of life at least, what
ever his immortality might be. He that hath not the
Son hath not life. God had invited every man and

i888

303

woman to come to Him that they might have life ; and
if they resisted that invitation, they could not fall back
upon generalities about God's goodness. And instead
of it being more likely for a man to get these faculties
after death, he was afraid it looked as if the chance
diminished every year of his life. They were told by
many that the future was so vague they should just
take their chance. There was no such thing as chance.
It was a question of the survival of the fittest, and
unless a man was fit he had not the ghost of a chance.
This was not an arbitrary enactment on God's part.
It was natural law: a natural selection, a selection
of those who had become fit, done by nature, not
by God. As to what constituted fitness, they were
told in the Bible that without holiness no man shall
see the Lord. . . . They were also told in the Bible
that if a man loves the world, the love of the Father
is not in him. The man who loved the world was by
that incapacitated from loving God. It was a question
of taste, and religion was the education of the taste in
that particular. The Christian was not to go out of the
world, but he was not to love it. . . . Again they were
told. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is
none of His. Only those who were unworldly could
live in that society. A man to get into heaven, which
was simply a select family, must have the family
interest at heart. . . . These three things constituted
fitness, and it was impossible to survive without them.
Could they tell whether they were fit to survive or not?
Must they wait until the judgment day, or was there
to be a judgment day at all ? He did not think there
would be any bar, or any trumpet, or the machinery
of a human event. These would be unnecessary,
because a man would know whether he was fit to
live in that world the moment he was brought into

304

HENRY DRUMMOND

contact with it. The moment a man submitted his
soul to God's friends, he would see at a glance instinc
tively whether he was fit to live in that company or
not. The moment he came into contact with Christ
— there was the judgment. Those he was addressing
could know at that moment whether they were fit to
survive. It was not religiousness nor good works
that constituted fitness. It was the possession of the
mind of Christ, unworldliness, holiness. They who
had these would survive. That was eternal life. It
was a beautiful life, it was the life they would like
to have eternal, the only life worth being eternal.
They could see at once that the law of natural selec
tion was a law which would keep heaven pure. Its
object was to produce fitness — not to keep some out,
but to make clear that those who got in should be
worthy of it, pure, heavenly minded, unworldly. All
men could be eligible if they would get into the envi
ronment suitable to the development of this fitness.
To do that, they must, in the first place, turn their
backs upon the old environment, upon the world ; and,
secondly, they must live in the new environment, or,
in Scriptural language. Abide iit Christ, and that envi
ronment would in itself produce these changes. There
was an undeveloped bud in every one, and they had
only to abide in Christ, and it would grow into beauty
and send its fragrance upon all around. A brief
prayer followed the address.-'
The usual letters, appeals, interviews, ensued upon
these addresses; and years after they were given,
thoughts, questions, resolutions, and decisions of char
acter which they had stirred came back to Drummond
for sympathy and counsel — often from lonely men
and women working on the far fringes of that world-
^ From a newspaper report.

i888 305
wide Empire to the whole of which you speak if you
speak in London.
Besides the meetings for men at Grosvenor House,
Drummond addressed a large meeting of young women
of the West End of London in the residence of the
Speaker of the House of Commons. This meeting
was held in pursuance of the aims of the Associated
Workers' League started in 1885 ; and a separate club
was formed from among those present for the purpose
of informing and guiding them in all the usual work
to which they had given themselves. The ' 88 Club '
(as it was called) was to consist ' of working members
who will each undertake some definite work, however
small, undertaking to help each other when so called
upon, to remember each other at some set time, and
to send in to the Secretary quarterly reports of their
work.' A letter from the President ' rejoices that every
one who has joined the "88" has in some way or other
definitely recognised the obligation under which we
are placed as human beings to make life better worth
living to others. The raison d'etre of the Club is not
to impose any fresh duty upon us, but the Club was
intended to act as a constant help and reminder that
we are already bound, in some way or other, to make
service for others the aim of our lives. We recognise
to the full the paramount claim of home-duties.' The
motto of the Club was ' Prcesto et Persto' : ' I under
take and persevere.' In 1889 the Club started a
magazine to give descriptions of philanthropic activity,
and especially of such as are suitable for young women
of the wealthier classes who live in the country, reports
of the members' work, and notices of books relevant to
the aims of the Club. A volume, from December,
1 889, to September, 1 892, contains articles on ' Women's
Work in Large Cities,' ' Friendly Societies for Women,'

2o6 henry drummond
' Women's Work and Wages,' ' Women's Settlements
in London,' ' Clubs for Giris,' ' The Higher Education
of Women,' ' Country Neighbours,' ' Village Choirs,'
' Needlework Guilds for the Country,' ' Suggesrions
how to help Servants,' ' An Experimental Household
Club,' ' Workhouse Suggestions,' ' Bee-keeping,' ' Chil
dren's Country Holiday ' — and so forth.
'Lochmore Lodge, Lairg, July 3.
' Arrived here one hour ago after a charming drive.
The place is buried in mountains, and London
already seems a million miles away. There has
been no rain, and till it comes I must simply
smoke and dream, for there is not a solitary fin
in the loch.'
'July 9.
' The change from London has been delightful. I
have had four days' absolute peace and indolence.
Yesterday I had a service at twelve in the ser
vants' hall, to which keepers, foresters, and their
wives trooped in for miles and miles, and I liked
the thing much better than Grosvenor House.
The  has been spreading its poison in the
Highlands, and one or two would not contami
nate themselves by coming out to hear so awful a
monster. (This is quite true.) London ended
better than it began. The ladies' meeting went
off, I think, fairly well, and Harrow was of some
use also, I hope.'
In the middle of August Drummond started for a
tour in Switzerland with his mother and sisters.
' Sonnenberg Hotel, Engelberg, Aug. 19.
' I am lost in wonder all day long. Switzerland is
the one place in the world which is never false to

I 888 307
old impressions, which never betrays one by a
shadow of disappointment, but grows in grandeur
with all one's faculties. I find this truer than
ever this year, and I suppose this is my eighth
or ninth time in it.'
He took his mother and sisters by Engsteln Alp,
the Grimsel, Fiesch, and over the Simplon to the
Italian lakes, where he left them and returned to
meet Lord Aberdeen at Lucerne.
To Lady Aberdeen ' Lucerne, Sept. 16.
' A printed notice at our hotel told us of the usual
Free Church service here in the Maria Hilf
Kirche. Mr. t  of  to preach during Sep
tember. When we got there we found a congre
gation, mostly American, standing outside the
locked door. The hour struck, but no minister
appeared, and not even a beadle was about. By
and by A. and I hunted up an old woman, got
the keys, requisitioned two Swiss urchins to blow
the organ, and an American Miss to play it, and
got under way with an extemporised sermon. A.
gave out the hymns and precented from an organ
loft, about a hundred feet above the floor, and
after a little singing I read a chapter and dis
coursed, and then we had prayer and more sing
ing and — no collection. The hymn-books had
to be sent for to " The Swan," and no one knows
why the parson did not appear. One idea is that
the thing closes in the middle of September;
another, that the parson had fallen down a cre
vasse. Anyhow, I mean to report matters to
headquarters, as there was some unparliamentary

3o8

henry drummond

lano-uage going, and the Down Grade in the F. C.
must not be allowed to descend to glaciers. I
hope  at next Assembly will introduce an
overture that henceforth "all conrinental chap
lains shall be roped."' 'Andermatt, Sept. 23.
' This has been a happy Sabbath. In the morning
I went up the mountain alone ; then spent an
hour with two old bauers in a wee Roman Catho
lic Chapel. Hymns with A. and Dr. and Mrs.
 in the afternoon and evening.'
' Venice, Sept. 27.
' I met Browning ^ to-day and had a chat, also the
Queen of Portugal — and had no chat'
'Monte Generoso, Oct. 4, 1888.
' I left A. at Zermatt and ran off to Venice to my
mother and sisters. We wandered up and down
with Ruskin's Stones of Venice in our hands till
it was too dark to read. I never felt more be
holden to any author than to Ruskin during these
days. It was to me a revelation. I must go
back.
' I met Browning on the street one day and had a
memorable chat with him. He said this was his
ninth visit to Venice, and he always found out
new things.
' The Italian Bible I sent you is selling in every
kiosk, and by the ten thousand. Issued simply
as classical literature by an irreligious man, it is
being read on every hand.
' I am now back again with A., and will stay quietly
reading and dreaming till the loth or 12th.'
1 H. D. had met Browning at Dollis HiU in June, 1885. ' I had a walk with
him. He is quite unlike a poet, and talks plain prose. To meet him you would
think he was an elderly but well-preserved and smart French banker.'

i888-i88g 309
The winter of 1 888-89 passed in the usual labours
— college lectures, new addresses for Edinburgh, and
endless meetings of philanthropic societies. He was
kept very busy, and claim after claim upon him had to
be refused in the interests of his work for the students.
In February he wrote : —
' I shall need my Saturday night to myself, that is,
to the students. I have not had a moment this
week. There are always heaps of people for  ,
and I am sure they do not need me so much as I
need myself on Saturday. Try to see it in this
way.'
Part of his work this year was the founding of a
University Settlement in Glasgow. His intense in
terest at this time in such work is proof of how far
he had advanced in his conception of Christianity since
the early days, when the social side of religion had
few charms for him.
' March 27.
' I am busy with the University men here, planning
a Settlement in a poor district. The leader is an
Established Church student, the second a med
ical, the third an Arts man coming on for the
Free Church College. Plans are out, and the
thing will be built by the beginning of next ses
sion. Thirty men are already at work in the dis
trict, and there will be fifteen residents. Is not
this good? It will be on earnest evangelical
lines, and ought to be a great blessing to the
University. The first formal meeting of workers
takes place in my house next Tuesday night.'
In the beginning of April Dr. Smeaton, Professor
of New Testament Exegesis in New College, Edin-

3IO henry drummond
burgh, died, and Drummond threw himself with ardour
into the work of securing the election of Dr. Dods to
the vacant chair. To Lady Aberdeen
'April 25, 1889.
' I have great hope. The younger men are rallying
finely, and the issue is now seen to be, not the
personal one, but the large question of Liberalism
versus Toryism. I have long wanted a test vote
on that point, as Scotland has changed much even
since Robertson Smith was put out. His critics
have been watching a chance to get at Dods for
his Pan-Council Speech, and this will be made
the occasion of it. The row will be very serious,
and many good people must pass through tribu
lation — the price of progress.' June 10.
' I hope you recognise the handwriting. I believe"
the writer has been in his Tub for some weeks.
The scenery there is at times monotonous, so the
poor wretch has seldom anything to write about
These are placid days, and no earthquakes.
' One  came upon me like a meteor on Friday,
and on Saturday went off again into Space. His
talk was of fish, flies, and lochs, and at times in
coherent, so I know not whither he has gone.
He used much guile to allure me from these
shades, but wild-horses could not draw me at
this moment. Towards the end of the month
this pelican of the wilderness and owl of the
desert plumeth his wings for Stack.'

i88() 3U
To a Friend 'Glasgow, July 19.
' All good wishes go with this for the 20th. Surely
your cup can never be much fuller than it is this
July. The sentries cry " All Well " from every
outpost, and only the one ubiquitous and never-
sleeping enemy within lives to be reckoned with.
What can I wish for you better, and for all of us,
than that he shall have less and less dominion
over us ? With your thorn in the flesh the fight
is hard, but when the smoke clears we shall
wonder at the legions that were slain, and when
we almost thought the battle had turned against
us. Every bullet has its billet. That is one
thing sure. The moral is " Charge ! " '
' Glasgow, July 24.
' I went up to Stack, looked at it, then at the rain
less sky, and said to the coachman, "Drive on."
It was absolutely hopeless. At present I am a
close prisoner, trying to work, but making almost
nothing of it. I hope your busy life pays you
better.' 'CuiLFAiL Hotel, Kilmelford, Argyllshire, Aug. i.
' Interruptions to my work have been incessant all
summer, and I have run off here to try to get
some necessary things done before the Bonskeid
gathering stops my work at the end of the month.
You have heard  rave about Loch Melford?
That is where I am. This hotel is at the head
of the loch, twenty-five miles' drive from Ardris-
haig, fairly lovely, very healthy, and lonely enough.
There are several people at the hotel, but I have
scarcely spoken to a soul for some days, and am
deep in a hamper of books.'

312 henry drummond
' Aug. 14.
' I am inextricably fixed here with a heavy pro
gramme to get through and a warning sent to
all my friends that I am not going to be visible,
audible, or accessible for the whole of August
' I go to the Tub to-morrow, as my books of refer
ence are exhausted, also the weather, and the
hotel has become a shooting-lodge, and a bedlam
of dogs has broken loose.' ' Bonskeid, Sept. 3.
' A thousand thanks for your letter. How well do
I know the experience you describe — the evapo
ration of a great and moving thought when one
tries to expose it to the public air ! " Hast thou
Faith ? Have it to thyself}' the Bible somewhere
says.' 'Bonskeid (no date).
' I must still be vague and say, " About the last
week." There ought to be -margins left round
all lines where it is possible. We sometimes tie
up Providence as well as ourselves.'
After Bonskeid he spent a fortnight deerstalking
and fishing at Guisachan and Haddo, then came back
to Glasgow for work, and before the session began
went to Haddo and Rossie Priory for certain meetings
and services. 'Oct. 5.
' D  has been saying very straight things lately,
and this crooked and perverse generation is doing
its best to drive him from the synagogue. He
does not like it, and is in very low water, but one
dare not wish him rescued.'

1884-18 go 3 1 3
' Nov. 12.
' P.T.O. and you will find something worth reading.
I shall not spoil it by adding more at present. I
pray all goes well. — Yours ever, H. D.'
'"HoHness is an infinite compassion for others:
Greatness is to take the common things of life
and walk truly among them: Happiness is a
great love and much serving." ' 'Nov. 16.
' I am glad you are getting among your books.
With shame I confess I have never read Stanley's
Jewish Church. Long it has been on my List.
I have just been glancing at George 'Eiioi'sjubal
and Stradivarius. ... I see no new books worth
sending. I wonder if you feel, as I do, an un
healthy liking for new books. I have continually
to pull myself up and go back to old and dusty
friends — to find them after all the best
' I hope you did not have it out with  . How
well I know the torture of suppression ! " Many
things" had He also which He could not tell His
disciples.' 'Nov. 20.
'Your letter this morning is delightful. I am so
glad you have taken the veil. There is no life
like the Tub life. How calmly one regards the
passing show, now laughing at it, now crying
over it, now rushing in for a day to help some
poor wretch falling under his flag, but always
coming back again to the true Ark ! I suppose
one ought to join the procession oftener, i.e. me :
pour vous, you have trudged till you are tired,
and others must pull your caravan a bit. You

314

henry drummond

see poor Elmslie ^ has fallen at his post You did
not know him or see him, the real Elmslie. But
this is a real shock to me. He was one of the
brightest and most living spirits of this age, one
of the best equipped men for the future struggle ;
a hundred of us ought to have gone before him.
' I see that your thoughts still go out to the " new
theology," and I am going to send you a few
books in that line to glance over. You will
doubtless already have discovered the points in
Jubal and Stradivarius!
' Bellamy I never heard of. Mackintosh I know as
an acquaintance of some years' standing. He
studied for the Free Church, but stuck at the
Confession, and will not be ordained. He lives
to expound the new theology. He is one of the
acutest minds in the country, a thorough scholar,
and has already written one book {Christ and the
fewish Law) and two pamphlets (one on the
Confession, the other an attack on Revivalism).
These pamphlets are too fierce. But his book is
admirable. The new book ^ I have only glanced
at. It is sure to be good. I shall send you a
new book of Dr. Bruce's, which you will get much
from.'
' Glasgow, Nov. 28.
' To-night I preside at the opening of our Univer
sity Settlement here.' 'Jan. 2, 1890.
'This is a delightful sketch of yours, and really
important If you ask my honest opinion, I
shall give it on all the points you ask, but please
1 Professor W. G. Elmslie, died Nov. 16, 1889, cstat forty-two.
^ Essays towards a New Theology.

i88g-i8go 3 i 5
notice the above first sentence, and take what
follows for what it is worth. . . . Last The
style is not good! Indeed, it is bad; once or
twice very bad. Sentences are overloaded ; and
though words are always well chosen, no work
has been spent in improving it. You never do
spend enough work on that department and how
can you when you are so busy? But please,
Mr, Editor, you must try. Pass the roller slowly
over your work. Now I have said it, and of
course feel a fiend for doing it. Tell  not to
bring a horse-whip next time we meet You can
do it i.c. write better, if you will only keep the
simple rule of the Umbrian and "fence in the
morning hours." A Nineteenth Century article
should be written at least three times — once in
simplicity, once in profundity, and once to make
the profundity appear simplicity.
' This letter, being official, shall contain no more.
Other matters will follow to-morrow. — Yours
mercilessly, ' Excelsior.
' What a horrid letter ! ' 'Glasgow, Jan. 11, 1890.
' Dresden ? Freut mich sehr to hear you speak of
it. I did not think you would bridge across the
Channel for all the doctors in the kingdom. I
wish I could make it more tempting, but, do you
know, I have never even been in Dresden. I am
waiting for that German governess, who will help
me to understand the pictures. But all I have
heard of it is good, and you will get what you
need most just now — art, both music and paint
ing, to your heart's content. To make it an
epoch you must read up the Masters a bit be-

31 6 HENRY DRUMMOND
tween this and then. How I wish I could do
that ! I believe a fortnight's reading is enough
to make one a cracked enthusiast for life. But,
like Darwin, most of us (not you) live dead to
it aU.' 'Jan. 17.
'At Christmas-time I tried everywhere, both in
Edinburgh and Glasgow, for a bound copy of
Greatest Thing, but it was nowhere to be found,
and no copies are yet forthcoming. On New
Year's Day I ordered the fifty thousand from the
printers, but the binders cannot get the bound one
touched until orders for the other one are executed.
However, I hope it will come in a day or two, and I
shall then obey your behest, though much against
the grain. Of course I did not send  one,
and I absolutely refuse to send " tracts " to him.'
This letter touches on a curious habit of Drum
mond's. He did not do his publishing like other
authors. He chose paper, type, and binding, and dealt
with the printers himself. It was a needless trouble,
but he said he enjoyed ' the sport ' of it. 'Jan. 21.
' I am all but talked to death these days. One
meeting, Sunday ; two, Monday ; two, Tuesday ;
one to-day, and so on.'
During the previous autumn invitations had reached
Drummond from the Australian colleges to come and
tell them of the Edinburgh Student Movement and do
what he had done in America. He had refused to go
to Australia the year before, but now he agreed. 'Feb. 28.
' I wish I knew better what Australia would be, and
how the work will open and develop. I must do

1 8 go 317
that thoroughly, for it is once in a lifetime, and I
shall " not pass this way again " in all probability.
And since I saw you I have had an urgent appeal
from Japan to go to Tokio University for a little
on my way back. The University opens there
late in autumn.' ' March 6.
' I should much like to meet George Macdonald.
He has been a real teacher to many. I am taking
Robert Falconer to read on the voyage. My pilce
de resistance, however, will be Browning. I am
taking him complete, and mean to go through
with him thoroughly. None can approach him
for insight into life, or even into Christianity.
' Imperial Federation begins to dawn upon me.
Perhaps you shall hear of me lecturing upon it !
I have a lecture all ready on the " Evolution of
Natives," and two pages added would make it out
and out Imperial-Federationesque. The idea is
great and worth working at. But as I have to
introduce into Australia the Boys' Brigade, the
Home Reading Union, and other modern im
provements, I fear I have too many strings to my
bow.'
1884-90. — These seven years of Drummond's life,
which have been summarised in this chapter, were
the years of his fame and greatest activity along many
lines. Even in them he did nothing greater than his
work among students. We have already marked the
signs of its progress, but it was so big and the issues
so far-reaching that it requires a chapter to itself. To
follow the movement we must return to 1 884, in which
year it started in Edinburgh.

CHAPTER XII
THE STUDENT MOVEMENT, 1884- 1894
Besides his mission to young men under Mr. Moody,
the greatest work which Henry Drummond achieved
was his work among students. Started at Edinburgh
in 1884, it spread to many other colleges of Great
Britain. It took him to Germany, to America, and
to Australia. Up to the very end it remained his
chief interest and burden. He reckoned as mere dis
tractions from it not only the most honourable of calls
to positions of eminence on other arenas of life, but
even many of those forms of work in which he had
hitherto achieved success. He shut himself off from
the pulpits of his Church, denied his friends, turned
from the public, banished reporters, and endured in
finite misrepresentation, if only he might make sure
of the students. Had one asked him towards the end
what the work of his life had been, he would certainly
have replied, ' My work among them.' And measured
by results, almost everything he did seems less; for
the field was one on which other ministers of religion
had many failures, and he conspicuously succeeded.
Hundreds of men who never went to church were
won for Christ at his meetings. He invented methods
that are now employed wherever students join for
religious service. He preached the Gospel of Christ
with a fulness and with a pertinacity of personal appli
cation which he never excelled on any other platform.
And so he influenced thousands of lives, which are
318

^T. 32-33] THE STUDENT MOVEMENT 319
now at work among many nations, in aU those pro
fessions of governing and teaching and healing, to
which the University is the necessary introduction.
As for all great religious movements, so for this,
there had been preparation and signs beforehand.^
In April, 1884, the University of Edinburgh cele
brated the tercentenary of its foundation. Among the
many meetings was one under the auspices of the
Students' Representative Council, for the students
themselves, of whom there were eleven or twelve
hundred present The Lord Rector, Sir Stafford
Northcote, was in the chair, and brief addresses were
given by Mr. Russell Lowell, then American Ambas
sador, Count de Lesseps, Count Saffi, Professors Pas
teur, Virchow, von Helmholtz, and de Laveleye.
Robert Browning, too, said a few words, ' If the
speakers had merely given utterance to complimentary
commonplaces, such an assembly could not have been
commonplace. But the unexpected thing was that
from the deeply spiritual prayer of Principal Rainy
till the closing benediction, there was a reverential
tone, and throughout the addresses there sounded
an earnest call to the acknowledgment of God, which
rang out most clearly in the closing word of the last
of the illustrious orators, Professor de Laveleye:
" Remember the profound and beautiful words of
Jesus, which would put an end to all our troubles and
all our discords if it were but listened to : Seek first
the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all
other things will be added unto you." '
Again, at the beginning of the following session in
October, Principal Sir Alexander Grant, in his open-
^ The following paragraphs owe much to Professor A. R. Simpson's pamphlet
The Year of Grace i8Sj in the University of Edinburgh, published by the Inter-
University Christian Union, 93, Aldersgate Street, London, E.C.

320

HENRY DRUMMOND [1884-85

ing address — the last he was to deliver — 'claimed
for his University, founded by the Reformers, that it
always had a distinctively Christian character,' and he
called upon the students to ' recognise and sustain this
reputation.' In November the Medical Students' Christian Asso
ciation held their annual meeting, and listened to more
than usually helpful addresses from Professor Douglas
Maclagan, the retiring President, and his successor.
Dr. Greenfield, the Professor of Pathology. ' The
Arts Students' Prayer Meeting also set out with much
vigour, aided by a stimulating address from Professor
Calderwood.' Outside the University some students
and resident surgeons at the infirmary had been roused
to an earnest faith by the work of Dr. Moxey, the
Lecturer on Elocution at New College.
So things had been shaping, when on the loth
December Messrs. Stanley Smith and C. T. Studd,^
the two Cambridge graduates who had given them
selves to the work of the China Inland Mission, held
in Edinburgh a meeting for students. Professor
Charteris was in the chair, and had around him several
of his colleagues from the different faculties, extra
mural lecturers and hospital residents. There were
seven hundred students present, and the addresses were
so impressive that the greater proportion remained to
a second meeting, after which a crowd of students
singing hymns accompanied the two young evangelists
to the railway station. In January Messrs. Smith and
Studd held three more meetings in Edinburgh under
the presidency of Professors Charteris, Butcher, and
Grainger Stewart, and attended by increasing num
bers of students. ' At times in those days scenes were
^ Smith had been stroke-oar of the Cambridge eight, Studd captain of the
Cambridge eleven.

^T. 32-33] THE STUDENT MOVEMENT 32 1
enacted that recalled the First of John, and young
men who were disposed to think that no good could
come out of the meetings were induced by their fellows
to come and see; and they came and found Jesus.
Some were impressed by the stirring eloquence of
Mr. Stanley Smith's appeals. Others were attracted
by the straightforward narrative of Mr. Studd's expe
riences. All were fain to recognise that it was no
unmanly thing to become a Christian, and that there
was some magnetic, mighty influence in the power
of a life wholly given to the service of the world's
Redeemer.' All these facts it is necessary to give, in order to
show how disposed to religion the life of a university
is, and lest any might think that to start a great move
ment on such a stage requires the advent of one
commanding personality.
In December Drummond had made his first appear
ance before his own university as a teacher by giving
the annual lecture of its Christian Medical Associa
tion. Professor Geikie was in the chair ; there was a
fair number of students present, and Drummond re
delivered his inaugural discourse on ' The Contribution
of Science to Christianity.'^ Whatever his audience
had previously known, or not known, about him, they
now saw before them a religious teacher utterly free
from conventionalism, ardent and enthusiastic as any
of themselves, fearless of facts, loyal to the intellectual
methods of the age, but still with an unshaken faith
in God and in the reality of spiritual experience. He
was immediately urged to return and lead the move
ment which had just started. His reply was, ' I cannot
address students in cold blood ; ' and besides (as appears
from his letters), he was sure that he could not work
1 Summarised above in chap. ix.

322 HENRY DRUMMOND [1885
with freedom upon all the methods on which the move
ment was conducted. The difficulties, however, were
removed, and he engaged to give one address on the
Sunday evening subsequent to Messrs. Smith and
Studd's last meeting. He stipulated that it should be
for students only, and upon new ground. The Odd
fellows' Hall was chosen, the nearest that could be
found to the University Buildings. It was simply
announced that ' Professor Drummond would give an
address,' and an audience gathered that nearly filled
the hall.i
'It is difficult,' says one who was present, 'to describe the
impression one got in such a meeting. We have seen young
men's meetings gathered before a platform crowded with
ministers surrounding a world-renowned evangelist. But this
was not a random gathering of the young men of Edinburgh.
There were youths from all parts of Scotland. There were
many from England and Wales. India had some of her dark
sons there. Australia, Canada, the Cape and all our colonies
sent their contingents. They had all come to our city to
study, and were in various stages of their curriculum. Know
ledge had been for them the principal thing ; and they found
themselves, somewhat wonderingly, in a scene where they
might haply get something they had not got in any classroom.
They saw the platform iilled with their teachers, their class-
tutors, and some of their own number whom they might rec
ognise as officials of one or other of the Christian Associations.
When they had sung the Hundredth Psalm, and the Professor
occupying the chair had led in prayer, and read a portion of
Scripture, they sang another hymn. Then the young gentle
man at the chairman's side, who was a stranger still to many
of them, came forward to the table, and the confidence at
once awakened by his open, earnest look at them was con
firmed when he began to talk to them in the well-known
classroom tone of a lecturer who has some knowledge which
it is his business to impart to his auditors, and which it is their
1 It holds about nine hundred.

jEt. 33] THE STUDENT MOVEMENT 323
supreme business at this hour to acquire. He began by tell
ing, with graphic detail, how a geologist had opened a mine
in search of a silver lode, and when his fortune had nearly
melted away, said to his people that for a few weeks longer
they might dig, and if they found no silver they must cease ;
how it was sold to one more fortunate, whose men had only
dug through two yards of soil when they came on one of the
richest veins of silver in England. " Now, I believe," said
the lecturer, " that there are some men in this hall who are
not two yards off from a treasure greater than can be found
in all the mines of earth." And then he proceeded to en
force on them the command of Jesus, Seek ye first the king
dom of God and His righteousness. After the address he
prayed, and before giving out a closing hymn he intimated that
an after-meeting would be held for personal converse with
any who might feel that they could get further help from
himself or any other believers present. No urgent appeal
was made ; rather they were told that probably the best thing
for some of them would be to go home and speak with none
but God. Yet the after-meeting was large, and some declared
their willingness to be the Lord's.'
Drummond would not commit himself to a series of
meetings. Till the end of each it was left open whether
there was to be another. With one break, he returned
every Sunday evening till the end of the session.
'The atmosphere of the classroom seemed always to per
vade the meetings, and at a telling illustration, or apt appeal,
there was often a suppressed sound of the pleasure with which
it had been received. It must have been at one of the early
meetings, when he had for text the grand Gospel invitation
in the end of the eleventh of Matthew, that Mr. Drummond
used an illustration which caught their attention and guided
some to the discipleship of Christ. " You ask what it is, this
coming to Christ. Well, what does Jesus Himself tell you
here .' He says ' Learn of Me.' Now, you are all learners.
You have come to Edinburgh, some of you from the ends of
the earth, to learn. And how did you put yourself in the
way of learning what is here taught .-• You went to the Uni-

324 henry drummond [1885
versity office and wrote your name in a book. You matricu
lated; and becoming a University student you went to get
from each individual professor what he had to teach. So,
¦with definite purpose to learn of Christ must you come to
Him and surrender yourself to His teaching and guidance."
Sometimes thereafter, when a happy worker had to tell of a
new addition to the number of Christ's disciples, he would
pleasantly say that So-and-so had "matriculated." '
In February the Indian statesman. Sir William
Muir, was appointed Principal of Edinburgh Univer
sity. On the day after his inauguration, he attended
one of the meetings in the Oddfellows' Hall, and closed
his brief address by pronouncing upon it the benedic
tion of the closing verses in Numbers vi. ' You will
more easily imagine than I can describe the thrill of
emotion that ran through the hall. It would have
sought utterance in the usual applause, but for the
reverent " Hush-sh ! " of the majority, and was finally
expressed by the whole mass in the galleries and floor
rising up and sitting quietly down again when the
Principal had bowed his acknowledgment of their
loving reverence.'
How real and deep Drummond felt the work to be
may be seen from his letters, which we have already
quoted. Even with his experience of such movements
he was taken by surprise. ' It is a distinct work of
God,' he writes ; ' such a work as I, after considerable
experience of evangelistic work, have never seen be
fore.' ' It haunts me like a nightmare. The respon
sibility I feel almost more than anything in my life.'
' I do not think I would exchange that audience for
anything else in the world.'
The work in Edinburgh required Drummond's pres
ence every Sunday, and he refused invitations to visit
other universities ; but these of themselves seemed

iET. 33] THE STUDENT MOVEMENT 325
ready for the movement, several of their own profess
ors organised meetings, and from Edinburgh deputa
tions were sent to address these under the leadership
of Professors Charteris, Grainger Stewart, and Green
field, and Dr. Cathcart, while several of their own pro
fessors and graduates worked hard to make them a
success. In Aberdeen, Dr. Hay, the Professor of
Medical Jurisprudence, organised three meetings be
fore the end of the session. From about eight hundred
students at King's and Marischal Colleges, three hun
dred and eighty attended the first meeting, addressed
by a deputation from Edinburgh, and over seventy
remained to the after-meeting, the majority of them
discussing questions with the leaders till a very late
hour. More than three hundred attended the second
and third. The result was not only the formation of a
University Christian Association, and the decision of
many for a more strenuous Christianity, but the moral
elevation of the whole life of the University, which, as
I remember well, was not transitory.
In Glasgow the movement was still stronger. The
first deputation from Edinburgh consisted of Pro
fessor Grainger Stewart, Dr. Cathcart, Mr. G. P.
Smith,^ one of the chief Organisers of the Edinburgh
work, and seven other students.
From fames M. Macphail to Professor Drummond
2, Maull Terrace, Partick, March 16, 1885.
' The hall was crowded to excess by the most orderly
students' meeting V ever attended. Dr. M' Kendrick
presided, and Professors Gairdner, Ramsay, Veitch,
1 Now a medical missionary in China.
^ Jame^ M. Macphail then a medical student at Glasgow University, and now
medical missionary among the Santhals.

326 HENRY DRUMMOND [1885
Robertson, and quite a crowd of assistants were present
The Edinburgh men spoke with power, especially, I
think, the young fellows who were making a public
stand for Christ for the first time. Four hundred
remained to the after-meeting. We were kept busy
till about ten o'clock [when the hall had to be closed].
Many men waited who had been thinking about accept
ing Christ for a long time, and who talked to us about
their difficulties. As far as we could see, there were
many cases of true conversion, and also of spiritual
quickening. Dr. M' Kendrick told me the meeting was
the finest he had ever attended. We are continuing
our union of prayer in our rooms at ten o'clock every
evening this week.' 'March 10.
' The meeting on Sabbath evening was not quite so
large as on the previous Sabbath, but the hall was
filled. Dr. M' Kendrick took the chair, and Professors
Dickson and Gairdner were on the platform, and quite
a number of assistants were present. The meeting
was a very impressive one, and Dr. M' Kendrick spoke
more clearly and earnestly than I had ever heard him
speak before. The after-meeting was a very remark
able and, I believe, fruitful one. The inquirers were
of all sorts — some convinced of sin, some atheists,
some anxious to be Christians, and yet with doubts and
difficulties in the way. I felt very much the extreme
delicacy of the task of dealing with many of these
fellows. Really this is the part of the work, above
all others, which demands earnest prayer. Professors
Gairdner, Ramsay, and Jebb have been waited upon,
and have expressed a very deep interest in the whole
movement Dr. M' Kendrick is quite convinced that
it is a work of God and not of man.'

MT.33] THE STUDENT MOVEMENT 327
'March 24.
'The meeting last Sabbath was a most successful
one. Dr. M'Gregor Robertson presided. Dr. Barbour
gave an exceedingly beautiful and striking address,
and Dr. Woodhead's was also very impressive. The
inquiry meeting was a large and, we have good reason
to believe, a fruitful one.' ' March 30.
' Last Sabbath's meeting was, I think, the most
impressive of all. The hall was crowded in every
part thirty or forty having to stand. Professor Jebb
presided, but did very little beyond giving out hymns
and introducing the speakers, yet the mere fact that
he was there bore testimony to the widespread interest
in the movement. Dr. Williamson of China gave an
address. Dr. Yellowlees, Lecturer on Insanity, and
Dr. Hay [of Aberdeen] followed. Our after-meeting
was the largest we have had. Dr. Williamson spoke
a few words from the platform ; and after that Pro
fessor Hay, Dr. Yellowlees, and Principal Douglas
went among the students. One feature of this meet
ing was the large number who waited to discuss doc
trinal difficulties. Several cases of apparent decision
for Christ came under my own notice.'
Though Drummond could not attend any of those
Sunday meetings, he met with the Glasgow students
on week-days for prayer and conference.
When the session came to an end, sixty or seventy
of the Edinburgh students volunteered to carry the
influences which had blessed themselves to young men
in other towns. So the Holiday Mission arose. It
spread to many parts of Scotland, England, and Ire
land. The volunteers were carefully organised, and
Drummond, Dr. Cathcart and some of the professors
superintended many of the operations.

328 HENRY DRUMMOND [1885
'3, Carlton Gardens, March 24, 1885.
' Everything goes well. And, I think, by the time
you come back you will find fires Ht in many
places. I hear that the third year's men, at their
meeting on Sunday afternoon in Edinburgh,
arranged to start eight Bible-classes, and they
hope to raise the number to fourteen. They had
the best inquiry meeting they have yet had.
To-morrow I am coming to meet our sixty new
evangelists. They have all been summoned by
post-card to meet in Oddfellows' Hall at five. . . .
Many of the medicals now want to be missionaries.'
Which of us does not still remember the advent of
these first ' Holiday Missioners ' among our manses !
They were scattered upon us with the spring, and
they came young, hearty, and laughing to be free of
the long winter's classes. They were sent, not as
advocates, but as witnesses, and they gave their testi
monies with a freshness and simplicity that went to
the hearts of the older people who listened to them.
Of course, there were crudities and indiscretions ; but
one would rather have had these than undue maturity
and bumptiousness, of which there was next to noth
ing. Every deputation of five or six had one or two
really able men among them, carrying a good con
science from their past work, and well trained in
philosophy or science. They had little or no theology,
but they told of Christ's power upon themselves, and
did so in a manly, moral spirit that brought new hope
to every tempted man who heard them. They talked,
too, of their doubts and intellectual difficulties in a
way that proved very profitable to us ministers in
dealing with young men, and appealed most power
fully to those of their own age. Naturally, they

Mt.33] the STUDENT MOVEMENT 329
impressed their educated contemporaries more than
others. But they seldom left any town or village,
whatever its intellectual condition might be, without
having moved several young men to a clearer and
more strenuous life in dependence upon Christ.^
Next to this, they interested us most by their open
reflection of Drummond. His way of putting things,
his stories, his accent, his characteristic reserve, his
pauses and hesitations, were reproduced almost to
mimicry. It was a great tribute to the influence of
his personality ; but how we used to chaff him about
it! The organisation of the Holiday Mission cost Drum
mond and his assistants very much thought and hard
work. He held the reins firmly, and had full reports
sent to him through the secretaries. From all the
towns, large and small, of the Scottish lowlands he has
kept letters with accounts of meetings and individual
cases; and he was applied to almost every day for
counsel as to the latter, as well as to the general strat
egy of the mission. He knew the perils to which his
young missioners were exposed, and both received
reports on the conduct of each, and returned frank
warnings. There are many grateful letters from min
isters, to whose parishes deputations had been sent.
Finally, he started off to examine some of the work
for himself.
^ In Greenock a large circus was filled with men to overflowing; 'several
openly professed decision for Christ in the after-meeting.' In Crieff Mr. Hender
son said there had been nothing like the results since 1874. In Stirling the meet
ings were ' crowded and enthusiastic' At Killin ' a meeting well on for two
hundred men for a beginning;' in Wick week-night audiences varied from two
hundred to three hundred ; ' it is no metaphor to say that the whole town of
Wick is moved just now;' unanimity prevails among all the churches. And so
forth. In Edinburgh one congregation added forty-five young communicants,
'most of them the result of deputation work.'

330 HENRY DRUMMOND [1885
To Professor Greenfield ' Eastbourne, April 25, 1885.
' . . . I came here, or at least to Brighton, on Mon
day, to see how a troupe of students were getting
on with their holiday mission. I found half a
dozen of them hard at work. They had had
meetings for eight days before I came, and with
real result. They are splendid fellows, and talked
with the utmost simplicity, earnestness, and power.
I have spent the last month in visiting the depu
ties at various places, and am greatly impressed
with the men. Nearly all are medicals, some mere
boys, and a finer set I never knew. It has been
a real privilege to be among them. I hear four
hundred new men are coming up to Edinburgh
this summer. What a work is before you ! My
heart is in Edinburgh, and I should greatly like
to be back again. But that dreadful business at
Grosvenor House, of which I told you, is in full
swing, and I am a prisoner till then.'
'London, July 10, 1885.
' I met a Bradford man yesterday, who had been to
all the students' meetings in B. (we sent a depu
tation there), and he reports a deep and enduring
impression.'
In October Drummond made his mission to the
undergraduates of Oxford. The proposal for this had
begun with some of his hearers at Grosvenor House,
and with one or two Oxford heads who had read his
book. There were some difficulties in making the
arrangements, for Drummond and those who knew
his work were anxious that he should not appear

^T. 33. 34] THE STUDENT MOVEMENT 33 1
under the auspices of any religious school, nor in con
tinuance of the conventional methods of evangelistic
work. Finally, there was a wonderful consensus of
invitations to him from all quarters. Sir William
Anson, Warden of All Souls ; Canon Girdlestone ;
Canon Scott Holland ; Mr. Butler of Oriel ; Canon
Percival, President of Trinity ; the Rev. Mr. Christo
pher; Mr. George N. Curzon and Mr. George W.
Russell all wrote wishing success, and offering to fa
cilitate arrangements for his visit. Drummond went
as the guest of Sir William Anson, and his ' first
lecture ' was advertised for the ' Hall of Trinity Col
lege on Sunday, October 25th, at 9 p.m., open to under
graduate members of the University.'
To Lady Aberdeen 'All Souls College, Oxford,
Monday, Oct. 26, 1885.
' The Club dinner I found to be practically, though
not nominally, a Liberal gathering, and I met
quite a number of dons — the Provost of Oriel
(Munro), with whom I dine to-night, the Warden
of Merton (with whom I had tea yesterday), one
of the other Heads — Fowler of Corpus — and
Professor Bryce and Mr. Pelham.
' On my arrival on Saturday I found Mr. Christopher
waiting for me. He had some hundreds of circu-
lars printed for his proposed meeting next Satur
day, but my telegram had stopped their issue.
What could I do ? I had really no excuse for
refusing, so the thing must go on, though I fear
he will find he has caught a tartar. After all, if
anything is to be done in Oxford, this party ^ must
1 The Evangehcal.

332 HENRY DRUMMOND [1885
be carried along with it They will supply great
and essential elements. And I am given to un
derstand that the various parties are not nearly
so distinct and alien as they were some years ago,
and that a combined evangelistic work is not
impossible.
' On the whole, therefore, I provisionally agreed to
take the private meetings, provided no more
urgent work opened. I now find that these
meetings in New College and Christchurch will
serve a very important function, and are perhaps
the best service I can do here. I have had a long
talk with the man of New College in whose rooms
the Thursday meeting was to be held. He is an
old Etonian, and rows in his college eight and the
fours, and seems a capital man.
' The authorities at New College (as the result of
the Science in last night's address) have to-day
given the Common Room, or Hall, if we like, for
the Thursday meeting, so that it is now under no
auspices at all, but a College thing. The Musical
Society has not only undertaken to postpone their
meeting, but is going to distribute circulars for
ours personally. The man at Christchurch who
is getting up the meeting there to-morrow is not
identified with any party, and I think things will
go-
' When I got to Trinity (I had called on the Presi
dent in the afternoon along with Sir Wilham
Anson, when we arranged that the President
should take the chair), I found the hall so
crammed that we could scarcely get in. All
the passages were crowded, all the tables, forms,
cornices, window-sills, with a seething mass of
undergraduates. The door being blocked, they

Mr. 34] THE STUDENT MOVEMENT 333
were pouring in through the windows and filling
every inch of space. So much for Mr.  , to
whom I have just written thanks.
' I need not say how inspiring this sight was.
It was a most unconventional and picturesque
audience — the thing I hked best I longed to
give them something more than science, and I
did, a little, at the end ; but I suppose the science
was right. There are some splendid men among
the undergraduates, but they are in danger of
many things, especially cant and precipitate and
too aggressive evangelism. I am going to deluge
them with cold water this afternoon.'
' Oct. 28. — We had a very large gathering at
Wycliffe [Hall] on Monday, all the Low Church
workers and one or two dons being present. I
gave them a sketch of the Edinburgh Movement,
and explained at length our theological views and
methods of work. They seemed much surprised
at the former, i.e. our vieivs, but did not instantly
burn me at the stake, as I feared. On the con
trary, they asked many questions, and, on the
whole, I think, this meeting was useful. I had
no idea it would be part of my work here to run
a tilt at the evangelism current in the place, but
nothing is really more needed. On Tuesday
afternoon I had a Conference with a number of
men — mostly Low Church workers — in  's
rooms at New Colleare. We discussed the " situ-
ation " for two hours, and I learned a good deal.
These men are eager to do something for the
University, and had half engaged the Corn Ex
change for me for next Sunday afternoon. After
much consideration, I refused to attempt this.

334 HENRY DRUMMOND [1885
The time is not ripe yet ; there are not the men
to do it; it could not be followed up; and it
mio-ht compromise my present mission, which I
find is a very peculiar and delicate one. In fact,
I feel this week more like reconnoitring than
doing; the actual battle — that must be done by
somebody later.
' The meeting at Christchurch last night, I think,
went off well.^ We had a large roomful of
men — mostly, I believe, freshmen, for whom the
meeting seems to have been specially got up. I
think the gathering at New College to-morrow
will be much larger and more representative.
' As to social arrangements. On Monday I
dined with the Provost of Oriel (whose people I
know), and met Freeman the historian. Professor
Bryce, Mr. Butler, and others. On Tuesday I
lunched at All Souls with some of the Fellows,
Sir William Anson being from home for the day.
This morning Canon Fremantle came here to
breakfast and to-night the President of Trinity
comes to dinner. Mrs. Liddell was at tea yester
day, and I had a short talk with her. To-morrow
I breakfast with Mr. Butler at Oriel to meet
Canon Holland ; luncheon at Trinity with one of
the Fellows ; tea with Rhoda Broughton at her
house ; and dine before my nine o'clock meeting
with the Vice-Chancellor. Mr. Jowett wrote me
a very kind note — '"Oxford, Oct. 22, 1885.
' " Dear Sir, — Would you, if I may make the pro
posal, give me the pleasure of your company at dinner
tete-a-tete, either on Thursday or Friday at 7.30? —
Believe me, yours very sincerely, B. Jowett."
1 The meeting was larger than the previous one in Trinity.

^T. 34] THE STUDENT MOVEMENT 335
' Oct 30. — I thought my dinner with the Vice-
Chancellor very sad. We were entirely alone,
and had a good talk, also occasional silences.
He asked me if in Scotland we were now gener
ally giving up belief in Miracles — he meant as a
sign of progress.
' I called for Dean Liddell yesterday on his granting
the hall at Christchurch. He gave me pretty
clearly to understand that it was solely on Aber
deen's account. He thawed a little after twenty
minutes over tea, but I thought him very appall
ing. I said they wanted leaders here, but really
they are almost hopeless. I thought I had got a
number of the best undergraduates to understand
our Edinburgh methods of work and to attempt
something on our lines — i.e. to work with abso
lutely neutral and colourless men, both ecclesias
tically and theologically. And this is what they
have done : made out a list, including  ,  ,
-, and his wife to sing ! I have implored

them to tear up the list, and I think they see it
The only immediate counter proposal I can make
is to get a deputation of Edinburgh students for
the Sth, and some notable man (a young M.P., I
hope) for the chair.
' I think we have at least four first-rate men at
Edinburgh who would come, and I shall put this
in train at once. The chair can be arranged later.
I have told the Low Church men to repress them
selves entirely and keep out of sight, but to work
behind the scenes to any extent. To the latter
our ways of work, our leading ideas, the absence
of cant and of evangelical formulas, are a com
plete revelation, and I really think they wiU adopt
them. It is inconceivable how left to themselves

336 HENRY DRUMMOND [1885
they have been. The proposal is to take the
Clarendon for a few Sunday nights ; but the great
difficulty is to get speakers. The High Church
party have arranged a special series of University
sermons in St. Mary's on Sundays at eight, and
have engaged some splendid men. The other
meeting might be grafted on to this as a species
of Second or Inquiry Meeting, and would have
to be at nine. I know some of the Committee of
this series — Mr. Butler and Canon Holland —
and both are anxious to have an Inquiry Meeting
afterwards, but do not see how it can be managed.
Perhaps our meeting may be the solution, but we
shall see how things develop before doing any
thing definitely.
' It would be a real gain to unite the low and high
factions in a piece of neutral evangelistic work.
' The meeting at New College last night interested
me greatly. A great many men turned up, the
men were most attentive, and I hope the occasion
was not lost, though of course one had no indica
tion of how they took it.'
The following letter from the present Bishop of
Rochester, then Warden of Keble, reached Drum
mond after he left Oxford : —
'Keble College, Oxford, Nov. 2, 1885.
' My DEAR Sir, — May I send a line to thank you
for taking the trouble to come up to me so early before
your journey ? It was a great disappointment not to
see you.
' We have much reason to be grateful to you, espe
cially for what I have lately heard of the motives of
your visit to Oxford. You have seen, I know, some

iET. 34] THE STUDENT MOVEMENT 337
of my great friends, Holland and Butler, and I hope
that some good may have its source in your talks.
' It is perhaps a happy feature of the present time,
which is certainly one of revived religious feeling in
Oxford, that one of our greatest difficulties is to dis
cern the right ways of doing good and teaching it, to
choose those which follow best the lines of God's own
working, to handle safely such powerful but difficult
instruments as emotional appeal and temporary enthu
siasms and the like.
' Since writing this my wife tells me that you have
just been discussing with her part of this very sub
ject — the difficulty of maintaining impressions and of
chronic work. May God guide us all in truth and
love. — Yours very faithfully, H. Talbot.'
To Professor Greenfield Drummond had written : —
'All Souls College, Oxford, Oct. 27, 1885.
' We had a tremendous turnout here on Sunday
night ; in fact, as the Americans say, it was neces
sary to take the paper off the walls. I am at it
every night this week, though in different colleges,
and finish next Sunday night. I think the place
is ripe.'
If Drummond was right, — and he was an expert in
the work, — there was nobody and nothing at Oxford
to reap the harvest. The man for whom he looked,^
able to lead a movement and unsworn to any religious
party, failed to appear ; but if he had appeared and had
been gifted with Drummond's own powers, it is doubt
ful whether he could have done such work in Oxford
as for years Drummond continued to do in Edinburgh.
The conditions were very different. Earnest attempts
1 See p. 334 f.

338 henry DRUMMOND [1885-86
were made at Oxford. Men of all religious schools
had been impressed by Drummond's addresses and
his explanation of the methods on which he worked.
I have been much struck, in the letters I have read,
with the sincere desire on the part of the leaders, both
of the High Church and the Low Church, to see what
one letter calls ' more direct and faithful mission work
among the students than we have yet had.' At least
one deputation came from Edinburgh after Drummond
had left, and were favourably received by a large audi
ence, among whom were many leading dons. More
than one conference was held to consult as to the con
tinuance of the work. But however sincere those were,
they only served to reveal (as Drummond's corre
spondence proves) insuperable differences of opinion
as to methods. These were not differences between
Church and Dissent, but between High Church and
Low Church. The work was abandoned.
On the 8th of November, Drummond held a very
large meeting for students in Glasgow. A few more
followed at intervals, and were addressed by himself
and other University men. But in Glasgow no move
ment arose, growing and permanent, like the move
ment in Edinburgh, and in subsequent years Drum
mond does not appear to have tried to start one.
Why there should have been this difference is not very
clear. The facts are, that in Glasgow there is not the
large body of English, colonial, and foreign students
who frequented the meetings in Edinburgh ; in Edin
burgh the bulk of the students reside in a compara
tively small area ; in Glasgow they are not only scat
tered over an enormous city whose distances can only
be covered by railways not open on Sundays, but a
large proportion of them live in the smaller towns
around ; and, above all, those Glasgow students who

JET. 34] the student MOVEMENT 339
are most interested in religion, and who could have
best organised a movement, are (part of them even in
their Arts course) occupied with city missions, in which
they have an amount of work and responsibility that
effectually disables them from other interests.
In Edinburgh the movement continued and increased
throughout session 1885-86. In October there was
a meeting of fifteen hundred without Drummond's
presence to draw them. The students urgently pressed
him to return, and he went back for another series of
meetings in February and March. The following are
extracts from his letters to various friends : —
'Oct 25, 1885. — When I shall get to Edinburgh,
I know not. I have to begin the Glasgow meet
ings on Nov. 8th, but my heart is in Edinburgh.'
' Dec. 16. — I fear it will be impossible for me to get
to Dundee. The students' work takes up all my
time, and I have to refuse all outside engage
ments — even yours, alas!'
'Feb. 26, 1886. — You ask about the Edinburgh
students. I send you a letter from one of them,
which will let you know what is going on all
round. The work is still very wide and deep,
and I am still going there every Sunday. Four
of the students went as a deputation to Belfast on
Sunday week, and between Sunday and Monday
night addressed twelve meetings, the most im
portant being at the College there. . . .
' Now I must rush for the Edinburgh train.'
'March 13. — The Edinburgh work goes on with
unabated interest For the last two Sundays I
have been trying to tell them something about
the Kingdom of God — after Ecce Homo. We
had a very large after-meeting last Sunday, and I

340

HENRY DRUMMOND [1886

think the impression deepens as the term draws
to its close. A desire has sprung up to have the
Sacrament all together in our own hall, the Odd
fellows' Hall, on the last Sunday night of the
session, and we are making arrangements to have
it done. It will be to-morrow fortnight, and I
think Professor Charteris will take the leading
part To-night we have a meeting to organise
the Summer Holiday Mission. Belfast and the
North of Ireland are to have strong deputations
in April — especially the colleges at Belfast,
Derry, and possibly Dublin.
' I am starting now to see the International Football
Match at Edinburgh.'
'March 27. — Dr. Whyte and Dr. Charteris take
our Communion Service to-morrow night.'
'April 12. — We had a very happy party at Arran.
Twenty-two came, and Dr. Greenfield joined us.
He and I meant staying over the Sunday, but
smelt battle across the sea, and could not help
flying off to Ayr, where six Edinburgh students
were making their debut. We concealed our
selves till Sunday afternoon, and then dropped
suddenly among them, when they were "gathered
in one place for prayer." They were on their
knees praying for help when we entered. Two,
however, were in the secret, as they had discov
ered us at church. We had a good meeting at
night, and the deputies kept at it all week, not
without result'
The secretary of the Holiday Mission reported this
month deputations to between fifteen and twenty
places in Scotland, England, and Ireland. ' On the
whole, the news from all round is good. The work is

iEx. 35] THE STUDENT MOVEMENT 34 1
very much worth helping by all accounts.' Most im
portant was the work at Aberystwyth, and Drummond
himself went to it To Lord Aberdeen 'Aberystwyth, May i, 1886.
'My dear Aberdeen, — I arrived here, after a very
fine crossing, yesterday afternoon, and found the
place ripe for action.
' The students from Edinburgh began last Monday
by a novel manoeuvre: For two days they held
no meetings at all, but attended the Annual
Athletic Sports of the University, and other
wise threw themselves into the students' in
terests. They also were present at a social
gathering on the Tuesday night; and the only
one of them who spoke, instead of giving the
company a sermon, proposed in a humorous
speech the toast of "The Ladies." The effect
of this was to secure the whole " 'varsity " for the
meeting on Wednesday, and a profound impres
sion was made. Thursday night was equally
good, and last night we had to move into a bigger
hall. Great interest is created both among pro
fessors and students, and I am very glad I came.
We have a meeting again to-night, and three or
four to-morrow ; in fact, we shall be at it all day
long.'
The difficulties were great, chiefly the jealousies
between Church and Chapel ; but the work progressed
and spread to other places, with the result of many
conversions and the dedication of a large number of
young men to a life of service.
During the summer Professor Christlieb wrote from

342

henry drummond [1886-87

Bonn to Professor Charteris of Edinburgh, inviting a
deputation of students to come over to the German
University. It was ultimately arranged that Drum
mond should go, along with Mr. G. P. Smith, a medi
cal student, who had taken from the first a leading
part in the Edinburgh movement, and was now study
ing at Vienna. Natural Law had by this time been
translated into German, and Drummond's name was
well known.
' Bonn, Oct. 26, 1886.
'. . . The University has allowed a notice of my
meeting on the " privileged " blackboard, and
Christlieb, who has the largest theology class,
has intimated it from the chair and urged the
men to come. A good turnout is not to be
expected, although Christlieb is sanguine. The
difficulties here are enormous. Evangelism is
hated, loathed. Still, a feeble spark may smoulder
on, and time create a more accessible field for
our bigger deputation, which I hope will follow
next year.' ' Glasgow, Nov. 6, 1886.
' I am in a whirl of work, and have only time to say
one word about Bonn. It was a strange experi
ence. The chief feature of the mission was one
big meeting, at which some of the professors (one
or two science men amongst them) were present
when I gave a detailed narrative of the Edinburgh
movement. Questions were invited at the end,
and for half an hour I was under a keen fire. The
depth of ignorance shown in these questions was
appalling. I think the men were interested, on
the whole, and one or two have promised to take
the thing up. By and by we shall send them
another deputation.'

;Et. 35] THE STUDENT MOVEMENT 343
Drummond must have made a deep impression at
Bonn ; for among his papers, I find a requisition from
a large body of students of the University, inviting
him to return and hold a second series of meetings.
When he returned to Scotland in the beginning
of November, the Edinburgh work occupied his
attention. 'Nov. 13, 1886. — I ran in to Edinburgh this week
to see the students. They are to go on with their
meeting. I absolutely refused to go there mean
time, as they have scores of men among them
selves perfectly able to run the thing. So they
will start to-morrow, the Principal in the chair.
They have founded an East End University
Settlement (like Toynbee), and have five or six
first-rate men already in residence.'
Dec. 1 6. — For me it will be a quiet winter. I see
it pretty well before me. I have begun The
Ascent of Man, though it climbs slowly, slowly.
Then after the Christmas holidays I begin Edin
burgh. You know, I have purposely left it alone
this month to let them try themselves. And
they have succeeded perfectly. I got a descrip
tion of their meeting of last Sunday night, which
really filled me with awe.'
His Edinburgh meetings began in the end of Janu
ary. In addition to the usual gathering of students
on Sunday evenings, in the Oddfellows' HaU, an after
noon service was started for schoolboys.
'Jan. 27, 1887. — Edinburgh was splendid last Sun
day.'
' Feb. 17. — Edinburgh is as good as ever, both the
boys and the students.'

344

HENRY DRUMMOND [1887
March 3. — Professor  was in the chair last
Sunday night at the students' meeting, and led
off with a really fine address. The meeting
deepens in interest and I have many bad hours
preparing for it every week. That sort of thing
keeps the rush off splendidly. The current is
flowing very deep and strong. I do not think I
would exchange that audience for anything else
in the world. The Boys' Meeting also, which
was meant only to last a Sunday or two, has
grown into an institution, and will not stop. Last
Sunday, after the hour's meeting, I sent all the
small boys home, and kept two or three hundred
of the big ones for a private talk about decision.
We did not think it wise to cross-examine them
individually, or put any undue pressure upon
them, but I am sure many of them are thinking
most seriously. One difficulty is to get into their
heads that they are to be religious as boys, and
that they need not be so " pious " as their maiden
aunts. I heard this incidentally the other day:
The boys from one of the Edinburgh schools
were playing a football match against a team from
another public school (not Edinburgh). During
the game the strangers used some bad language.
At " half-time " the Edinburgh boys got together
and resolved that they would do collectively what
they saw it would be priggish to do individually
— namely, tell the other side that they must stop
this, or the game could not go on. They followed
this up by saying that unless this were done, their
school would never play a match with them again.
It came on the strangers like a thunderbolt, but
they gave in at once.'
March 10. — We had very fine meetings again last

Mr. 35] THE STUDENT MOVEMENT 345
Sunday, and a conversazione for the students on
Saturday evening. Among other things, we then
got from sixty to eighty entirely new men to start
a " Holiday Mission " next month.'
'March 24. — Sunday was our last great meeting
for the winter, and I can never forget it. Our
hall was crammed to the door, and at the close
we asked all the men who had become Christians
to remain and join in the Sacrament. Over six
hundred waited — men of every kindred and
tongue. Sir William Muir was present, and
many of the professors, and Dr. Charteris dis
pensed the Sacrament Some of the students
acted as elders, and the leading prizemen were all
with us. The work has been outwardly very
quiet this winter, and none of us had the least
idea it was taking such marvellous hold until we
gathered around the Communion table. Forty
or fifty have volunteered to work in the " Univer
sity Settlement " in the East End, and about a
hundred have given in their names for a Holiday
Mission in summer, and especially in April next.
All this, and the Boys' Meeting, — which is bigger
than ever, — has kept me very busy for the last
month or two, and it has been a great strain.'
'Steamer "Brodick Castle," March 31, 1887.
' The above heading may suggest Timbuctoo, but it
is only Arran. I take my students for a week's
geology there every year, and I cannot tell you
what a relief it is to get out of the smoke. Green
field and some of the Edinburgh medicals are to
join our party at Arran, and we are looking for
ward to some capital climbs.
' Edinburgh still glows. We have not been able to

346 HENRY DRUMMOND [i888
Stop the meetings. I had four last Sunday, and
have four more next.
' Now I must go to my brethren of the hammer,
who are having a lively time on deck.'
'April. — It would be splendid to get among the
heather and the fish for a little, for my spirit pines
in this tunnel.
' I am just rushing off to Uddingstone, where a band
of the Edinburgh students have been at work all
week.
' The Holiday Mission is in full swing, and quiet
good doing all round. All this keeps one's mind
away from the shame of politics. The sides get
more and more bitter.'
So from year to year the work went on. The
summer and autumn of 1887 saw it carried by Drum
mond himself to the American Universities, as will
be described in another chapter. When he returned
to Scotland he found the Edinburgh students as eager
as ever to continue the movement and the arrival of
a deputation from America gave the moyement a new
impulse. 'November 8, 1887. — The students at Edinburgh
are determined to start work at once ; and I was
already advertised for next Sunday, although I
had written protesting that I would have nothing
more to do with them, as they could now get
along themselves. But a deputation came to
Glasgow, and my heart melted. In any case,
however, I could not get away from my Glasgow
work; and, although it is hard often to be tied,
so incorrigible a free-lance as myself needs it.'
'November 14. — My father is also a case of
hoping almost against hope. But at the moment

^T. 35-36] THE STUDENT MOVEMENT 347
there is a hairbreadth of improvement, and-

said I might go in to Edinburgh for the students
yesterday. We had the hall crammed, and the
American deputation gave an account of their
work. It was wonderfully interesting, and told
palpably on the hundreds of new men who were
there.'
' November 24. — I am advertised for the Edin
burgh students next Sunday. It was the same
last Sunday, and I disappointed them, and if at
all possible I ought to keep the engagement this
time. But, to tell the truth, I had all but given
up hope of getting there, as my father's condition
has been most critical for the last day or two.
He could not well be much worse than he is,
but if he were, I fear I could not go to Edin
burgh. . . .
' If, however, my father's condition remains satis
factory, I feel I ought to go to Edinburgh. I
would very much rather not, but I see no way of
escape from so plainly the line of " ought." '
'December 10. — You do not know what an unver-
satile being I am, and how I recoil from all but
one or two special lines of work.
' We had a big meeting of the students on Saturday
night, and the biggest of the term on Sunday.
We also started the schoolboy meeting yesterday
afternoon.'
'January i, 1888. — These terrible medicals are at
it again, — a conversazione, — this time in George
Street Hall next Saturday evening. They will
not let one eat one's dinner in peace. I do
hope you have made no plans, for they have
upset your arrangements every time. — Growl-
ingly yours, H. D.'

348 HENRY DRUMMOND [1888-94
'January 28, 1888. — Edinburgh takes a lot of time,
for we are in full sail there again, and I had three
students' meetings last Saturday and Sunday. I
am also in the middle of a persecution.
' Did you see a letter in the Christian about my
heresies, signed by a medical student 1 A small
clique has addressed a printed circular to the
Edinburgh ministers, begging them to suppress
me and my views. Of course, I have taken no
notice, and I think it has not hindered the work
at all, which is the main thing. Now I have
brought myself up to date. You see I am not
doing much.
' My one engagement is Edinburgh, which I fear I
dare not abandon, even for a Sunday, in the
present persecution, though I would fain let it
go, for none knows what a nightmare that work
is. I have an important commission for  as
soon as he gets into Parliament, to rush a Bill
through securing a Copyright in Public Speech ;
i.e. to prevent these irresponsible miscreants, the
reporters, from doing their work except when
permission and revision are granted by their
miserable victim.
' This scream is not apropos the Pope, but many
other enormities.'
'March 26, 1888. — It is very hard to be called
names, but very right, and in the nature of things
altogether inevitable. " It is enough for the ser
vant that he be as his Master." '
In session 1888-89 it was still the same.
'November 12, 1888. — Really fine students' meet
ing yesterday, hall filled to standing, and much

^T. 33-43] THE STUDENT MOVEMENT 349
interest. I fear I am in for it again this winter,
but I really wanted a few months' peace.'
'November 26, 1888. — I dinna think I can come.
Edinburgh is at it again, and I must stick there.
You know, I have no faith in a stray shot, and
mean to bombard the students steadily both here
and at Edinburgh. It is too dreadful to have to
refuse you so often, but you know your man.'
'February 26, i88g. — May I spread my mat at
No.  ? I fancy we shall have only two more
meetings after next Sunday, so one may not have
the chance of a cigarette again for a little, so I
hope you can give me a corner.'
So week after week during January, February, and
March he held the Edinburgh meetings. In August
there was a Students' Conference at Bonskeid, very
active and very successful. And session 1889-90 saw
the work as engrossing as in previous years, the
freshmen who had come up as interested and respon
sive as their predecessors had been.
'January 6, 1890. — All the Sundays now for two
months or so must be in Edinburgh — at least I
think so.
' We begin next Saturday night with a conver
sazione in the new Students' Union Building,
which is just opened. Twelve hundred invitations
are out. A deputation of Cambridge men are
coming. On Sunday the old meeting in the
Oddfellows' Hall begins, but though I preside,
the Cambridge men will do the bulk of the
talking.
' I have been flying everywhere during these last
days — first accompanying my mother to a place

350 HENRY DRUMMOND [1884-94
near Edinburgh for a little, and then going a round
of meetings both in Edinburgh and Glasgow. It is
the busiest time amongst the poor, and especially
among the tempted, and it has fallen to my lot
this year to devote my holiday mainly to them,
turning up at my mother's from time to time as I
could.'
'January ii, 1890. — I have been in Edinburgh —
meetings, meetings, meetings — and am just start
ing back again for more.'
Such was the outer history of the Student Move
ment so far as Drummond himself has told it, and
his notes for the years 1884-90 hold good also for
1891-94. In these ten years the work covered about three
generations of students, and Drummond was able to
give many of his better-known addresses more than
once, but always with varieties and additions suitable
to the occasion. At first he confined himself to very
simple themes: '¦Seek ye first the Kingdom of God}
Christ's call to the weary and heavy laden to lear-n
of Him, and similar texts. Sometimes he had these
printed upon cards and distributed to his audience as
they entered, as thus : —
Let the wicked forsake his way
And the unrighteous man his thoughts :
And let him return unto the Lord,
And He will have Mercy upon him,
And to our God
For He will abundantly Pardon.
Students' Meeting, * Him that cometh unto ME
March 8, 1885. I will in no wise cast out.'
Those addresses were all upon the relation of the
individual to Christ In 1886 he began to emphasise

^T. 33-43] THE STUDENT MOVEMENT 35 1
the social aspects of religion, and gave some addresses
on the Kingdom of God, based on Ecce Homo ; his
Programme of Christianity from Isaiah Ixi. ; and his
address, or parts of it, on i Cor. xiii. Then while
preparing his lectures on The Ascent of Man, he took
up the relations of science and religion, and illustrated
the naturalness of Christianity as the crown of all
human evolution ; but always drove home to the indi
vidual his place and duty in the process. Take the
very remarkable series of addresses delivered in the
winter of 1890, a summary of which will be found in
the Appendix to this volume. They start with science ;
but as they go on, one is impressed no less by the ful
ness of the Gospel which is in them than by their
persistent pressure upon the individual to accept
Christ and consecrate life to Him. It is a seer who
speaks, stimulated like the prophets of old by the in
tellectual conditions of his own time to a new view
of the things that are eternal. Modern science has
enabled him to view life as a whole, and to perceive,
with an eye which, as he tells you, he also owes,
partly to science, that in the universe Christianity is
at once the most natural and the most sublime of facts.
He sweeps before us, in a magnificent panorama, the
forces which have built the world, developed the indi
vidual, and fashioned human society, and he relates
Christianity to them as their continuance and con
summation. But the individual is made to feel his
place in this and his duty towards it And for all
those purposes the speaker excites not the imagina
tion only, but reason and common sense. There is
no sensation in the addresses, nor any imposition of
authority ; no artificiality nor false mysticism ; but the
style is as simple as the thinking; it is one sensible
man talking to others of his own generation.

352 HENRY DRUMMOND ["884-94
In the Christianity which he presents as the crown
of the life of the universe, the spring and cause is
Jesus Christ He is the Source of all life and light;
the assurance of the forgiveness of sins; the daily
nourishment of the soul ; the one power sufficient for
a noble life ; the solution of all problems ; the motive
and example of all service. Night after night this
teacher shut up the reason of his young hearers to the
acceptance and obedience of Christ. Night after night
he pleaded before their hearts God's love in Christ
and God's need for them in the life of the world.
This is the most striking feature of the addresses, and
next to it is their adherence to the Bible and Christ's
own words, which are expounded with a simplicity and
homeliness that remind one sometimes of Luther, and
sometimes of Robertson of Brighton. And next is
another feature which will surprise many who did not
hear the addresses — their loyalty to the Church and
to the doctrines of the Church. Church-going, they
say, is not Christianity, and belief in doctrines is not
Christianity, but no sane man will refuse the regular
nourishment and strength of fellowship which church-
going supplies ; and, as in every department of science,
so here also a reasonable mind will recognise that
there must be doctrines, and will go for their explana
tion only to their highest authorities. But description
of these addresses is useless save to tempt the reader
of these lines to study them himself. He will find
them among the best which Drummond ever achieved.
Nor will he who reads these addresses need to be
told how ignorant and irrelevant was the criticism
from which their author suffered. It arose, in the
first instance, because he excluded all reporters from
the meetings. He adopted this policy, not from any
wish to hide his teaching, but — apart from the obvi-

^T. 33-43] THE STUDENT MOVEMENT 353
ous fact that the daily press can give only fragmentary,
and therefore to some extent misleading, reports of
long religious addresses — because his mission was to
students only, and he was persuaded that the very per
sonal and sacred work which it involved would thrive
better if kept to himself and his audience. Every one
who is familiar with such work can perceive the many
reasons for this. But at the same time it was bound
to provoke criticism and misunderstanding. Some of
the misrepresentations from which the addresses suf
fered were wilful ; bits torn from their context by a
young prig or two in his audience, and flung to the
rapacity of certain of the lower-class religious papers,
who followed the author of Natural Law with an in
satiable suspicion. Others were the effect upon good
but unduly sensitive minds of the inevitable distortion
of the half-reported teaching of an evangelist with
unconventional ways of stating the truth. Such
charges are mentioned here only to emphasise how
unfounded they now appear to be in face of the ad
dresses themselves. And, in fact, when any of Drum
mond's harder critics went to hear him, they generally
came away disarmed. The newspaper which attacked
him most persistently for his exclusion of reporters
acknowledged that he had intelligible reasons for this,
and published at least one candid appreciation of his
power by an outsider to the work.
The following account of the addresses has been
sent me by one who was a medical student at Edin
burgh from 1888 to 1892, Mr. George Newman, now
Lecturer on Bacteriology at King's College, London,
and lately Warden of Chalfont House Settlement : —
' The first time I saw Professor Drummond was in the
wintertime in 1888. I was a freshman; and though I had,
of course, heard of him by name, I had no idea at all as to

354 HENRY DRUMMOND [1884-94
any connection he had with the University of Edinburgh.
Some fellow-imdergraduate gave me a card to attend " a meet
ing for students in the Oddfellows' Hall, to be addressed by
Professor Drummond." It seemed only by chance that I
went to the meeting. I believe Sir William Muir, the Princi
pal of the University, was in the chair. There were several
of the leading men in the University upon the platform, and
the room, which seats, I think, about a thousand, was full. I
suppose I shall never forget — I certainly do not wish to for
get — the impression I gained of Professor Drummond that
night. He spoke with evident earnestness, but with marked
control, if not reserve. His whole bearing was calm and
collected. There were no gestures. Nor was there a sug
gestion of the " preacher " — natural voice, natural demeanour,
natural and dignified from beginning to the end. At the
close of his remarks he uttered a few words of prayer. A
hymn was sung, and the great gathering dispersed with pre
ternatural quietness and decorum. The impression left on
my mind was such as to cause me to reflect upon what I had
seen and heard. Taken at the very lowest estimate, here was
a disciplinarian of no ordinary skill. To those who have not
heard Drummond, or have wondered at his influence, I sug
gest a consideration, viz., that his -methods were of a rare kind,
and obtained for him a hearing which many religious teachers
never seem able to secure. The matter of a sermon is clearly
of first importance, but is it not possible that great matter is
frequently spoiled by not being greatly uttered .'
' Now, whilst in my judgment Drummond was not an orator,
he had a most exceptional faculty of simple, beautiful, and
dignified expression. His style and mode of procedure
appealed, I think, to his hearers in Edinburgh. He was
admittedly a tall, well-built, handsome man — almost a king
among men — and no one who has looked into those eyes
can ever hold any other opinion than that they were attrac
tive. He was rather particularly well and neatly dressed.
These things, combined with his skill of style, all had their
influence upon his hearers. But there was another character
istic which struck me that night. I had heard a real Teacher.
Such are rare. Many professors in our universities can no

/Et. 34-43] THE STUDENT MOVEMENT 355
more teach than fly ! At best, possibly they are crammers
in. But Drummond ^-ducated men. He drew them out —
and drew them onwards and upwards. His ideas may have
been, or may not have been, orthodox, scholastic, theological,
scientific — but they resulted in leading out a young fellow's
mind. His teaching opened men's eyes — not to wondrous
doctrines, but to see. After a course of Drummond, men
began to look about for themselves.
' A considerable experience of those meetings of Professor
Drummond's only convinced me the more that he was a
Teacher possessing an admirable style. But it was not long
before I learned of at least two other features which made
this visitor to Edinburgh such a power in the University.
He held no position whatever in the University. He came
as " unofficial preacher " ; but in that capacity he had, in my
judgment, a greater and a more lasting effect upon the
University at that time than any of the University teachers
themselves. And for a very simple reason. He dealt not
with technical subjects, but with ethics and life. The Pro
fessors of Divinity might be said to be his only competitors.
But while they spoke to small compulsory classes reading
for a degree, Drummond spoke to the largest class in the
University, and it was a voluntary one, composed of students
in all the Faculties. Moreover, he possessed his influence
very largely because he went beneath the surface of things
— beyond formularies, creeds, definitions — to the elementary
questions of life and conduct. It is true, such a course led
him inevitably into controversy and misapprehensions, but it
accomplished that which he desired. I should sum up his
entire teaching in those meetings in one sentence from the
pen of George Macdonald: "Life and religion are one thing,
or neither is anything." Here was a minimum of theology
and a maximum of simple common sense. How well it acted
was proved by experience.
' For three winters, to my personal knowledge, these large
gatherings of students took place. Nor was the effect imme
diately transient. It acted in a perceptible measure as the
salt of the University. The foremost men in the University
gave these meetings their support, and were often present

356 HENRY DRUMMOND [1884-94
themselves. Lord Aberdeen presided on several occasions,
and frequently distinguished visitors to Edinburgh were
present. Otherwise the meetings were absolutely limited to
matriculated students. The elementary basis of doctrine —
if such it is to be called — was of a nature to bring men of
all shades of religious feeling, and of "no religion at all,"
together in one hall. Professor Drummond has frequently
been criticised respecting the matter of his addresses to the
students of Edinburgh. Of that I am not qualified to speak.
Many of those who might be considered as representatives
of the children of Israel were sore afraid that the rehgious
spirit of Evangelism was absent. The world of exact science
declared that Drummond was "unscientific." In a measure
he was guilty of both accusations. He was not, I should
say, an evangelical teacher in the general acceptation of the
term. Professor Masson, in an essay written, I think, about
1852, on "Scottish Characteristics," selects finally as those
most often found : (1) An intense spirit of nationality; (2) the
habit, in thinking, speaking, and writing, of laying emphasis
upon certain points rather than in co-ordinating them into
one entirety. Drummond erred — if it be erring — in the
latter of these two characteristics. He was a philosopher, yet
he has left us no philosophy. Like Jowett at Oxford, though
in a less degree, he individualised his creed and his teaching.
Though his entire contribution to religious thought has done
much to co-ordinate, still it must be recognised that he had,
or thought he had, a very definite part or side of Truth to
enforce. This he did with as great pertinacity as he declined
to speak to audiences outside those he deemed desirable.
He emphasised, not to misplace or isolate Truth, but to
bring out the finer points, which he felt were so often
neglected, because they lay below the surface. The final
result was a revealing of unity, co-ordination, and adaptation
in the Truth of the Christian Religion and Nature. Nature
was to Drummond a sympathetic background to human life
and the kindred revelation of a divine intelligence. Most of
the many misconceptions of spirituality may be traced, as
T. H. Green of Balhol pointed out to the notion that it is
attained by eliminating, leaving behind, and transcending

/Ex. 33-43] THE STUDENT MOVEMENT 357
what is natural. Drummond believed and taught that, on
the contrary, the spirituality which was real, and which would
stand the test of time, was attained by absorbing, assimilat
ing, and developing what was Natural. " Nothing," said
Drummond, " can ever be gained by setting one-half of Nat
ure against the other, or the rational against the ultra-
rational." That is a fine quotation — the whole of it in my
judgment, absolutely representative of Drummond's best
thought and contribution. Seeley declared for Natural Re
ligion : Drummond demanded that religion should be natural.
' As I have said, his whole tenor of thought inevitably led
him into differences with the exact sciences. He was above
everything else the Poet of Science. And the general run of
exact scientific men have little or nothing to do with poetry.
I imagine Drummond has left comparatively little original
work behind him. He interpreted the Ethics of Nature rather
than investigated new matter.
'From what I have said, you wih gather that I think
Drummond's immense influence was due to solid reasons, and
neither ephemeral nor superficial. The reasons were three :
(i) His style and methods ; (2) his power of teaching; (3) his
creed. But more, I think, than all these, and inspiring them
all, was his own personality and pure spirit. He practised,
so far as we could judge, what he preached. His life was
the home of fair visions and noble thoughts and courteous,
kindly deeds. He seemed to many of us to be removed from
the sordidness of life.
' After my first experience I saw a great deal of him, and
had the delight of being of some little use in the furtherance
of his work at Edinburgh. Of this he often spoke, and any
little service done for him was amply repaid by his gratitude
and appreciation. He was not a frequent correspondent but
his letters were admirable, and contained much helpful and
wise advice. My time in Edinburgh was certainly a very
happy one. But I learned to measure many things as but
poor and common compared with our friendship. It was the
most precious thing I found during my course. Nor was I
alone in this experience. I remember not a few who shared
it. Drummond was prepared to take almost endless trouble

358 HENRY DRUMMOND [1884-94
with men who desired his help. " After-meetings," I think,
he disliked as strongly as some of us did. But if a nian wished
to see Drummond privately and have a talk with him, he was
always ready. Indeed, he would come through from Glasgow
on a week-day simply to see a man who desired his help.
Few teachers have ever had such confidences bestowed in
them as Drummond, and yet he was strangely reserved as
regards his own heart. He would not be drawn just by
anybody at any time. He was fastidious to a degree in all
spiritual matters. His taste was the essence of refinement.
' The last walk we had together was along Princes Street
and towards the Dean Bridge. It was a Sunday night at the
end of term in 1892, and we discussed amongst other things
his meetings during the four years. He spoke very modestly
of his share in them, though, of course, his share was every
thing. ' I loved him with all my heart and soul and mind — I think
1 have never loved any man so much, so strongly, so con
tinuously. I have never seen in any man so much that was
admirable — for he seemed to possess all the graces and
virtues of which as perfect man I dreamed.'
As in his mission in 1873-75, so in this work among
the students it was not so much the addresses them
selves which told, as the personal intercourse with
hundreds of young men to which they formed the
introduction. One who heard Drummond through
several years of the students' movements said there
was one power which distinguished him beyond every
other preacher to men, and that was the power of so
speaking as invariably to move from one to two hun
dred of his audience of seven or eight hundred — not
merely to stay to an after-meeting, but to talk with
him one by one and face to face. This power never
failed him with the students, and it was by it he left
an abiding mark on many hundreds of lives.
What it cost him he alone could tell, and even his
closest friends during those years had only glimpses of

^T. 33-43] THE STUDENT MOVEMENT 359
the labour, the thought, and the anxiety which it en
tailed. In mere talk or writing, that take up time, it
occupied him for a part of every day during the winter
session. To deal with a single case he would come
through from Glasgow to Edinburgh for an afternoon.
On Saturdays, when he was free, he arrived in the
morning and spent several hours fulfilling appoint
ments with men. And on Sunday, after the meeting
was over, he would talk with one and another far on
into the night, in the Hall, on the winter streets, or in
his lodgings. One of his hosts tells me that after
having worked all night with men in trouble, he came
in to breakfast on Monday morning, fresh and happy
as any round the table, and was off to Glasgow before
they knew what he had been doing. That must have
been a night when men were given to him for his hire,
and God's grace was so evident as to be meat and
drink to him. But there were other times at which
the confessions of some of the men and fiis disappoint
ments with them strained and wore him out. One,
with whom he stayed over a Sunday, writes as fol
lows: —
' One Sunday evening we were having prayers when
he returned. I did not know that he was in, and went
down to the dining-room to see if the soup was ready
and hot for him. (He laughingly called our house the
" Sign of the Ox-tail.") I found him there leaning
with his head bowed on the mantelpiece, looking into
the fire. He raised a haggard, worn face when I spoke
to him, and I made him take a glass of wine, and asked
him if he were very tired. " No," he said, " not very.
But oh, I am sick with the sins of these men! How
can God bear it ? " '

360 HENRY DRUMMOND [1884-94
If his experiences that night were the same as were
sent to him in a large number of letters, anonymous
and signed, then one cannot wonder that coming forth
from the living face and eyes they stunned and sick
ened him. He has kept letters with strange and awful
stories of sin, told for the most part in utter despair.
Some are from men who have fallen once, and cry for
his quick hand to lift them. Some are from those
whom he has befriended before, and perhaps shep
herded for a time, but away from him they have
yielded. ' I suppose you will be coming to Edinburgh for Sunday.
If you are not specially engaged and would come through
early, I should be very glad. . . . The winter before last I
was always at your meetings, and a year last Easter was on
deputation. Now I am off the mark and fully aware that
things cannot go on this way much longer. A talk quietly
with you might do good and help me.'
There are many letters like that.
' Dear Sir, — Can you tell me what will help me in the
first second succeeding moral defeat and the consciousness
of it .' What, when we have but a moment to think before
plunging into the next bit of work that lies to our hand, will
save us from losing heart at the consciousness of our weak
ness and giving way to a feeling that it is useless to prolong
a struggle which can only end in our total defeat ? I have
found that the first moment of defeat is the crucial instant
determining whether it is to be a stumble from which we shall
recover, or whether it is to usher in a period longer or shorter
of listlessness and wasted opportunities. I feel certain there
must be some way of doing right at every instant independent
of the rightness or wrongness of previous acts. Can you help
me and possibly others .' — I am yours expectantly,
'Victor S^pe Victus.'
' Dear Professor Drummond, — I was at your meeting
to-night, and was also present at your after-meeting. I may

^T. 33-43] THE STUDENT MOVEMENT 36 1
say that I am a member of  's church. . . . When a fel
low leaves home he finds it pretty hard work to keep straight
sometimes, and I frankly say I have come to grief since I
came to Edinburgh. I have been trying for some time back
to live a better life and be more like Christ. I am taking
advantage of your offer to give us advice.'
' Dear Sir, — How past sins are to be blotted out is a
matter of special difficulty to those who enter upon the Chris
tian life, leaving a dissolute career behind them. The usual
method of meeting this difficulty is that of the Atonement.
Some perplexity has been caused through your making no
reference to this, and it is felt that you would render a great
service by elucidating the matter. If convenient, would you
kindly refer to the subject this evening.' — Yours respectfully,
' A Student.'
' Dear Sir, — I have been attending your Students' meet
ings for some time, and am now resolved to follow Jesus
Christ. But my past life has been a very wild and sinful one,
and I want to know how I am to regard the past. What
assurance may I have that the past is forgiven ? Do you
believe in the Atonement of Christ .¦" '
This last letter Drummond " read to the meeting,
and, laying it down, declared his unequivocal faith in
the efficacy of Christ's Atonement. That Atonement
(he said) furnished the ground and assurance of the
forgiveness of sins. There were many theories of the
rationale of that doctrine ; and he would not venture
there to offer any theory of his own, but he took the
opportunity of magnifying the Atonement as one of
the central facts of Christianity.' ^
Another sends the following : —
'I recollect particularly well an answer he gave once in
private conversation to the question, " Do you believe that the
sacrifice of Christ is the essential and basal thing in the Chris
tian religion .-' " The interrogator desired an answer. Yes or
^ From a student who was present at the meeting.

362 HENRY DRUMMOND [1884-54
No. It was at a time when Drummond's position was being
assailed from almost every quarter. I shall not soon forget
the slow, deliberate reply : " Then my answer must be No."
The questioner remarked that it was satisfactory to have such
a plain answer. But there was in store for him something
which probably made matters plainer still : " If I may venture
a supplementary remark," said Drummond, " I would say that
in my opinion the sacrifice of Christ is a part of the very
essence of Christianity, but the basis of Christianity is the
eternal love of God." *
I have been told by those who assisted Drummond
at the after-meetings, that you could not know him till
you saw how he pleaded there with groups of men, and
still more with individuals. He was very straight;
and God's forgiveness made sure in Jesus Christ was
what he pressed home, with all the simplicity of Script
ure itself, upon the men whom he found convinced of
guilt Yet he used to say that it was not to the sense
of guilt he could most powerfully appeal, nor did he
believe that such an appeal was the most suitable to
make to a meeting of young men. Indeed, the secret
of his large area of power was his recognition of the
enormous variety of religious difficulty and of moral
trouble which beset the young men of his time. He
took these as he found them, and shaped the begin
nings of his gospel to suit their experiences, their
ideals, their lines of study and of recreation. But the
end was One, and Christ stood at it For every man
the thing needful was surrender to Him, and the begin
ning of a life of service in His Spirit
These labours and anxieties brought their own
reward. It came not only in the undiminished meet
ings, — ' I would not give up my audience in Odd
fellows' Hall for anything in the world,' — but in the
more precious acknowledgment by one man after an-

^T. 33-43] THE STUDENT MOVEMENT 363
other that he had been turned from evil, lifted to self-
control, and was happy in serving Christ.
What sheaves of such tributes he got, and yet so
seldom spoke of them ! I cannot imagine documents
of the kind more honest or reserved.
' I think it my duty to tell you (after my request last week)
that I have this week benefited by your address, and feel sure
that you have prayed for me. This week has been one of
victory and strength unknown to me for years. ... — Ever
gratefully yours, 'A Student.'
' Up till Sunday, and for some time past, I felt myself drift
ing ; but the wonderful things I heard last night, and particu
larly your words, have done me a great deal of good. I can
again enjoy communion with God and my Saviour, and that I
know that I work not for myself but for Him fills my heart
with joy. I feel assured that last night's meeting has given
courage to many. — Yours sincerely, ' L.'
These are like a great number from men whom he
did not know, and with whom he had not spoken.
But very many others he did know, and, step by step,
helped from sin or from doubt to stability of faith and
conduct, which so long as he lived he had the joy of
seeing unshaken among the real troubles of life, and
frequently upon high positions of responsibility and
influence. ' Sir, — Some years ago I gave my heart to my Saviour,
yet I have not followed Him as I ought. It seemed to me as
you spoke as if I had taken it back again, and soiled it with
sins unmentionable. But I thank and praise Him that through
you I have been enabled by His great unspeakable grace to
say "Lord, I come." Will you pray for me that I may be
kept from falling, and that I may sit humbly at His feet and
leam of Him .' God knows, if any ought to be humble I
should.'

364 HENRY DRUMMOND [1884-94
' Dear Professor Drummond, — Though I did not succeed
in getting through my " second," I feel it has not been alto
gether a failure. As a practical resuk, my getting through
three has been more than I expected or deserved ; but apart
from that it has given me more hope for the future, as I look
back upon the last two months. It has taught me that I can
StiH do work, if only I apply myself, though it was very
difficult at times. (You know of my outbreak.) A very
helpful influence to me in my struggle has been yours, sir,
and that of Dr.  . I write to-night to tell you that I thank
you from the bottom of my heart for your great kindness to
one who was not only a stranger, but even almost a foreigner.
I hope and trust that the tide has now turned with me, and
that I shall yet be a useful member of society. I begin to
realise how nearly I had become a perfect wreck ; in a great
measure I owe my escape to your personal influence.'
One of the finest features of the movement, how
ever, was the large number of the men affected by it
who set themselves, often at great sacrifice, to win
their fellow-students for Christ. Here is an instance
which Drummond himself told at a students' meeting
in America : —
' One night I got a letter from one of the students
of the University of Edinburgh, page after page
of agnosticism and atheism. I went over to see
him, and spent a whole afternoon with him, and
did not make the slightest impression. At Edin
burgh University we have a Students' Evange
listic Meeting on Sunday nights, at which there
are eight hundred or one thousand men present
A few nights after this, I saw that man in the
meeting, and next to him sat another man whom
I had seen occasionally at the meetings. I did
not know his name, but I wanted to find out
more about my sceptic, so when the meeting was
over, I went up to him and said, " Do you happen

/Et. 33-43] THE STUDENT MOVEMENT 365
to know  ?" — "Yes," he replied, "it is he
that has brought me to Edinburgh." — " Are you
an old friend ? " I asked. — "I am an American,
a graduate of an American University," he said.
" After I had finished there I wanted to take a
post-graduate course, and finally decided to come
to Edinburgh. In the dissecting-room I hap
pened to be placed next to  , and I took a
singular liking for him. I found out that he was
a man of very remarkable ability, though not a
religious man, and I thought I might be able to
do something for him. A year passed and he
was just where I found him." He certainly was
blind enough, because it was only two or three
weeks before that that he wrote me that letter.
" I think you said," I resumed, " that you only
came here to take a year of the post-graduate
course." — '' Well," he said, " I packed my trunks
to go home, and I thought of this friend, and I
wondered whether a year of my life would be
better spent to go and start in my profession in
America, or to stay in Edinburgh and try to win
that one man for Christ, and I stayed." — " Well,"
I said, " my dear fellow, it will pay you ; you will
get that man." Two or three months passed, and
it came to the last night of our meetings. We
have men in Edinburgh from every part of the
world. Every year, five or six hundred of them
go out never to meet again, and in our religious
work we get very close to one another, and on
the last night of the year we sit down together in
our common hall to the Lord's Supper. This is
entirely a students' meeting. On that night we
get in the members of the Theological Faculty,
so that things may be done decently and in order.

366 HENRY DRUMMOND [1884-94
Hundreds of men are there, the cream of the
youth of the world, sitting down at the Lord's
table. Many of them are not members of the
Church, but are there for the first time pledging
themselves to become members of the Kingdom
of God. I saw  sitting down and handing
the communion cup to his American friend. He
had got his man. A week after he was back in
his own country. I do not know his name ; he
made no impression in our country, nobody knew
him. He was a subject of Christ's kingdom,
doing His work in silence and in humility. A
few weeks passed and  came to see me. I
said, " What do you come here for ? " — He said,
" I want to tell you I am going to be a medical
missionary." It was worth a year, was it not .? '
One of the letters quoted above strikes a note which
was a very strong feature of Drummond's mission.
He recognised that the first duty of his converts was
to the University itself and to their studies. There
was an entire exclusion of the romance, the sentimen
talism, the vague philanthropies, the short cuts to in
fluence and fame, which often so seriously hurt work
among students. The business in hand — the class-
work, the examinations, the science or profession for
which they were studying — was pressed upon all as
their first duty. In this, too, the leaders of the move
ment, the secretaries, the committee and the most
prominent workers, set a noble example. Many of
them were the first men of their years. All round,
the honours lists showed, as was right, the first-fruits
of the mission.
How has it gone since ? How have ' Drummond's
men ' stood the world ? In nearly every town of our

i^T. 33-43] THE STUDENT MOVEMENT 367
country, in every British colony, in India, in China,
in Japan, converts or disciples of this movement, who
gratefully trace to it the beginnings of their moral
power, are labouring steadfastly, and often brilliantly,
in every profession of life.
If any have grown indifferent, if any have fallen,
should the story of those great days come into their
hands, may it rouse the memory within them of what
they then owned, of what they then found themselves
capable of. And let them be assured, that if sins have
fallen on them since, the same Grace which Henry
Drummond then pleaded to their hearts is theirs still,
if with all their hearts they tum and seek it.

CHAPTER XIII
THE AMERICAN COLLEGES — 1887
For some years various persons and institutions in
America had been inviting Drummond to cross the
Atlantic. Mr. Moody was urgent that he should join
him in such a general mission as they had accom
plished together in 1873-75. But Drummond, as
we have seen, was concentrating his energies upon
students. About 1885 Mr. Moody, too, began to
specialise in the same direction. At Northfield,
Massachusetts, he had built a number of institutions
for the discipline of young men and women in various
forms of Christian service; and in the spring of 1887
he invited Drummond there to a Conference of Stu
dents. Drummond agreed to go to Northfield as well
as to certain ' summer schools ' of Chautauqua and
elsewhere. On the i ith of June he sailed from Liver
pool, and reached New York on the i8th.
He had scarcely landed before requests for lectures
and addresses poured in upon him from all sides.
The American Association for the Advancement of
Science ; the Presidents of many universities and col
leges — beginning with Dr. M'Cosh of Princeton, Dr.
Dwight of Yale, Dr. Gilman of Johns Hopkins, Dr.
Grant of Kingston, and Sir Daniel Wilson of Mon
treal ; scholars like Dr. Bissell of Hartford, and Dr.
Rendel Harris of Haverford; literary men like Mr.
George Cable ; the Christian Associations of many
universities; the International Committee of the
Young Men's Christian Association ; besides the host
368

^T. 35] THE AMERICAN COLLEGES 369
of ' Lecturing Bureaus,' ' Societies of Inquiry,' ' Insti
tutes of Christian Philosophy,' Women's Clubs,
Pastors' Associations, and Societies of Teachers —
begged him to give them either single lectures or a
series of addresses.
He might have spent a couple of years on the
Continent, and made a fortune by lecturing. But he
saw the opportunity of extending to the American
Colleges the religious movement which he had started
among the Edinburgh students, and, with the excep
tion of a couple of visits to ' summer schools,' he
resolved to confine himself to this great work. He
made arrangements for a strong deputation to come
over from Edinburgh and commence a mission to the
colleges so soon as these opened in September, and
accepted pecuniary engagements only so far as to
cover his travelling expenses for the next four months.
The few purely scientific lectures which he gave were
also undertaken by him solely for the purpose of
furthering his influence as a religious teacher.
To the lecturer or preacher from Great Britain,
America presents a width of area, an urgency of
demand, and a wealth of organisation which are
simply amazing after his experience of the insular
opportunities and somewhat sluggish conservatism of
his own country. It is not only the enormous popu
lation — nearly seventy millions — speaking the Eng
lish language, nor the hunger for knowledge which a
young people, hitherto engrossed in the material
development of their vast continent, so naturally show,
nor the religious freedom which welcomes a strong
man for his own sake without asking what denomina
tion he belongs to. But all these lavish opportunities
have been as lavishly organised by the present genera
tion of American people.

370 HENRY DRUMMOND [1887
The curriculum of the Universities includes oppor
tunity for lectures from ' visiting Professors,' experts
in various sciences and literatures from all parts of
the world. In every University there are at least a
few, and often many, such lectureships. 'University
Extension,' too, has reached enormous dimensions in
the United States. Besides the Summer Course which
Chicago University — that never shuts its doors from
one year's end to the other — provides for clergymen,
teachers, and other adult men and women, anxious to
complete an imperfect education, there are the great
summer schools, camp-meetings iii excelsis, to which
thousands of people gather at some healthy and beau
tiful spot to attend regular courses of instruction frora
experts in all branches of a school and university edu
cation. At Chautauqua, for instance, for two months
every year, a small town of tents, wooden lodging-
houses, and a large hotel is inhabited by seven or eight
thousand people, and you will find among them whole
families, each of the members of which seeks instruc
tion in some subject suited to his or her age ; groups
of men and women students from many colleges, a
large number of whom pay for their education by act
ing as waiters or servants in the hotel and lodging-
houses ; and a whole host of teachers, shopkeepers,
tradesmen, and others, who will carry away the good
seed they get from many of the best minds of their
generation, and sow it again in every state and territory
of the Union. And besides all these concentrations
of intellectual opportunity, there are in every town the
lyceums and lecture associations, which attract a peo
ple busy with the practical problems of life, yet alive
to the necessity of culture, to listen in crowds, and
with an eagerness for information that to the lecturer
who is blessed with the privilege of imparting it is one

^T. 35] THE AMERICAN COLLEGES 37 1
of the greatest inspirations which life can afford. Of
these things Drummond used to speak with enthusiasm.
It was a frequent saying of his that ' for one man you
can help by lecturing in Great Britain, you can help
twelve or twenty in America.' 'Northfield, Mass., June 28.
' It is a great chance this Conference — five hundred
students from over eighty different colleges.' 'July I.
' I am tearing away here at American speed. Al
ready I have been asked to become principal of
a college, ditto of another college, to write for
various papers, to lecture in half the states of the
Union, and otherwise to line my pocket with
dollars. But I have refused all wiles, and am
plodding along at Moody's, with lots to do and
lots to enjoy. The hardest thing is the heat.
Northfield is like Crieff without the high moun
tains, but with a bigger river and more timber.
It is very beautiful, and Moody is as grand as
ever. To see him at home is a sight. He is
simply a farmer, running messages, going for the
cream and the beefsteak for dinner, and so on.
Hundreds of students have now come, many in
tents all over the place. Two are from Cambridge,
England.'
After his work at Northfield, Drummond spent a
few days at Niagara with Lord and Lady Aberdeen
on their way home from India. Then he went to two
summer schools.

372 HENRY DRUMMOND [1887
To Lady Aberdeen
'S. Framingham, Mass., July 21.
' I hope this will find you safe and well in port once
more — very thankful that it has all come to an
end. It has been a wonderful episode ! Yet how
quickly it becomes dreamland again ; and one
picks up the threads of real life once more just
where they were dropped. I cannot believe I
really saw you and A. here. It was so short and
sudden, and you passed away like a weaver's shut
tle. I spent the Sunday at Newport and often
looked over the Atlantic and thought of the ser
vice, and hoped and wished all would go well.
' On Monday I came here, and I now write in the
open air, while Principal Fairbairn of Oxford is
lecturing to two thousand people about Ancient
Religions, and imagines I am taking wise notes
about Buddha and Confucius while I am scrib
bling this. Dr. Fairbairn is the only one I know
here. I fancy you know some of his books, which
are very fresh and able.
' I cannot begin to describe this place. It is one of
a dozen Chautauquas, the oldest and biggest of
the family, after the great mother which I visit
next week. Imagine seventy acres of forest, with
a hundred cottages and endless tents buried among
the trees, a lake, an orchestra, a vast auditorium,
and halls and buildings innumerable. This spot
is tenanted for ten days every year by from three
to six thousand people, who are all busy educating
themselves. The vast majority are young women,
especially those of a certain age, but there are
many old people, entire families, teachers, clergy
men, etc., etc. Their appetite for lectures is in-

Mr.3S] THE AMERICAN COLLEGES 373
satiable, and from six in the morning till nearly
midnight there are meetings all over the grounds,
and talks and discussions on every conceivable
subject. I have an impromptu meeting each
morning at eight for " religious talks," and I have
prepared and discharged all the worst bombshells
I could think of. There is much heat here, but
no light The Pharisees are down on one of
course, but the Barbarians show me no little kind
ness. On the whole, it is a good thing this
Chautauqua, but withal it is a bit of a rabble, and
to-morrow I am going to steal away back to
Niagara for a quiet Sunday and — a cigarette.
On Tuesday I go to the parent Chautauqua for a
few days, then back to " call " on Moody, and then
to the Science Congress — the American " British
Association " — which meets at New York.'
To his Father and Mother 'Chautauqua, July 28.
' All goes well. I am having lots of work and long,
long journeys in the great country. Sabbath last
I spent at Niagara alone. This is my third pil
grimage to it and it gets better every time. Chau
tauqua is a wonderful place. I think I shall write
an article about it, and tell you and the British
public how the Americans are trying to educate
themselves. I have lectured already to-day to a
vast audience, and am " on " in half an hour again ;
subject, " Nature and Religion." I have been
" interviewed " several times, but some of the
accounts I have never seen, and others are so
absurd that I have been ashamed to send them to
you. . . . My next move will be back to Moody.

374 HENRY DRUMMOND [1887
He has another big Conference on hand for the
first eleven days of August' 'Clifton Springs, N.Y., August 3.
' I had two glorious days at Niagara, then endless
meetings for a week at Chautauqua, which is
really a fine thing ; then a day or two at a vast
summer hotel and sanatorium, where also I have
been let in for meeting after meeting, and to-night
I go back to Moody.
' I do not think I have ever had such meetings in
my life as I have had here. Marvellous opportu
nities have been open on every side, and I never
felt so charged with a message. Hundreds of
ministers have been coming, some to entangle
one in their talk, like the Pharisees, but more to
learn what poor things I could give them. I
must tell you about it all some day; but the
people here never seem to have even heard of
Christianity.' 'Greenfield, Mass., August 5.
' For two days I have been at a monster hydropathic,
" Clifton Springs." I wish father could see how
they do things here. There are eight resident
doctors all the year round and a chaplain. Some
of the baths are very curious ; one room is given
up to slapping, and rubbing, and pounding done
by machinery worked by a steam-engine. What
fetched me there was a petition forwarded to
Chautauqua, and signed by a great many people
of note, including George H. Stuart of Philadel
phia. On both nights I lectured on " Nature and
Religion," and on leaving I found the folks had
raised one hundred dollars to give me. This is
the way they do things in America, but I could

^T. 35] THE AMERICAN COLLEGES 375
not take their money. I can charge for science,
but not for religion. I find I could make a fort
une here very quickly, and have been offered
large sums to lecture, but I have other fish to fry.
I charged the Chautauqua Company for what
science I gave them, and this will cover all my
expenses, along with ;^20 which I have got for a
magazine article. So I am very well off. Were
it only to break down the universal impression
here that all religious work has an equivalent in
dollars, I feel it a duty to enter this small protest.
But enough about dollars.' 'New York, Aug. i2.
' I hope my cablegram reached you at dinner-time
to-day^ to act as stuffing to the grouse. I have
come to lecture to the American " British Asso
ciation," ^ which by some unaccountable ignorance
and mistake has given up a whole night to me
to discourse on the Geology and Botany of Cen
tral Africa. I am not sorry at heart about this,
as I have been riding the other hobby fiercely in
America, and need this to balance matters.'
To Lady Aberdeen ' Montreal, Aug. 26.
' . . . He [Captain Sinclair] came to Chautauqua,^
where he found me addressing the mob in the
vast amphitheatre. Greenfield and an Edinburgh
doctor, who form part of our College deputation,
arrived in Quebec last week, and came straight to
Chautauqua also, and we have been all more or
less together ever since. After Chautauqua we
1 His father's birthday.
^ The American Association for the Advancement of Science.
^ Drummond returned there.

376 HENRY DRUMMOND [1887
went to Niagara,^ where I went over all the old
ground. After Niagara we did Toronto and the
Thousand Islands, and arrived here last night 
' I enjoyed the American Association greatly. Saw
a good deal of Professor Marsh, who regretted
greatly not seeing you. He had set his heart on
showing you his fossils, which are the most unique
bones in the world. I am going to see them in
September. My lecture to the Association was
mostly about African insects, and I had a magnifi
cent audience, as it was the only evening lecture
of the Association. I was appalled by the re
sponsibility of the occasion, as all the savants of
the country were present, but for the sake of a
certain religious meeting some of us held on the
Sunday I was not sorry to do it. This last meet
ing went off very well, and even the New York
Herald had no fault to find with it. This was
also something to be thankful for, as  had
made a coarse attack on religion in his address
two days before.
' At Chautauqua I have been talking at least twice
a day, and this is the only holiday I have had
since you left. I hope to be wandering about
Canada and Nova Scotia with Captain Sinclair
for the next ten days, and we are now making
leisurely for some good fishing ground in the
lower provinces.
' I am in correspondence with half the Colleges of
America about our work, and my mail-bag is
something dreadful.'
'White Mountains, New Hampshire, Sept. 8.
' I have been having " my holidays " for the last
week, and a very good time I have had. Captain
^ Fourth visit.

.,Et. 36] THE AMERICAN COLLEGES 377
S. and I went to Quebec, and had two days' fish
ing in one of the tributaries of the St. Lawrence.
. . . The best scenery here is nothing [.? in com
parison with Switzerland], and everything in that
line I have gone to see has been a disappointment.
Professor Simpson joins me among the Colleges.'
' Sept. 8.
' My band of guerillas will all be at work by next
Sunday — three in New Brunswick, one at Wash
ington, and myself in New England. This divi
sion of the forces has been necessary owing to the
number of colleges we have to overtake. I hope
we shall concentrate by and by, and make the
work more effective. I expect to have a very
hard spell for the next month or more. Every
night of the week will probably be occupied —
except those spent in trains.
'We have far more invitations than we can use.
Among other things, I am booked for four lect
ures to one of the theological colleges — the
" Something Lectures," which will pay all my
expenses, I think. Had this not been a college,
I could not have undertaken the work, as I am
refusing all paid lectures, our time for the colleges
being too short as it is.'
'Dartmouth College, N.H., Sept. i6.
'You will be glad to know that our College work
has opened finely. Last Sunday we had three
meetings at Williams,^ and again on Monday and
Tuesday, though we had meant to go on Monday.
' The whole College turned out on Monday night
after we had each spoken. To our intense sur
prise, one of the students rose — one of the very
^ Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts.

378 HENRY DRUMMOND [1887
best and brightest men in the College, whom all
knew and admired — and said, "I want to teU you
fellows that I've been thinking it's about time I
changed my life, and from this time forward I am
resolved to follow Christ." You may imagine the
effect. Ah next day we were busy dealing with
the wounded ; and the work is to be continued
among themselves for the rest of the term.
' At Dartmouth the classes are suspended for our
visit, and we have already had three meetings.
But I have no time to add details. Only all goes
well. Professor Greenfield and Dr. G. P. Smith
are with me, and we hope to find Professor Simp
son at Amherst College to-morrow. Our recep
tion everywhere is most hearty. We generally
board with the principals of the Colleges, and
have very good quarters and first-rate company.
. . . The ground is prepared already by an
agent in advance, who has been stirring up all
the Colleges by letter about our campaign. The
National College Y.M.C.A. Secretary^ has given
up his entire time to us for the next two months.'
Before joining Drummond, Professor Greenfield, Dr.
Webster, and Dr. G. P. Smith had been among the
New Brunswick Colleges. Professor Simpson went
to Washington and Philadelphia. 'Hartford, Conn., Sept. 23.
' We are now up to the neck in hard work. . . . We
have had really splendid work at the Colleges, far
surpassing our expectations. Any one of them
would have paid us for crossing the Ocean. We
are now all together, — Simpson, Greenfield, and
1 Mr. C. K. Ober.

Mr. 36] THE AMERICAN COLLEGES 379
Smith, — and Sabbath first wiU find us at Prince
ton.' 'Hartford, Sept. 30 (? 29).
' Since I last wrote from Hartford I have been to
Princeton and Philadelphia. At Princeton I was
the guest of President M'Cosh, a grand old Scotch
man whose wife is a niece of Dr. Guthrie's.
Simpson, Greenfield, Webster, and Smith were
all with me, and we had meetings with the stu
dents from morning till night all the time. At
all the Colleges we have got the students started
on deputation work, and we hope the movement
will spread all over the country. To-morrow I
go to Yale, and then to Harvard. Unfortunately,
Smith and I have to tackle them single-handed,
as all the others are off on the Umbria to-morrow
morning.'
At Yale very careful preparation had been made
for Drummond's mission by students of the Univer
sity who had met him at the Northfield Conference.
Consequently the work there was very deep, and, in
the testimony of many, permanent.
'Yale College, New Haven, Conn., Sept. 30.
' My life is roaring along like a cataract. I have
not been so busy for years, and have literally not
had an hour to call my own. The Colleges have
given us the most generous reception, and we
have been allowed to hold meetings as often and
at whatever hours we liked. The heads of the
Colleges have given us hospitality, and nothing
has been denied us by the Faculties that could
facilitate our work. The students at the larger
Colleges are a remarkably fine set of men. The

380 HENRY DRUMMOND [1887
Princeton, Amherst, and Yale men are quite
equal to the English undergraduate on the aver-
ao-e, while the best of them will compare well
with the best of our men both in brain-power and
in scholarship. There is much less antipathy to
Christianity than at home, and many need only
to have the case fairly put to them to win them
over. It has all been very wonderful and very
delightful.' 'Yale, Oct. 7.
' This has been one of the best and busiest weeks
of my life, but I have not a moment to tell my
tale. I write in the Yale Graveyard — the only
uninhabited spot I can find ; and I have only
twenty minutes for my whole English mail.
The work here has been most wonderful, great
meetings at night, and talks and walks (your kind
of walks) all day long.
' We have got at the very heart and brain of this
College, and I am sure permanent work has been
done which will tell on all the colleges round
when the men start out to work. They are to
begin the aggressive work on a neighbouring
University on Sunday first, while I go on to
Harvard. Do not infer that the whole College
is in a state of wild excitement, for it is not so ;
nor did we want that. But the head centres are
reached in every department, and they will do
the rest before the term is many weeks older.
' I had a delightful day at Hartford last Friday after
writing you — called on Mark Twain, Mrs. Har
riet Beecher Stowe, and the widow of Horace
Bushnell. I was wishing A  had been at the
Mark Twain interview. He is funnier than any
of his books, and, to my surprise, is a most

jEt. 36] THE AMERICAN COLLEGES 38 1
respected citizen, devoted to things aesthetic, and
the friend of the poor and struggling.'
'Union League Club, New York, Oct. 18.
' All has gone merrily.
' I am now busy among the medical students of
New York, a scattered and lawless set, who are
housed in colleges all over the city — one for
homoeopaths, one for allopaths, one for surgeons,
and so on — so that they are hard to reach.
Harvard College (the college of Lowell, Emer
son, Longfellow, Fiske, etc.) is the college of the
country, and under Unitarian auspices, so that
I was told it would be impossible to do any
thing there, but the work was really better than
anywhere. I lived with one of the professors, a
Unitarian, but I found no difference between him
and myself, and I never saw a more lovely Chris
tian home. I have come away with a new idea
of the Unitarians, or at least of some of them.
After Harvard I spent a couple of days in the
American Girton — Wellesley College. It is the
largest and most splendid woman's college in
the world, and the standard is as high as Har
vard. I was the sole male among six hundred
"girl graduates," so you can imagine the terror
of the first meetings I had.' 'Albany, N.Y., Oct. 21.
' It will be meetings, meetings till the last hour, as
we have all the colleges of New York to tackle
next week. I am at present on my way to a
Convention of Students for the State of New
York at a place called Schenectady, but I return
to New York on Saturday.'

382 HENRY DRUMMOND [1887
On the 29th of October Drummond sailed in the
Umbria for England. The evening after, in Dock-
stader's Theatre, New York, a meeting of students
was held, to hear addresses from members of Yale
University and to further the movement among the
New York Colleges. The Hon. Chauncey M. Depew
was the chairman. The following characteristic report
appeared in the New York World: —
" Had the chief minstrel attempted to occupy his usual seat
on the stage of Dockstader's Theatre last night, he would
have found the house packed with a great audience. Had
Lew Dockstader himself gone to his usual place in the centre
of the circle, he would have seen Chauncey M. Depew there.
The end men and the funny men would have seen their
places filled with men of brawn and muscle, men who have
lowered records, men who can pull an oar with the best, and
men who can knock home runs. Athletes, ball-players, run
ners, and gymnasts, all men of Yale, who had come here to
start a new movement among college men, were there. Three
years ago some students in the University of Edinburgh
formed an association designed to increase Christian in
fluence and Christian teachings among college men. It has
borne fruit. Professor Henry Drummond introduced the
same organisation at Yale. The men on the stage last night
had come to tell their experiences and tell their fellows here
that a man can be a Christian and an athlete and be better
for being both.
' The theatre was filled with college men : Princeton, Co
lumbia, Dartmouth, Amherst and the University of New
York were all represented. The meeting opened with sing
ing. College men can sing, and the old walls of the theatre
had no reason to be ashamed of what they had to echo. Mr.
Foster introduced Mr. Depew as the Chairman, who said : —
' " I am here to-night because I am always interested in
students and graduates. I don't think much of the man who
can't go through life and continue to have the freshness,
breeziness, and honesty of the University. The object of
this movement is to rescue students from false ideas of life.

^T.36] THE AMERICAN COLLEGES 383
To teach a man to hve this life and get the best of it. I
have known one man to ruin a whole class. Too often I
have seen the pet, the most popular man of his class, a
drunkard, a debauchee, and a depraved man morally, and it is
such examples that have led many a young man to think it
impossible to be a good fellow and a Christian.
' " The object of such a meeting as this is to counterbalance
the false ideas and associations of young men. There has
been too much of the bigotry of creed, and not enough
practical Christianity in this world. A man must learn that
the largest dividends come from right living. The only thing
that can save a man from drinking, gambling, and lust is
Christianity.^ There are, too, people trying to break the
foundations of society. Now the checking of all this must
come from the colleges. We must have Christian men." '
Mr. Depew then introduced some of the leading
students and athletes of Yale University. They de
scribed the work of Professor Drummond, and how he
had enlisted the services of college men. One told
how he had changed his life for the better. ' It was
all due,' he said, ' to Professor Drummond. He talked
to me for an hour one day, and after that I saw my
way clear.'
It was in America as in Scotland. Hundreds of
men repeated the story of this Yale student about
themselves. Some from a life of sin, some from an
aggressive hostility to all religion, some from weary
and dark doubts, were won for a clear faith and a
strong life of duty and unselfish service. The men
did not fail, and the movement did not die. The
quickened religious life of the American Universities,
the Student Volunteer Missionary Movement, power
ful in the United States as in Great Britain,^ has in
' I add this sentence from another report.
2 By 1891 no fewer than six thousand university men pledged themselves to
go to the foreign field if opportunity offered.

384 HENRY DRUMMOND [1887-
a large measure been due to Drummond's mission.
The Rev. Charles Fleming of Minneapolis wrote as
follows in the Boston Congregationalist for 1888: —
' Sober-mindedness, religious earnestness, Christian aggres
siveness, characterise the present generation of cohege stu
dents. These qualities are perhaps more intellectual and less
emotional than formerly. They are manifesting themselves
less in occasional revivals, and more in regular methods of
Christian conduct and service. Religion is, in some coheges,
becoming more natural. I know of no college in which this
change is greater than in Harvard. A dozen years ago the
Harvard student was too much in the mood of the man in
Sterne's Sentimental fourney whom a mule was about to kick
— the attitude of humble apology. The Christian man of
Harvard seems to-day to have learned that Christianity has
rights which he should be willing to claim and be able to
oblige his fellows to respect. It would not have surprised me
more, when I was in college, to see Memorial Hall Tower
floating on the Charles than to see Harvard students holding
public religious services in the Globe Theatre with eminent
clergymen as preachers, and the President of the University
bestowing the approbation of his presence. Some of the
causes which have effected this revolution in Cambridge are
at work in other colleges. The infiuence of Professor Drum
mond and his associates has been potent. His addresses
and his private conversations with students in many colleges
have proved to have somewhat of that power which the series
of sermons of the elder President Dwight had in expelling
infidel opinions from Yale College. His youth, his ease of
approach, his ability, his simplicity, his method of satisfying
the reason before attempting to arouse the feelings or to
move the will — appeal with special persuasiveness to college
men. His journeys to the different colleges, and his lectures
to students in the Northfield Conferences, have resulted in a
revival of personal piety and of Christian service.'
On May i, 1889, Professor Francis Peabody of
Harvard wrote Drummond : —

Mr. 36] THE AMERICAN COLLEGES 385
' I venture to recall myself to you and to report to
you the substantial good that has remained of your
week among us here. Movements of the deepest in
terest have sprung from the impulse you gave, and
I date from the beginning of last year a larger sense
of rehgious responsibility.
' There is a marked and growing interest among us
in work, among the humbler classes, of a University
Settlement or University Extension kind ; and in
order to direct this interest wisely, I think I must
see what has been done both in England and Scot
land. ... I should very much like to meet you once
more and to tell you how the religious life of our Uni
versity has been led since your visit to us. . . . Mean
time, pray be sure that a debt of serious obligation
is still felt to you here for your wise and inspiring
counsel'

CHAPTER XIV
AUSTRALIA AND THE AUSTRALIAN COLLEGES— 1890
The invitation to Australia rose, as we have seen,
out of the ' Student Movement.' There are always
a number of Australians at Edinburgh University,
and many of these had been influenced by Professor
Drummond's meetings since 1885. They had sent
home reports of his work ; some of them had returned
with the proof of it in their own characters ; and finally
news came of how he himself had carried its influ
ence to the American colleges in 1887. In 1889 two
hundred and thirty members of Melbourne University
invited Professor Drummond to come out to them in
the following year. When his promise to do so was
known, invitations were pressed upon him from all the
Australian colonies. But, faithful to the policy which
he had followed in Scotland and America, he refused
to go among the churches, or do anything that
might distract his mission to students, young men, and
boys.-' He planned to come home by some of the
mission stations in the South Seas and China, and to
speak to the students of Japan, who had more than
once invited him to their country. One other service,
which he could not foresee, awaited him in Melbourne.
He arrived there in time to watch by the death-bed of
his friend, John F. Ewing, and to be the chief mourner
at his funeral.
1 Mr. W. Lucas, F.R.G.S., to whom I am indebted for some details of the
Australian visit, informs me that Professor Drummond stipulated that he should
be allowed to pay his own travelling expenses. 386

iEr. 38] AUSTRALIA AND AUSTRALIAN COLLEGES 387
Drummond left London on the 14th March — the
year was 1890 — and embarked on the P. and O.
steamer Carthage at Brindisi.
' S.S. Carthage, off Port Said, March 19.
' This is not a voyage, but a trip in the Columba in
July on the Clyde. Nothing could be more per
fect than sky, sea, ship, or weather. It is so glo
rious that one cannot even read. But I hope to
settle to books presently, and even manage "A
Death in the Desert " ^ before luncheon to-day.
' I quite forget If you play chess. I have Staunton's
book with me, and mean to get up the game scien
tifically. It is my first love among games, and I
have long wanted a week to do homage to it'
' Off Aden, March 24.
' We are just turning in to Aden — memories coming
back of the last time I was here on my way to
Africa with Bain, whose grave now lies by Lake
Nyasa. And Keith Falconer, too, with his mys
teriously short life. But one recalls those things
only as a tribute to the dead. Nothing could be
more living than this ship, or less morbid than its
passengers ; for we have had the most perfect voy
age ever made, and everybody is very happy. . . .
The keel has never stirred from the " absolute
perpendicular," and for certain the sea will be
smooth for the next fortnight. There has been
no heat to speak of, and one has felt every day
that one could sail on and on like this forever.
' I am at the Captain's table, with five others, a solid
yet merry party. My immediate neighbour is an
Italian Count on his way, as Ambassador, to
China. He is a splendid man, full of sense,^
^ He had taken with him all Browning's works for the voyage.

388 HENRY DRUMMOND [1890
goodness, and wide culture, and we have formed
a friendship. Indeed, he has given me — by his
personality — quite a new idea of Italy; and such
is my admiration for him that I find myself daily
on the point of asking him whether there are
many more like him in his native land. We
read Browning aloud together.
' On Sunday we had the usual service in the Saloon.
In the evening I gave an address in the Second
Class Saloon to about sixty or seventy people —
fine young fellows, for the most part, going to
push their way in Australia.
' Last night I followed up with a lecture on "Africa,"
and I hope to get to know some of them pres
ently.' ' Nearing Albany, April 12.
' I meant to have written you at Colombo, where
we had the usual day ashore, but some friend
had telegraphed on the passenger list, and I
found at least four deputations waiting to make
life a burden and time a hallucination. I had to
trot round everywhere, but really that place is too
splendid for this world, and my one regret this
voyage is that Japan has done me out of at least
a fortnight there. . . .
' I think one of the books that has pleased me most
has been George Macdonald's Robert Falconer.
Towards the end there are some really fine bits
about work among the poor.'
'April 13, 1890.
' This is my last Sabbath at sea. Australia is ex
actly three hundred yards off, and this finds me,
after a voyage of absolute rest, quietness, happi
ness, and health, the most thankful man under
the Southern Cross. You know what a miserable

^T. 38] AUSTRALIA AND AUSTRALIAN COLLEGES 389
sailor I am, yet all these weeks I have never
missed a meal, and the sea seems to have lost all
its terrors. We judge of it from our own grey,
troubled coast, but to know it, and to know what
climate is, one has to come here. I emphasise
this because you always shiver at the thought of
China, and I would like to try to make the pros
pect pleasant even if it should never be realised.
Up to Colombo the China route is glorious, and
Ceylon itself is worth the whole voyage.'
'Melbourne, April 21.
'Your prediction was right about the interviewers,
who turned up in phalanxes at each port. Happily,
I did not see their lucubrations, as the steamer
always bore me from the scene of trial before the
papers were out.
' A troop of students met me at the pier here on
Saturday morning, and in the evening we met
again to plan the campaign. We begin on
Friday with a reception in the 'Varsity and then
on Sunday.
' To-day is a public holiday, with a workmen's pro
cession to commemorate the Eight Hours'
victory.
' I read Dilke and Seeley on the voyage, according
to instructions, and feel very wise and Imperial-
Federationally.
'We must take this jolly child a little nearer its
grey old mother. I am asked to the opening
dinner of Parliament a fortnight hence.
' I did not stop at Adelaide, as Ewing wrote it
would not do to begin there. But I shall return
soon.'

390

HENRY DRUMMOND [1890

Drummond stayed with John Ewing, his fellow-
student, his comrade at Sunderland, and one of 'our
Club.' Ewing had built up a large working-class
congregation in Dundee ; for some years he had held,
with great courage, a very difficult post in Glasgow;
and in 1887 he was called to the large Presbyterian
Church of Toorak, a leading suburb of Melbourne.
Physically he was a very strong man. I climbed
Monte Rosa and the Matterhorn with him in 1885,
and he could then go up hill faster than any guides.
But his zeal and unselfishness were even greater than
his physical strength, and the way he worked for
three and a half years at Toorak wore him out A
week after Drummond landed in Melbourne, Ewing
was down with what was thought to be influenza, then
raging in Australia. On the 2d of May the doctors
pronounced it to be typhoid. He saw his lawyer, and
gave Drummond a message for his wife, who had gone
on a visit to Scotland. After this he spoke little,
slept most of the time for eight days more, his friend
by his side, and on May i ith passed quietly away.
To D. M. Ross
'Toorak Manse, May 12, 1890.
' My DEAR Ross, — I am alone in the Manse. It
is very terrible. This is his desk and paper.
How can I write you.''
' Send this round the Club if you like, for I ought
to write each one. After I wrote last he slowly
sank; never spoke; no pain. At dusk on
Friday he passed away, my hand in his. The
nurse said it was the gentlest death she ever saw.
' He never spoke much, and never said farewell.
We had four very happy days together, then the

MT.3S] AUSTRALIA AND AUSTRALIAN COLLEGES 39 1
cloud fell, and he, the real he, was slowly taken
frora my sight. . . .
' Oh, Ross, I cannot go on. This is the first break
in our ranks, and I never thought it was so big.
We must close up now and work hard. This is
what I am feeling much these days. Tell the
men to excuse me writing, as I have all E.'s peo
ple to communicate with at length. For them,
for her, how terrible it all is ! '
To Lady Aberdeen
'You would hear perhaps of the awful thing that
happened — in the next room. He passed away,
my hand in his, more gently than a sleeping child.
Strange that I should have been sent across these
seas for this. For the time it has sobered me.
I feel I must work hard.
' Ewing had some absurd mannerisms, but under
neath I never knew a saner, purer, grander soul.
His influence here has been phenomenal. No
man ever made such an impression on a com
munity in three years and a half. At his funeral
the church was crowded with weeping people —
from the Premier and the Bishop to the Street
Arabs whom he had saved. Four of these last
drove in a cab to the grave, and could scarcely
lay down the wreath they had clubbed to buy,
for tears.'
At the memorial service Professor Drummond de
livered the address : —
' Six days before the end he asked me to take a sheet
of paper and write a message to his wife. I think I
betray no trust if to you, his people, I repeat a sen-

392

HENRY DRUMMOND [1890

fence of what he said. His voice never faltered as
he o-ave it ; his look was grave but calm ; he spoke as
one whose mind was made up, as if he expressed a con
viction, deliberate, fixed, and fully ripe. " Tell her,"
he said, " that my mind is not very clear, but the one
thing clear in it is her, and all this suffering is nothing
if it means going to Christ and getting her after. I
was so robust that I did not feel need of taking special
precaution. Sir James Bain says I should have spared
myself; so I should. But there was nothing to warn
me. I suspect it was God's wiU."
' There are,' continued Drummond, ' two ways in
which a workman regards his work — as his own or
as his master's. If it is his own, then to leave it in his
prime is a catastrophe, if not a cruel and unfathoma
ble wrong. But if it is his Master's, one looks not
backwards, but before, putting by the well-worn tools
without a sigh, and expecting elsewhere better work
to do. So he suspected it was in the will of God.
We must try to think so too. Work is given men
not only, nor so much perhaps, because the world
needs it, but because the workman needs it. Men
make work, but work makes men. An office is not
a place for making money, it is a place for making
men. A workshop is not a place for making ma
chinery, it is a place for making souls ; for fitting
in the virtues to one's life ; for turning out honest,
modest, and good-natured men. So is it with the
work of the State or of the Church. This is why it
never hurries — because it is as much for the worker
as for the work. . . . For Providence cares less for
winning causes than that men, whether losing or win
ning, should be great and true; cares nothing that
reforms should drag their course from year to year
bewilderingly, but that men and nations, in carrying

MT.3S] AUSTRALIA AND AUSTRALIAN COLLEGES 393
them out, should find their education, discipline, unself
ishness, and growth in grace. These lessons learned,
the workers may be retired — not because the cause is
won, but because it is not won ; because He has other
servants, some at lesser tasks, some half employed or
unemployed, whom He must needs call into the field.
For one man to do too much for the world is in one
sense the whole world's loss. So it may be that God
withdraws His workers even when their hands are full
est and their souls most ripe : to fill the vacancies with
still growing men, and enrich many with the loss of
one. I do not propose this, even as an explanation
of the inexplicable phenomenon, which startles the
Church from time to time, as one and another of its
noblest leaders are cut down in the flower of their
strength. But when our thoughts are heavy with
questions of the mysterious ways of God, it keeps
reason from reeling from its throne to see even a
glimpse of light.
' But one diverges into these things mainly because
it is easier to say them than to approach any nearer
to the man himself. When I think of Mr. Ewing's
work and influence here, my soul fills with gratitude
and enthusiasm for my friend. His concentration, it
is true, was exceptional, his initiative very great, his
vitality as exuberant as his hope. It is true — and
how wonderful this is — that he never did anything
but his work. He had no petty interests. He saw
always the main stream of the kingdom of God, all
currents in Church or State that make for righteous
ness, and he threw himself into them. But none of
these things could have produced the extraordinary
demonstration here on Friday last Intellectual brill
iancy could not have done it, nor ecclesiastical posi
tion, nor successful preaching power. What did it

394 HENRY DRUMMOND [1890
was his character, his downright, steriing, pure, strong
character. Three and a half years of that — it looks
very short. But character knows no calendar, for it
alone of all forces is infinitely great, and cannot but
do its work. . . .
' Three weeks ago to-day, when he stood here and
gave us the last Sunday morning's message of his
life, you remember he preached on the " Atonement"
He dwelt upon one or two sides of that stupendous
theme, and promised to lay before us a further aspect
on a future day. I am not sure that that promise is
unfulfilled. Perhaps what he meant to tell us was
that the principle of the Atonement was a law of
Nature . . . that up and down the whole of God's
creation the one law of life, the supreme condition of
progress, the sole hope of the future is Christ's law of
the sacrifice of self. If that were his meaning, his
sermon has been surely preached. The corn of wheat,
of which he spoke to us that day, has fallen into the
ground and died. I, for one, have neglected many a
sermon. But for this one never spoken, this mute
appeal of a life laid down, this last life-message from
one who will never speak again — is there a man
among us who will be to-morrow as if that had never
been ? '
In Melbourne and in Adelaide Drummond held
meetings for students, for young men generally, and
for boys and girls. As in Edinburgh, he would have
nothing but students at his student meetings, and
admitted no reporters. Some of the religious papers
were very angry at this. ' The newspaper interviewer,'
said one editor, ' who can generally draw blood from a
stone, can get nothing for a notice out of Professor
Drummond.' What he gave the Australian students

MI.3&] AUSTRALIA AND AUSTRALIAN COLLEGES 395
was, with suitable variations, what he had been giving
the students of Scotland and America. ' Melbourne, April 29.
' The meetings have done well. The students are
turning out splendidly, and I think something
may be effected before long.' ' May 6.
' The students' meetings have gone on. All I will
say is that it has been all I hoped for.' 'May 12.
' I have had a few good meetings, and some talks
with the right kind of men. To-morrow I go to
Adelaide for ten days, and back here for nightly
meetings. Thereafter my future is still a blank.
All depends on how the, work develops.' ' May 27.
' I have been off to Adelaide and put in a week's hard
work — meetings, meetings, meetings. I can send
you no reports, as I have discovered how to cir
cumvent the Press, and have succeeded most
effectually everywhere.
'Hobart is not in sight yet. Poor Ewing's illness
has thrown me rather out of my programme. It
is certainly hard to get in anything else when one
is on a mission. Do not be surprised if you hear
that I am off to the South Sea Islands (!) in a few
weeks. It is only a prospect as yet, but some
people here are keen about my going, and I am
at least thinking over it. The point is mainly
political — France wants the New Hebrides, and
Victoria says she shan't get them. They want
me to write the thing up at home. Then there is
a very crucial missionary problem ; and the esca-

396 HENRY DRUMMOND [1890
pade tempts me generally. It would take about
four weeks, leaving Sydney June 17, and return
ing — cannibals permitting — about July loth.
But it is only a dream. I mention it in case
there should be a silence presently for about a
month. It would not alter my general plan, as
I am getting quicker through my College work
than I expected. . . .
' Now I must off to the 'Varsity to meet some wild
beasts.' ' Sydney, June 7.
' I arrived in How-d'ye-like-our-Harbour a couple of
hours ago, and have just heard that the English
mail starts earlier from here — which is natural.
So I fly to my pen, though I have little or nothing
to report.
' Melbourne has been one round of meetings, some
times two daily. All were got up quite privately,
and I think there may have been some little good
done. What I liked most was some meetings
with the Young Australian Club men, who gave
me a real chance to speak to them. You will be
disgusted to know that I never had a night for
Government House, though they were most kind
in asking me ; but I had every hour of every day
filled with what I came to do.
' On my way here I broke the journey at a Squatter
Station, and had a really happy day in the bush.
I saw heaps of kangaroos, dined on the tails
thereof, and after dinner hunted 'possums in the
moonlight till the Express whizzed up shortly
after midnight. It had been ordered to stop
for me, and when I tumbled out of the bush into
the Pullman I rather surprised Mr. J. L. Toole
(if you don't know who he is, see The Christian)

MT.3S] AUSTRALIA AND AUSTRALIAN COLLEGES 397
and some of his mates playing roulette, after they
supposed the coast was clear. I had met Toole
at Melbourne, and he offered me a corner at
rouge-et-noire, which was brotherly. I cannot get
to Hobart, which is miserable. Time is the cul
prit. I had no idea I should be so busy. The
New Hebrides look nearer. I had a long talk
with the Premier of Victoria on the subject.
Every one is very anxious for me to go, as they
have taken into their heads that I can help things
politically. If I go, it will simply take the time I
should have given to New Zealand.' ' June 9.
' Finished Melbourne. All very good. At the last
I had sometimes two or three meetings a day.
Students and others are taking up several bits of
work. Boys' Brigade launched.'
The following letter to the Rev. John Walker of
Woolahra,^ who arranged the Sydney meetings, gives
a good idea of our evangelist's aims and methods all
through the last twelve years of his life : —
'Australian Club [Melbourne], Wednesday.
' If you can manage it, perhaps you will get up a
meeting on Sunday night for better-class young
men, non-church -members as far as possible.
Everybody goes to the Y.M.C.A. young man ;
I am anxious for a shot at the outsiders. Last
night a young champion tennis-player got up a
meeting of two hundred splendid young fellows
here, and that is exactly the sort of thing I
should covet. There were no public advertise
ments. He and half-a-dozen young fellows
about the clubs handed cards of admission to
^ Mr. Walker was one of his old fellow-workers in Liverpool in 1875.

398 HENRY DRUMMOND [1890
their own " set " privately, and we reached a class
who never go to church. I should prefer fifty of
that class to one thousand of the church-goers.
The great problem in these colonies is the young
" outsider." I am sure you will know one or two
men who will run this quietly through. I sup
pose seven at night in some small central hall
would be the best time and place. No elders
admitted. Parsons, ;^io a head. Reporters,
^100.
' Lastly, don't do this if you don't think it will
work.' 'Sydney, June 18.
' I was told Sydney was the wickedest place in
Oceania. I must say I have nowhere had such
a chance. The students have turned out nobly
night after night, and they are going to run the
meetings henceforth every Sunday night them
selves. The most influential undergraduates are
leading the movement, and the two most liked
and most brilliant among the professors will
second them in every way.
' On Sunday I had one of the most curious gather
ings I ever faced. Some doctors asked me to
address " the Sydney doctors," of whom it seems
only four or so go to church. They got the
Royal Society's rooms, and the President thereof
took the chair. There were exactly one hundred
and forty present, all doctors. I spoke from the
standpoint of Evolution ; and they were so much
interested that next day twenty of them agreed
to pay ^50 a year each to " start a Church for
doctors " on the spot, and get out a man from
home at, at least, ;^iooo a year. Many of them
are extremely able men, and several medical pro-

^T. 38] AUSTRALIA AND AUSTRALIAN COLLEGES 399
fessors have joined since. The " Conversion " is
somewhat " sudden," but something will certainly
come of it.
' Yesterday I was honoured by a Sydney magistrate
with a Picnic on the Harbour. A steamer was
chartered, and about one hundred and fifty guests
invited. We sailed about all day, and had luncheon
and afternoon tea on board. I talked for seven
hours without a comma, and saw very little of the
Harbour, but I hope for a more private inspection
on my return.
' It is now two in the morning, and in eight hours I
start for the New Hebrides. The ship is good,
the sea smooth, the cannibals fairly fed at present,
and all looks well for a happy voyage. The
wretch who led me on the ice (a politician), who
was to go with me, telegraphed me from Mel
bourne, a few hours ago, that he could not come.
It seenis my fate to be a solitary traveller. A
special ship is to call for me at one of the groups
and land me here about July loth. . . .'
On his return from the New Hebrides, Drummond
'found the Sydney students running their Sunday
evening meeting bravely, and all going splendidly.'
From Melbourne he had ' also good news.'
What else can be said about his Australian mission,
except that it evoked the usual number of personal
appeals, which met him wherever his books had
come or he himself spoken. To every platform on
which he appeared, there came a rush of questions,
and many hours a day were filled with private inter
views. His addresses to students must have taken
the line of his Ascent of Ma-n, for the questions which
he kept relate to the reconciliation of the doctrines of

400 HENRY DRUMMOND [1890
evolution with the statements of the Bible as to man's
creation. Among the letters he received are a number
from men praying for the appearance of a broader and
more rational Christianity, and expressing the sense
that it is at least ' in the air.' As if to emphasise the
need of this, there are letters of a kind which met
Drummond wherever he went in Britain, America, or
Australia — letters which reveal Christian faith wrecked
and Christian energies dissipated by the doctrine of
verbal inspiration.^ In remote corners of our great
colony, Drummond came across men who still knew
only of the older orthodoxy and the easy triumphs
which certain infidel writers had obtained over its
beliefs in the equal and absolute inspiration of every
part of the Bible. To read the letters of such men
is to understand how many earnest and pure spirits in
our day have been forced to give up Christianity be
cause they have ignorantly thought that it is identified
with everything in both the Testaments. And it was
no small part of Drummond's mission in Australia, as
in Great Britain and America, to bring home to such
'forwandered' souls the new possibilities of faith which
lie in the rational and discriminating criticism of the
Old Testament, to which Christ Himself has shown
us the way in the Sermon on the Mount.
But difficulties of faith are not the subject of all the
letters Drummond received in Australia.^ Some men
and women write to ask his prayers for their recovery
from long disease ; they are convinced that God must
grant what he asks. And, as usual, there are petitions
1 a note by Drummond on a character projected for a story by a friend runs
thus: 'No. I.'s fundamental mistake is verbal inspiration. This prevents him
thinking. The paralysing and stunting eifect of anything which interferes with
the legitimate exercise of human faculty.'
^ At one place in Victoria a ' Drummond Club ' of men was formed for the
regular study of his writings.

^T. 38] AUSTRALIA AND AUSTRALIAN COLLEGES 4OI
from men with grievances, with unrecognised inven
tions, or with patents overlooked by Government One
curious letter, which he received after his return to
Scotland, intimates that the writer, a resident in some
far-away station, has ideas for which the world is hun
gering; that he is afraid to communicate them to
Drummond lest the latter should unconsciously appro
priate them ; but that he will send them in a sealed
envelope, to be opened on the author's death, and
published with his name. And a still more pathetic
epistle comes from an old man, who has spent his life
in vainly trying to get expression for a ' system ' of
philosophy he has perfected, and who wishes to name
Drummond as his successor and its prophet.
For wherever he came, men both old and young
had new hope, and the weary were refreshed by his
sympathy.

CHAPTER XV
DIARIES OF TRAVEL. — III. THE NEW HEBRIDES
Coral Islands and Volcanoes ; the Last of the Canni
bals ; Civilisation and Christian Missions
In a letter, quoted above,^ Drummond gives his
reasons for going to the New Hebrides. He had not
included them in his Australian plans ; but after his
arrival at Melbourne, several leading colonists pressed
upon him the importance of making himself acquainted
with the political problems on these islands, from which
our Australian colonies were then suffering no small
anxiety. The New Hebrides lie some fifteen hundred
miles east from the coast of Queensland ; to the south
is the French convict settlement of New Caledonia, to
the south-east the British Fiji Islands. Discovered by
the Portuguese in 1606, but first explored by Captain
Cook in 1773, they were found to be inhabited by can
nibals of the lowest type. Every one knows their
strangely mingled history since they came into touch
with Europe. The trade for sandalwood, cocoanuts,
and arrowroot ; the exportation of the natives to labour
in Queensland ; and the work of the English and
Scottish missions — none of these has happened with
out bloodshed and cruelty. After long toil and many
martyrdoms, the missionaries have civilised the south
ern islands, the labour traffic has been regulated by the
Australian governments, but politically the islands
remain, so to speak, in the air. Before 1890 Great
' P- 39S'
402

iET. 38] THE NEW HEBRIDES 403
Britain claimed them, but had done nothing to annex
them. France claimed them, but our Australian
colonies resented the claims of France, and baffled
more than one attempt to make these good. By a
Convention both Powers have since agreed to respect
their independence.
It was in order to bear testimony at home on this
critical state of affairs that leading men in Australia
pressed Drummond to visit the islands. He was also
attracted by the prospect of seeing the effects of
Christian missions upon a savage people ; the mission
in Aneityum was of his own Church, and he would be
her first direct visitor to it. Moreover, as a geologist
he would have the opportunity of studying islands at
once of volcanic and of coral formation. On all these
Hnes the bright promise was fulfilled. Drummond
made a close and most exciting inspection of the crater
of a volcano in full activity. He conversed with sheer
savages, and with his own eyes saw their customs. He
obtained a clear view of the political situation. But,
above all, he came home from his visit to the missions
with a new belief in the power of Christianity, and in
the heroism of his fellow-churchmen upon those lonely
and barbarian edges of the world.
He left Sydney on June 19th, and by way of Noumea,
the capital of New Caledonia, he reached Aneityum.
He attended the Synod of the New Hebrides Mission,
and heard it pass a resolution calling on the British
Government, first, to encourage British settlers on the
group and provide for the secure tenure of the lands
they purchased ; secondly, either to extend the prohibi
tion of the sale of firearms, which was enforced only
on British subjects, to men of all nations, or to rescind
it altogether ; and, thirdly, to abolish the foreign labour
traffic, ' the more especially as settlers on this group

404 HENRY DRUMMOND [1890
will have need of at least all the available labour which
it can afford.' ' Aneityum, June 25.
' All the missionaries are gathered here for the
General Assembly.^ I represent the Free Church
there to-night What a change ! '
He left Aneityum next day, and now we follow his
diary. ' June 27.
' At dawn skirting Futuna. The volcano of Tanna
very much in evidence all night. Usually a narrow
pillar of red, neither dull nor glowing; a red-hot
colour, very large, occasionally a brilliant display.
This was at a distance of over forty miles.
' Futuna, one huge block of rock covered completely
green, like Aneityum : caused by grasses, herbs, and
wildflowers, patches of forest here and there, and a
dense fringe of cocoanuts along the coast. Cocoanut
trees in quantity do not help a landscape much. It
is one against the sky that stirs your soul with the
wonder of its grace and beauty. But any kind of
tree will beat them as foliage. The form is not fine ;
shadows are wanting. There is a stiff, metallic look,
and the green is dingy and tarnished with decaying
fronds, the shreds of fibrous cloth, and even the
bunches of brown ...[?] which hold the cocoanuts.
Green to water's edge. Roughly terraced ; only here
and there bare rock visible.
' Very like Table Mountain.
' Geologically one would say at once " a truncated
cone." One or two baby volcanoes. On landing all
is coral. It extends upwards at least one thousand
feet Dip upwards, ////. This dip towards a supposed
^ Administrative Synod.

^T. 38] THE NEW HEBRIDES 405
crater is found all round. The top is a plateau. Is
any basalt visible? I think not It looks all the
same, coral to the very top. Basalt, water-worn stones
gathered from shore are arranged round the Manse
garden, and I was told there was volcanic rOck " on
the other side." The small hill on shore line, where
the "geological photograph" was taken by Dr. Gunn,
seems from his description to be like the Giant's
Causeway. ' Glorious colour of the sea — bluest blue.
' Off in whale-boat to land Dr. Gunn. Coral grow
ing everywhere. Ashore on human-back. Small crowd
of natives. Real article this time. Some clothed
women ; with grass kilts and shell necklaces ; huge
earrings made of tortoiseshell look like a bunch of
keys. Bushy hair of the aureole type. Some women
had this covered with a green banana leaf decoratively
arranged thus : wound once round head after being
cut into four or five " liths," and then gathered on the
top of the head and tied in a knot. The appearance
is most picturesque, looks as if each had a crown on
her head.
' Many shook hands. Offered bags for sale made
of neatly plaited pandanus leaf. Some offered rare
shells of great beauty and a flint axe, which I bought
for a stick of tobacco. Another offered four eggs.
' Clambered up rugged path, winding up coral. In
troduced to Mrs. Gunn. She has not been off the
island, except to Aneityum for short time, for eight
years. Only had ship calling once in six months.
" I suppose I cannot ask you if it is ever dull ? " —
" We prove that," said Dr. Gunn, " by taking furlough
every twelve years instead of every ten." But this is
phenomenal. This couple on this Rock for eight
years. For six years saw^ absolutely no visible result.

4o6 HENRY DRUMMOND [1890
Now just beginning. New mission-house finely situ
ated on a terrace of coral shrined in palms as usual.
Old house destroyed by hurricane lately. Cocoanut
grove behind house, walk six yards, behold, a native
village ! The houses are like the thatched cover of a
bullock waggon, without windows of course, and door
at end.' ' Tanna, June 27.
' 7.30. — Steamer steamed at its best to reach Tanna
in time for volcano visit. Close under the island almost
two o'clock. Spot was Port Resolution. Captain
Cook's eye (he had a genius for seeing these things :
any ordinary navigator would have passed the place
as a mere shallow irregularity on the coast-line), saw
here an anchorage, and called it after his ship the
Resolution. ' This was the scene of Mr. Paton's struggles. Not
a sign of life, the usual type of Hebrides island —
mountainous, sloping gently towards sea, the belt of
tropical vegetation terminating below in the usual
fringe of cocoanut above in light-green under
wood, and wooded to the top. The volcano is not
centrally situated, so much so that from a distance it
almost seems a low island separate from the large
mountainous masses of the interior. The coast here
to the far-away side has a very strange look to the
geological eye. It has a new look. A low cliff of
unswathed rock runs all along the coast, quite un
broken by the sea. This was the result of an upheaval
in 1878. Instantaneous. Seen by Mr. Neilson the
missionary. Accompanied by tidal wave. A trader
man woke up next morning, things so changed,
thought he had delirium tremens. Half the harbour
quite shallow now. Largest ships cannot enter.
The elevation was thirty-two feet. Later a further

^T. 38] THE NEW HEBRIDES 407
elevation of sixteen. Quite local, affecting only as
far as Sulphur Bay, say one and a half miles, the end
quite distinct where the normal beach resumes, i.e.
only one and a half miles disturbed: no appearance
of fault.
' In Tongoa nation, native tradition has it that Api
and all the Shepherd group formed one island (Tongoa,
Tongariki, Buninga, Ewose, Valla, Api, and two small
islets, Laika, Tevata, and a small rock), which was de
pressed during a volcanic disturbance. All life was
destroyed. Island reinhabited for upwards of eight
generations. One man was saved inside a native
drum. This is a well-known tradition. The mission
ary has used the drum in his preaching as a symbol
of Christ. There are no indications in these islands
of elevation. Tradition also of a large island existing
called Buleiwo, to the west of Emae, where Cook's
reef is now situated.
' Evidence of elevation very distinct in other islands,
especially at Nguna Bay in Efate, and at Eromanga
and at Dillon's Bay, also Havannah Harbour. Few
feet of tide, five or four feet.
'Ashore in whale-boat. No sign of life. Then
dusky figures gathered one by one, stood motionless,
each with his gun, no women or children. Very
threatening crowd of savages, say forty or fifty, ranged
on open beach. Mr. Gray went to bow, stood up,
waved hat. " Missionary from Wassesi." Magical
effect, guns laid down, women came out from the
trees. Men advanced, pulled boat over breakers,
helped us ashore.
' The Pure Savage. Men naked with three-quarters
inch band of leather or grass. Women with volumi
nous short skirts in tiers. Some painted red or blue.
Hair in threads, tied behind in a thick bunch. Fierce,

4o8 HENRY DRUMMOND [1890
furtive look. One noseless, another with forehead
battered in. Earrings, Breech-loaders, Sniders, half-
cock, loaded.
' Walk through tropical vegetation, especially Pan
danus. After half hour of gentle ascent reached great
crater, many miles round, with lake in centre, on left
the active cone rising some seven or eight hundred
feet higher. Total, eleven hundred feet. Ash cone,
pure fine ash dotted with lumps of scoria, one side
quite free from these stones, pure ash. Climbed up a
shallow ravine to a Solfatara, much sulphur about, bad
smell, very fatiguing, natives trod with bare feet the
rough scoria, very cutting. Peles'-hair scattered in
threads over every inch : some eighteen inches long,
of a pale horny, gamboge colour ; very fine, sometimes
in wisps or bundles.
' Then to left up crater rim, with unequal edges,
sometimes rising to a point, then dipping to rise again,
about a mile and a half round, one mass of steam and
pale blue vapour. Explosions nearly every two or
three minutes, like powder in a quarry. At long inter
vals there were very severe, tremendous explosions
without warning, a " bang " only louder than loudest
thunder, with trembling earth. Superb display of red-
hot stones and splashes, shooting to an incredible
height, and clattering down in hundreds. Shaped like
bombs, carcases of sheep, boomerangs, shreds and
patches, roots of trees, etc., etc. — indescribable forms.
' Greeted with one of these when within twenty
yards of crater lips — pelted with stone. They were
most alarming — made one spring back, then watch
overhead to dodge. Dust like rolling smoke exactly.
Brown. After some hundreds of yards' walk, steam
rohing all about, came to a clear glimpse, lurid fire.
Watched, saw something like a fountain spouting, also

yEx. 38] THE NEW HEBRIDES 409
a boiling pond at the side, a smaller one spouting
some yards off ; but the vision closed tantalisingly just
when you thought you had made out something.
Then further on a perfect view from an ash cornice,
lower down, at just over the focus. Very precarious
standpoint. But what a spectacle ! The fountain
resolved itself into a dome of fire (shape of a bell-jar
or cathedral dome) of streaming lava, almost white
heat, changing immediately into a lurid red, boiling up
and exploding every few seconds, bespattering the
walls of the funnel with red-hot lava. These did not
trickle down like water. They stuck as they fell, very
curious, as if it was putty, never budged, cooled black
almost immediately. Occasionally they fell back into
the pot but theyorw did not alter.
' At one side of this fountain was a seething linn of
swirling fire — all colours of red writhing about. Sur
mounted with steam. Some distance back another
little pot spouting away. Beyond that three-fourths
of the area of the funnel was shrouded in steam and
blue vapour. No sulphurous colouring as at Etna.
Probably whole crater is full of lava, with septal
between, a series of funnels.
' A great spectacle ! The suddenness of it. You
come up smiling — awe-stricken in two minutes. A
surprise. You are totally taken aback by what you
see. Not the extent of it: the fierceness of it, the
wickedness of it, the instantaneousness of it. It lives.
Wonderful — this unwatched thing working away
there. Royalist officers agree that crater, where lava
swam, was two or three hundred feet deep. This would
give a hundred feet for height of dome. Stones flew
up as high again, certainly say five hundred feet.
Surely this at least is not exaggerated.
' While peering over this cornice Mr. ...[?] pho-

4IO HENRY DRUMMOND [1890
tographed the scene. Asked two others and myself
to sit down while he took us. Position taken. " Don't
look back," he said, " or move for anything less than
the size of a brick. I will warn you if anything bigger
comes." Photo over, we had scarcely risen when there
was a terrifying report, and a bewildering shower of
molten projectiles rained around us. One block the
size and shape of a small sheep descended with a
sullen thud on the very spot where a minute ago I had
sat. It was not near the spot, but across the very
mark in the soft ashes. I took my revenge by light
ing my cigar at it.
' Very fine panorama as we mounted the top again
to descend on the other side. Circle of wooded
mountains. Sun slanting over the lake below. De
scent like coming down a snow mountain on the Alps.
The natural slope of fine dust. As we passed along
(far below) the direction of the wind, had to put up
sun umbrellas to shield ourselves from the volcanic
dust which rattled like fierce hail upon us.
' Here our guides sped off to their village, frightened
to go farther, paid in tobacco sticks. Left volcano
about 4.30. Moonlight walk through tropical vege
tation, very thick ; footpath ; the feature, tree-ferns.
Those require moonlight, and overhead, as it then
was. Like gigantic ostrich feathers, translucent fronds.
" Log" passed along line, " Hole," " Overhead," " Snag."
Here and there a luminous fungus. Size of a large
button, vividly phosphorescent, like a small velvet
button soft and flexible to the touch. When travel
ling at night, missionaries stick one on a native's back,
who goes on in front.
' Came to a native village about eight o'clock, first
a magnificent Platz — oval sward surrounded with
enormous spreading banyan-trees, where dances and

iET. 38] THE NEW HEBRIDES 41I
feasts are held. Then reed-cane fence, three feet
high, to keep out pigs; same reeds as are used for
arrows, quite straight, yellow. Women came out,
dogs barked, children trooped round. No men.
Where? Away drinking kava, i.e. "at the public-
house." Women brought cocoanut milk, most re
freshing [with?] water.
'Ten minutes farther met men drinking. Some
stupid with kava.
'. . . [?] very rugged and almost dangerous path
with abrupt descents, reached shore. Went aboard.'
'June 28.
' Not under way till 4.30. Eromanga reached
about twelve. Coasted. Coral plateau, tier above
tier, covered with vegetation — no special feature.
Coral cliffs met at an obtuse angle. Bit of beach,
creek, expanded mouth of good brook or stream.
Ashore after dinner at one. Crossed in boat, pulled
and pioneered by two natives, one the son of the
murderer of Williams, and the leading elder ! Two
other brothers also about station, both members now.'
' Sunday, June 29.
' After very nasty night, heavy sea and rain, arrived
at Fill Harbour.^ A wide bay, then an inner bay,
like Sydney Harbour. Islands. Lagoon running up
six miles across nearest neck. All elevated coral reef
— typical.
' After breakfast, went off to island, Fila, for service.
Mr. and Mrs. Michelsen tried to Christianise this
some years ago. Couldn't even live on the island,
but made their home on small island adjoining. No
success. Now the whole island is Christian, an out-
station of Mr. Mackenzie. We found a fine church.
1 On Efate or Sandwich.

412 HENRY DRUMMOND [1890
Service just over. Warm reception on the beach.
Held another service. Native hymn, then a native
read and prayed at length. English hymn, and then
I spoke twenty minutes, 2 Cor. iii. 18. Mr. Macdonald
translated afterwards. Very attentive. After service
went to mission-house. Natives brought puddings of
yams ; ditto faro {cooked on Saturday) ; both very
good. Also cocoanuts. Charming spot. Great
drums in a cluster, like Stonehenge, in manse garden.
These had been carved and painted : sounding-board
worn thin with use, now going to decay. Small ban
yan taken root on top of one of them. Heathenism
will soon be forgotten.
' Site of Franceville here. A commune. On paper
a fine city, with municipal buildings, and streets all
planned and named. From the sea a single one-story
house is visible on the whole expanse of forest I
believe another exists, but did not see it. The first
house is a store, the second a doctor's house. For
the patients I looked in vain. The Commune col
lapsed. One after another withdrew. But there are
one or two planters about here who grow coffee, etc.
Plantation young yet, but prospect fair. Planters are
French ; one is Portuguese.
' Rowed back to steamer to lunch. After, accom
panied by Mr. Fraser, to visit Mr. Mackenzie's mission-
station. Were rowed (four native crew, splendid men)
ashore. Walked through French and Portuguese
plantations, cocoanut. Saw the nut sprout. Reached
lagoon, like a still river of emerald green, two hundred
yards broad, white coral sand, tumult of green creep
ers rushing down into it from lofty branches of trees.
Bastard cotton-tree with its Padella lights of flowers,
as large as saucers, lemon-yellow, little brown candle
rising from centre.'

yET. 38] THE NEW HEBRIDES 413
' Monday, June 30.
' Left at ten for Havannah Harbour. Temperature
at H. H., never rises above 92°. There are never
mosquitoes. Mr. D. does not use curtains in his
house. Almost none of the missionaries do. None
complain of heat' 'Tuesday, July i.
' Left at seven for Tongoa. Flying-fish common,
sometimes seen walking about on surface. Occasional
shark ; few birds. On the whole, life is scarce.
' Tongoa, Tongariki, and the neighbouring islands
are probably the tops of a large submerged island.
They are all like tops of hills. Contain almost no
flat acres. Very healthy in consequence. Fever little
known on Tongoa.
' Earthquakes very frequent in all the islands. On
Tongoa counted seventeen in one day. Can see them
— see the banyan-trees twisting and shaking.' ' Tongoa, July 2.
' Arrived about three. Worst anchorage in group.
A beautiful island, black sand showing its volcanic
nature, apart from the rounded cones and waving lines
of the craters, and richest possible foliage. Cones and
craters always manage to depart from the conventional
type, and never announce themselves as volcanic.
Great assemblage of natives on beach, red cloth pre
dominating ; very picturesque ; fires smoking. Every
man different Some had red handkerchiefs loosely
knotted round neck, a turban of same, with two waving
feathers over his neck or in his ears. One woman
wisp of yellow pigs' bristles tied in each ear. Wood
for Mr. Smaill's house lying on beach. Each man
seized a block or sheet of iron — each boy and woman
— and carried down to boats for shipment. Animated

414 HENRY DRUMMOND [1890
scene, all done for nothing, being for missi. Bought
a club for a shilling from an old savage. Stroll up
with Mr. Michelsen, steep pull, hot ferns, flowers,
stones, stopped us at every yard. Mission-house on
flatfish ridge, facing the sea, dipping down on other
side into a large shallow depression, like [a] crater.
' Scene on beach next morning (July 3d) waiting for
steamer. One handsome damsel in red gown picking
her teeth vigorously with a carving-knife ; rim of
strawberry basket on head, one or two wildflowers
stuck in it; hair, close cut, except island on top,
which the basket fringed like a coral-reef.
' One group in a canoe. Tallest savage on
island, white vest open, bedecked with new red hand
kerchief, trying to count ^d. and three halfpennies,
very dirty, to see if he could make out a shilling from
them ; several helping the arithmetic ; deep problem.
Fine figure; hair bushy, swelling all round in a ring;
coloured white with coral lime ; on top of this a red
handkerchief crown, twined round with a tender spray
of convolvulus. Very striking figure. N.B. — The
ornamentation is never overdone. If a flower is stuck
anywhere, it is the size of a button, never a showy
flower, though there are myriads everywhere. Some
times a fern stuck in the ear, or two white cock's
feathers. Many a comb or scratcher. No sameness.
Most men have shirts and a loin cloth, red, over
them. Women have either skirts of calico, spotted
and striped, or a nightgown. Several men have old
slouch hats ; most uncovered. Bracelets made of a
creeper's stem, or boar's tusks ; no anklets. Many
chewing sugar-cane, held in both hands, most monkey
like. Many women carry neat native baskets woven
with pandanus.
' Tongoa small, especially luxuriant even for the

^T. 38] THE NEW HEBRIDES 415
Pacific. Remarkable variety of foliage conspicuous
on all islands, but especially here. Every shade of
green, wooded to the top of highest hills. Natives
very kind and quiet, in spite of the butcher's knife
most of them carry. One half-naked fellow followed
us up path with two feet of cold steel in his hands.
They use these for clearing their way through the
bush. House four hundred feet; grand view of sea
and island. Mr. Michelsen's station a model of neat
ness. Trim, terraced garden, glowing with balsam,
roses, and golden egg-plant. All buildings very
roomy, built with his own hand. Has poultry, pea
cock, ducks, goats, even horses ; teacher's premises —
perfect. Most unassuming of men, simple Norwegian.
Sat down opposite bread-fruit tree. Asked native to
taste. Went to adjoining hut ; brought one out from
oven, like dough of very French rolls. My favourite
native food. At supper tasted it again, also queen-
cakes made from arrowroot (native) and cocoanut
milk ; very delicious. Taro mashed like potatoes ;
great improvement, as the hard texture is the chief
distinction ; white like potatoes. A dish of native
mushroom, a fungus which grows mostly on the ban
yan-tree, stewed in cocoanut juice, a great delicacy.
Saw the luminous centipede, i^ inches long, a wrig
gling yellow packthread, luminous in spots along the
body, at least as I saw it, rather than glowing as a
whole. The chief effect comes when it is crushed,
when everything is phosphorescent. . . . The great
trumpet-shell, now rare, with smaller shell patched in
for mouthpiece, probably the origin of the trumpet.
Sound very similar, and not unvaried. Talking of
music, an old fellow on the beach had a pan-pipe, on
which he ran down the scale. Mr. Atkinson bought
it for me.

41 6 HENRY DRUMMOND [1890
' Mr. M. has been eleven years on Tongoa. All
Christian. Three years ago the last cannibal feast
Going up hill was introduced to a man who had been
at it, the "piece de resistance" being his own half-
brother. At Tongoa, in the moonlight, on the ve
randah, heard evening song going up from hut after
hut on this side and on that. Less than four years
ago the missionary had seen from this same verandah
the smoke ascending from roasting human flesh.
' While I was eating my bread-fruit word was passed
round that I was a purchaser of clubs, etc. All that
afternoon things were brought to me. Was offered
several bundles of arrows, carefully tied up at the
points with black feathers and matting (small lancet
like heads, very slender and fine). I wondered why.
Asked were these poisoned ? Yes. Again and again
they were brought me.
' " Where you get him you put along arrow ? " " No
savez." " You get him on tree ? " " No savez." " Get
him on ground ? " " Ei, no." " Where you get him ? "
" Put him along man he finish " — i.e. thrust it into a
dead body. Blood-poisoning. Strange fact; a body
with the life gone out of it is one of the acutest
poisons known.
' On Tongoa causes of decrease of population : early
marriages, destroying function ; abortion ; suckling
children till three or four years old ; young bloods
going off to labour traffic, leaving only old men and
children at home ; foreign diseases only to a very small
extent. On Api infanticide is common to save bother.
' The bountifulness of these islands — on Tongoa
natives are very well off. Far better than the Africans.
Yam, taro, banana, cocoanut, bread-fruit, are staple
diet. Better off than the crofters in the Highlands.
Fish, shell-fish, fungi.

^T. 38] THE NEW HEBRIDES 417
'Left Tongoa about 11.30 [July 2d] for Api.
Crossed open water for an hour, with two shreds of
rock in mid-channel. The water is very shallow here,
bearing out the submergence tradition. No coral
reef on Tongoa; all volcanic. Api at first volcanic,
then reef growing along shore, finally elevated reef
visible on terrace inland. The out-station of Mr.
Fraser. 'Coasting along Api, approaching Borumba, Mr.
Eraser's station — two sea . . . three miles apart, very
gentle curve, like an unstrung bow; land rising as
usual, but more gradual, and much tumbled about;
neither hills in the immediate foreground nor plateau,
but broken hilly country, with many valleys and de
pressions, all timbered. Fever here and mosquitoes.
Five different languages, not dialects, make work very
difficult.' 'July 3.
' Planting new station for Mr. Smaill. Bad anchor
age about ten. Two sweeping bays ; high point be
tween is the site. Coral-reef with foam upon it. To
land, wade over coral-reef with shoes on ; delicate
branches, antlers, cauliflower, almost sacrilege to walk
on them. Blue star-fish like guttapercha. Walk along
sand. Halt under tree. Native women brought four
teen young cocoanuts. Stiff climb, and crawl to pro
posed site. Poor Mrs. Smaill, what a home ! She
was with us, with Mr. and Mrs. Annand, Mr. and
Mrs. Michelsen, and their two little girls (five and
six), and Mr. Atkinson from Ceylon. More cocoa-
nuts ; roasted plantains whole on fire. Return to
lunch on beach. Table landed, captain sent ashore
victuals ; more cocoanuts for water. Awful crowd of
savages surrounded us as we ate. Never saw white
ladies before, probably, nor plates, knives, and forks.

41 8 HENRY DRUMMOND [1890
Every man (fifty at least) stark naked, except for
infinitesimal strip between legs, turned into a belt of
bark, back and front Women wear a scant loin-cloth
of bark. All armed, mostly rifles, cocked. Several
had bows, with sheafs of poisoned arrows. One face
painted vermilion. Little tattooing. Necklace of
white small bead-like shells on a few. Many armlets,
beads or bark, with a pipe stuck in. Some with coral,
a sprig of leaves, bracelet of tortoiseshell. Many with
diseases of the leg, bones soft. This is common all
over group. Men kept gathering from far and near
all afternoon to watch the show, especially to see stores
landed. Immense curiosity as each article was car
ried (wading) across the shallow strips where the ship's
boats stuck. Cane deck-chair very exciting, as it was
in their line ; use undreamt of till I sat down in it
amid great laughter.
' No cloth here ; everything native except guns.
None of us knew this language. Mr. M. had one
native with him who knew the language, and whom
he could speak to in another lingo, so a little com
munication was possible.
' Volcano of Lofevi in full foreground, a superb vol
canic cone of great grace rising out of the sea, with a
single momentary change of slope at one side, and
a piece of rockwork to balance it at other. Slight
abrupt tilting of whole from the abrupt straight hne
of base when seen against horizon.
' Landing of goods eagerly watched. Climax reached
when two native women, teachers' wives, stepped ashore
in full dress, i.e. nightgowns, their babies slung with
calico. Immense sensation. Pots and pans much
criticised, especially frying-pans. Iron water-tank
painted red much discussed. Great drumming on it
Packet of native bows and arrows from Eromanga

.ffix. 38] THE NEW HEBRIDES 419
greeted with lively gesticulation. No one would
touch it at first, then picked up gingerly with one
finger and thumb by one brave, and hastily laid
ashore. Probably frightened for poison, as arrows
were very delicate.
' Two tents pitched, two huts also made from roofing-
iron. Each native got three sticks tobacco for his
day's work. Full moon at night, surf roaring, glorious
scene, perfect temperature.
' Confab on beach. " Now Missi come ; no more
war; all change now. Sing-song to-morrow, kill pig,
dance." Celebrate the end of heathenism, and arrival
of missionary. Real object is to make an end of war.
One thing they all know, that when he comes there is
peace. On Mr. Annand's island the canoes from
Malokolo had not visited for a generation. Now they
come constantly. Life is safe. On other islands,
where the peace-making power of the missionary is
unknown, no doubt they receive him for what they
think they will get out of him. In these cases at first
they will be friendly, but when they see what he has
really come for, after he can speak to them, the trouble
begins. They had not counted the cost ; now will not
pay it For it means renunciation of heathen customs
and immorality.
' Holothuria examined. He was choke full of coral.
No doubt he chews up vast quantities. Helps denu
dation of reef, and makes sand. Possibly these pieces
which strew the beach like inches of white slate-pencil
have passed through the bodies of worms.
' Induction soiree in house made of four window-
sashes, two doors for roof, iron for sides ; tea, bread,
butter, cheese.
' Many murders on this beach and cannibal feasts.
Notorious district. All cannibals here, and armed.

A20 HENRY DRUMMOND [1890
Land next year, . and probably there will not be a
weapon on the shore.'
' Friday, July 4.
' Got on board by breakfast, and steamed off for
Sandwich Harbour, Port Sandwich, Malokolo, at nine
o'clock. Malokolo has the worst reputation of any in
the group. The missionaries make little headway.
' Passed Lofevi. Passed along Ambrym. Volcano
on inconspicuous part of a central ridge composed of
several hills ; not prominent. Through telescope
seemed to be steaming distinctly, but may have been
cloud. ' At three entered Port Sandwich, another noble
harbour, quite landlocked. One buoy here — only
one I have seen on the group. " Is the Royalist
there ? " " There she is," said Captain King, with his
glass. Went on board with Lieutenant, who had
called for mails. Captain Davis.' ' Saturday, July 5.
' Jogged along, mostly under sail, reaching Havannah
Harbour, Efate, about eleven morning. Mr. Macdon
ald, with Mr. and Mrs. Macdonald (elect of Santo),
and Mr. Lindt, boarded us, and took me off for day's
picnic to Island of ... ? (See Mr. Macdonald's
Oceania) Heathen village ; man spearing fish. Folks
all off on mainland, clearing plantations. Few idlers
about. One, seven years in New Zealand, spoke
pretty fair English. Stroll to caves. Immense, finely
shaped dome, very lofty, scooped [out of] calcareous
sandy hill by sea action ; probably a current struck it
at this point. Rude inscriptions on walls, made by
natives ////////////// \\\.. These hnes (notches),
they say, represent lives of men. The spirits
notch them each time a man dies. Idea, perhaps,
taken from their dreams. Three [?] are notched each

^T. 38] THE NEW HEBRIDES 42 I
time a great man dies. Only on one side. Lindt
photo'd these with magnesium light. Drums in vil
lage, obscene ; thirty or forty in cluster, longest group
1 have seen. Immense labour to cut these with stone
adzes in former generation. Celebrations for dead
last a year or two ; most elaborate customs. Dance.
Drummer in centre, then men advance in pairs, with
spears ; face each other, dance, others join. Then all
join hands and dance round and round the drums.
Women by themselves dancing.' ' Havannah, Sunday, July 6.
' Grow anything, no manuring for eight or nine
years — on coffee. Unsifted, sun-dried article, ^70
per ton, value at 2000 lbs. to the ton, say ^75. Pep
per, allspice, cocoa, rice, sugar-cane ; three crops of
Indian corn per annum = Telia flint [?] variety. Two
kinds of soil, volcanic centre, coral lime round it,
equally suit different crops. Good coffee land every
where, but not near water in many cases. Water
needed for pulping, etc. But spices would do every
where. Plenty of rain ; safely 100 inches per annum.
Rain every week the year round. Never flood, never
drought, the rainfall is so distributed.
' Labourers from adjoining islands ; thirty of these.
Feed themselves. £4., 4.S. per year is paid in wages
for labour per man; and 2^ 10 for the recruiter who
finds the men in his cutter. The £4, 4s. is not paid
to the natives until the three years' engagement is up.
' First year make a nursery of coffee plants, then
clean land. Next year you are a year on your way,
having the nursery. In three years you have your
first crop. There is no disease, no manure is needed.
Almost the sole risk is a hurricane, which may blow
off the flowers, or at the drying season a showery day

42 2 HENRY DRUMMOND [1890
may interfere. But artificial drying here, as elsewhere,
will be introduced in time. The natives eat yams and
bananas with cocoanuts and taro. When they run
out, a boat-load can be bought for a few sticks of to
bacco, so that a few extra shillings, scarcely pounds,
are enough to keep all in abundance.
' Owing to the slopes there is choice of land for dif
ferent kinds of planting; one kind grown on shore,
another higher up. Bananas alone would pay splen
didly. Three and a half days nearer to Sydney than
Fiji. All the year steamers with bananas run from
Fiji to Sydney. The three and a half days sooner
would deliver the fruit in prime condition and avoid
the heavy depreciation at present existing.
' Fever not serious anywhere, and most islands quite
free from it. Havannah Harbour has a bad reputa
tion, but all much exaggerated. Ships of war met in
group. Dart and Royalist had seven per cent on sick
list, all slight cases.
' French population, adult males, on group may
number sixty in all. English, perhaps ten, excluding
missionaries. Land may be bought for almost noth
ing. A couple of old muskets and a bag of tobacco
will buy an estate. A good deal of land has been
"chapped" already, especially by French, who have
bits on most islands, never touched of course. No
one ever comes near them. Boundaries are very
dubious. Sometimes a stone mark is used. Natives
are very fair about these purchases, and respect them
loyally, provided the right owner or owners have been
treated with in the first instance. Natives have often
professed to sell land as theirs ; when the real owner
turns up months or years later, a row is inevitable.
Some of the missionaries have paid for their land to
one " owner " after another. Unavoidable, for there is

^¦r. 38] THE NEW HEBRIDES 423
no tribunal. The desideratum is an authentic means
of conveyance and registration of titles.
'English skies in New Hebrides, not bHstering,
burnished skies. White clouds as at home, and even
dull days. Constant light winds (trades) blow.
' Quite true about the gayfish, red, striped, barred,
box-shaped, etc. One exquisite thing, a dart of brill
iant blue or purple. A pure-blue starfish. But the
scenic effect is not quite what one had expected, any
more than parrots make a great feature on an Austral
ian landscape. They are really inconspicuous in the
woods, and fly so fast you only see a general dark form.
' Few seaweeds. I question if our seaweedy pools
are not more lovely. White coral sand does give brill
iancy to the water, but there is much coral island
without any.
' Corals individually are exquisite, but do not expect
to see them like what they are at Kensington. Shells,
ditto. The nacreous shells are all covered with mem
brane. The speckled ones are all right, but the ma
jority are swathed. The corals are swathed in gelatine,
coloured slime. Like a clump of cauliflowers half
withered. Like large fungi or mushrooms. Faint
purple or pinkish. Red coralinus grows in deep
water. I am speaking of what you can see in a boat.
Irregular bottom is a feature. Like sailing over a
submerged flower and shrub garden. When the tide
is out it is not beautiful. The colour is dirty-brown
or black, as if smoked with a torch. Rough and un
even, hke a field frost-bound — very hard to walk on
with bare feet "Srill lagoons" you see generally
roughened with wind. " Calm retreats " are not
common. ' White ants ^ on all the islands ; furniture destroyed.
1 This and the following paragraphs taken from stray notes.

424 HENRY DRUMMOND [1890
Some make tunnels in the trees; small hills not so
large as in New South Wales.
' In Tongoa there is a native turkey ; black bird,
long legs and neck ; red wattles, scarcely size of com
mon hen, lays eggs, one above another, sometimes to
the number of ten. The birds leave them to hatch
there, but from time to time change the order, digging
up the deeper ones, which have most heat, and placing
them on the top. These birds are also found in Efate.
In Tongoa they lay in the neighbourhood of the Fu-
inarole. This is some acres in extent, faintly steam
ing. There are two such places in Tongoa.
' Ascendency of the English Language. — Formerly
chief's sons and the leading bloods were sent for a
year to another island to learn the language for trade
purposes. This is now stopped, owing to the rapid
rise of pigeon-English. All trade is done in that lan
guage ; French labour boats have to use it. Remem
ber the convict at Noumea speaking to the native
prisoners in English : " Do not like wee-wee man." '
' Process of Evangelising an Island. — Missionary
settles in a village often by request of natives. Either
(i) they want a " missi," as he will see justice done be
tween them and passing trader — a court of appeal :
he is known as always on the side of the natives ; (2)
the islanders may have shot so many boats' crews that
they want him as a guarantee of good behaviour ; (3)
labour men returned may have been influenced in
Queensland and want a teacher ; or (4) they know that
Christianity will abolish sorcery, which is the cause of
all death and war. They do want to stop war, and
therefore ask missionary. Christianised natives never
carry firearms, but go unarmed.
' Sometimes the missionary comes on a bare con-
^ A sketch of the political situation is not inserted here, as it is now out of date.

Mr. 38] THE NEW HEBRIDES 425
sent, extracted from the people, after much discussion
on their part. This permission will be given, and fol
lowed by repeated hints, and even requests, to leave.
But he sticks to it.
'Programme. — He settles, builds on bought site.
Never wanders one hundred yards from door, learns
language. For a year he may be almost a prisoner.
Then he extends his walks gradually till he compasses
all. Sometimes the nearest village is hostile, the next
friendly. He may have to go round by open sea, or
be fired at. At Eromanga, Mr. ...[?] was always
attacked at " the point," unless he kept out to sea till
he reached the further villages.
' The Missionaries have -made the Islands Habitable.
— On several (Tongoa, Mai, etc.) for long not even
a missionary could land. Christianising comes before
civilising, say the missionaries. Thus, a native from
a heathen village goes to Queensland, comes back
with box of clothes. Will sell them for two sticks of
tobacco, and return to savagedom. They have never
been civilised. Their heathen customs make it impos
sible. Only Christianity can make them give up their
heathenism. Must be made gentle men.'
Drummond's regular diary closes with Sunday 6th
at Havannah Harbour. He left it for Eromanga, and
on Monday left Eromanga for Noumea, the French
capital of New Caledonia, where he arrived on Wednes
day. He has one note upon the place : ' Amphi
theatre of really fine hills ; tawdry boulevard of
one- and two-story houses, each different ; a central
square or place; flamboyant trees, most of their
growth still to come ; a semaphore station. Govern
ment House (;^i500 a year). Lives = convicts.'

426 HENRY DRUMMOND [1890
'Sydney, July 21.
' Just stepped off steamer. Have had a wonderful
time among New Hebrides. I do not think I
ever had such an interesting tour in my life. I
was on Mr. Paton's Tanna, and saw all his painted
cannibals. But for the missionary with me, I
should now be — inside them. No grander mis
sionary work was ever done than by these N. H.
missionaries. Every man is a king.'
Having seen one end of the labour traffic in the
New Hebrides, Drummond went on a tour in Queens
land to find out about the other. His companion was
Professor Rentoul, of Melbourne, and they not only
investigated the facts about the importation of the
Kanakas to the sugar plantations, but inquired as
well into the condition of the Queensland aborigines.
What opinions Drummond formed were stated by
him to a representative of the Pall Mall Gazette, and
published in that paper on the i8th May, 1892. He
corrected the proof himself.
' " Below the surface of this question there lies a
story with a world of interest. It has its deep pathos,
and it has also its bright side. But the question of
continuing the labour traffic with Pol)mesia is an
anthropological rather than an economic question.
Here you have hundreds of islands inhabited mainly
by cannibals. They are utterly uncivilised. Except
for a handful of heroic missionaries, a white man
hardly ever steps ashore among them. There they
are, doing no work, sitting all day long under their
palm-trees, and living the life of savages and canni
bals, except in the few cases where the patient labours
of the missionaries have had some civilising and soft
ening influence. They know nothing of the outside

^T. 38] THE NEW HEBRIDES 427
world. No vessel, possibly, has ever touched their
shores, and the only white man's face they have ever
seen is that of their missionary. Then, one day, a
vessel arrives, and a boat is lowered filled with armed
men and steers for the island. These armed men are
the traders who have come to engage labour. It also
lands a Government agent, whose duty it is to see that
matters are arranged humanely and on fair terms.
This boat is followed by another carrying a further
bodyguard, armed to the teeth, and covering the first
boat with their rifles at a short distance. The Kanaka
is easily persuaded to engage to accompany the trader
for a term of years, when a few sticks of tobacco, a
gun, or some other toy is put into his hands as a pres
ent. When, a few days later on, the vessel leaves the
island, it carries the flower of the population away
with it. There are, happily, a good many islands on
which the unwearied work of the missionaries has
borne fruit, where the natives are docile and indus
trious ; but there are many others on which this is not
the case. For an unarmed man to land would be
certain death."
' " Have they a common language ? " — " No ; the
dialects are innumerable on these island groups, and
it is, indeed, not infrequently the case that several
almost distinct languages are spoken on the same
island. Each dialect differs widely from the rest, and
each is only understood by a handful of natives. On
the island of Eromanga, which I visited the year be
fore last, the first missionary who came was murdered
by the natives ten minutes after he went ashore. The
second also was murdered, and several after him. But
the work was not, therefore, given up, for the mission
aries will not be kept back, and now the missionary
whom I found there has been at his post for thirteen

428 HENRY DRUMMOND [1890
years. There is a church on the island, and the Kana
kas live peacefully together. Can you wonder at the
missionaries protesring when some day they wake up
to find that the pick of their young men have left their
island and gone to the sugar plantations in Queens
land ? "
' "Then, Professor Drummond, do I understand that
you sympathise with the outcry against the importa
tion of the Kanakas into Queensland?" — "Not ex
actly; I am with the Pall Mall's reasoning in Monday's
leading article. At the same time, it is a question on
which there is so much to be said on both sides that
I should not like to speak too definitely. What I have
told you is a matter of information, not of opinion. On
the whole, this is not a problem peculiar to the Pacific.
Wherever the white man comes into contact with the
black, wherever the product of civilisation has to deal
with the child of nature, the same class of difficulties
arises. To keep these happy children to their own
coral islands and cut them off from the contaminations
of civilisation may be a pardonable ideal to the mis
sionary. But it is a question whether such a state of
things is possible, or possible long. Sooner or later
the breath of the outer world must reach them. In
too many cases it has reached them already. They
must brace themselves for the contact. The drafting
of successive bands of natives to a civilised country for
a term of years and then shipping them back again to
their own islands — as the labour-employer is bound
to do — might become an important factor in the prog
ress of these races. Everything would depend on the
treatment they received and the moral atmosphere
which surrounded them. The Queensland Govern
ment has certainly left no stone unturned to secure
that, so far as legal enactments can protect an inferior

iET. 38] THE NEW HEBRIDES 42^
race, the Kanakas are safe on Australian soil from
any possible t)^ranny, violence, or even physical dis
comfort If it could also secure that the planter would
do his dut)', and feel an adequate moral responsibility
with regard to his employees, there would be no right
eous opposition to the labour traffic. The question,
therefore, reduces itself to the universal moral prob
lem. Given the ideal employer, the man who will
protect his people from moral contamination, who will
seek their good and interest as well as his own, and
return them to their country wiser and better men,
and with some rational equivalent for the labour they
have given — then this traffic can do nothing but
good. Nor is it idle to hope that one day this ideal
may be partially realised. . . .
' " If it is inevitable that this human stream from
the Pacific should continue to discharge itself upon
Australian soil, one very practical thing remains for
those who have raised their voices against it — to turn
every energy to secure henceforth the righteous fulfil
ment of the conditions under which the Kanaka is
engaged, and especially to ameliorate his lot and give
to it that educational and moral value which humanity
and Christianity demand. More than ever it must be
made certain that the Government agent on board the
labour schooner will resist the temptation to play into
the hands of the employers, and make it certain that
in each individual case the terms of the contract are
fully understood by the natives whose services are
enlisted. The plantations themselves must be pro
tected from the illicit drink-seller; and educational
and missionary work among the colonies of workers
ought to be everywhere introduced. If this were done,
and done effectually, the return of the Kanaka to his
island home would mean something vital in social and

430 HENRY DRUMMOND [1890
moral influence for his race. At present though the
Kanakas are thoroughly well treated by their masters,
— on the mere ground of economy this is necessary,
Kanaka labour being far too costly to be trifled with, —
it is questionable whether they gain anything by their
absence either morally or materially. Their hard-
earned wages they cannot take back with them in
coin, since money is almost unknown in Polynesia.
What they do take back is usually a lot of rubbish,
purchased in Brisbane at fancy prices, to be distributed
among their brother savages as presents. This, it must
be confessed, is a poor show for three or four years'
work among the cane-brakes.
' " On thinking over this whole question it is impos
sible not to compare the action of the Queensland
Government, where the Kanakas are concerned, with
their treatment of their own natives. The comparison
is all in favour of the Kanakas. The Queensland
natives are treated as veritable outcasts. They are
not employed ; they are driven away from the towns
and settlements, and their lives in certain districts are
freely taken on the smallest provocation, and no ques
tions asked." '
From Australia Drummond voyaged slowly by Java,
to Singapore. He had two days among the Anamese
at Saigon, and came round to Hong Kong and Shang
hai, where he saw the missions.
At Shanghai he addressed a native meeting as fol
lows : —
' I know just one word of Chinese, and that is " Foh "
(happiness); the missionaries come to China to give
the people happiness, and there is nothing in the worid
can give the people happiness except the teaching of
Jesus Christ. I have been all over the world, and have

iET. 38] THE NEW HEBRIDES 43 1
just come from Australia. Away among the South
Sea Islands I saw men who feed on human flesh ; a
few miles off the islanders ten years ago were cannibals
too ; why not now ? Because the missionaries of Jesus
Christ have been among them ; and these people gave
me their spears and bows, which I have now in the
ship — "because," they said, "we do not need them
any more."
' When Jesus came into this world to give happiness.
He said His rehgion was to be three things to men, —
salt and light and leaven.
'What is the use of salt? It is the salt in the sea
that keeps it fresh. It is the salt on the fish that keeps
it from going rotten. The people of Christ are the
salt of the earth. Every country will become rotten
if there are no Christians in it. Nothing can prevent
men turning rotten and bad but the Gospel.
' Christ is light. The world is dark. It needs a
heavenly teacher to tell men what is truth. If one
man tells me this or that is true, another tells me it is
not true ; whom am I to believe ? If I go to an idol,
it cannot tell me anything, true or false.
' Christ is the Light of men, and we know His Word
to be truth beyond all doubt or dispute. There may
be only two or three men in this great congregation who
want to know what is truth. They have only to read
the New Testament, and they will see that Jesus Christ
is the Light of the world.
' I suppose you know what leaven is ; it is that which
raises up. It is the religion of Christ that uplifts men.
It makes them higher and nobler and nearer God ; and
if we come to Jesus Christ and learn of Him, He will
lift up first one, then another of you who hear me now,
then this city of Shanghai, and then this great country;
but if we reject Him we must sink lower and lower.

432 HENRY DRUMMOND [1890
' I understand too little of what passes in your minds,
stranger and foreigner as I am, to say more to you this
evening. But I leave with you these simple thoughts
— Jesus Christ is Light, Leaven, and Salt — and if we
learn from Him, learn what He is, and what He says,
we shall be made light and salt and leaven to those
among whom we dwell.'
From China he went on to Japan, and at Tokio was
able to answer the invitation sent him a year before
by a large number of students. He addressed about
five hundred of them. From Japan he came home
through Canada.
In November he opened the College Session with
an address upon Missions, which he repeated on sev
eral occasions during the next month or two. As it
was not only fresh and full of information, but raised
some controversy, it seems desirable to give at least a
summary of it : —
He begins by saying that 'there are two ways in which men
who offer their lives to their fellow-men may regard the world.
They mean the same thing in the end, but you will not mis
understand me if I express the apparent distinction in the
boldest terms. The first view is that the world is lost, and
must he saved; the second, that the world is sunken, and
must be raised. . . . The first preaches mainly justification ;
the second mainly regeneration. The first is the standpoint
of the popular evangelism ; the second is the view of evo
lution. The danger of the first is to save the souls of men,
and there leave them ; the danger of the second is to ignore
the soul altogether. As I shall now speak from the last
standpoint, I point out its danger at once, and meet it by add
ing to its watchword Evolution the qualifying term Christian.
This alone takes account of the whole nature of man, of sin
and guilt, of the future and of the past, and recognises the
Christian facts and forces as alone adequate to deal with
them.' He then emphasises the complexity of the missionary

iET. 38] THE NEW HEBRIDES 433
problem, and the amazing variety of the work required in
different fields. ' Nothing ought to be kept more persistently
before the minds of those who are open to sense as mission
aries. ... It is just as absurd for a man to choose in general
terms "the foreign field" and go abroad to rescue "heathen,"
as for a planter to go anywhere abroad in the hope of sowing
general seed and producing general coffee. ... It is irra
tional for the missionary to carry the s3.-m.Q form of message
to every land, or to think that the thought which told to-day
will tell to-morrow ; he must rotate his crops as God through
the centuries rotates the social soil on which they are to
grow. . . . Above all, when he reaches his field, his duty is
to find out what God has sown there already ; for there is no
field in this world where the Great Husbandman has not sown
something. Instead of uprooting his Maker's work, and clear
ing the field of all the plants that found no place in his small
European herbarium, he will rather water the growths already
there, and continue the work at the point where the Spirit of
God is already moving.' ^
He next illustrates, from the fields he had visited, 'the
necessity for specialisation in missions.' ' In Australia the
missionary problem is to deal with a civilised people under
going abnormally rapid development. ... It is what a biolo
gist would call an organic mass of the highest possible mobility,
of almost perilous sensitiveness to prevailing impressions, with
feeble safeguards to conserve its solid gains, and few boun
dary lines either to shape or limit other growths. . . . The
chief problem of Christianity is to keep pace with the con
tinued growth ; the immediate peril is that it may be wholly
ignored in the pressure of competing growths.
' The South Sea Islands lie at the opposite end of the scale.
Growth has not even begun. . . . The first step in evolution,
aggregation, has not taken place. These people are still at
zero ; they are the amoebae of the human world. There is no
complication here from immigration, but the opposite diffi
culty — depletion due to emigration and other causes.'
1 ' A hasty critic, when these sentences were spoken, construed them into a
plea for building Christianity upon heathenism. The words are : " What God has
sown there," and "Where the Spirit of God is already moving.'" — H. D., in a
later edition of this address.

434 HENRY DRUMMOND [1890
China stands midway between the Australian colonies and
the South Sea Islands, ' an instance of arrested developmeirc.
On the fair way to become a vertebrate, it has stopped short
at the crustacean. The capacity for change is almost non
existent and there is a powerful religion already in possession.'
Japan, in turn, is an almost perfect contrast to China.
'It has broken its "cake of custom." It is the insect emerg
ing from the chrysalis. From a Christian standpoint the
case is unique in history. Its own religion was abandoned
a few years ago, and the country is at present looking for
another.' If the variety illustrated in this rough classification were
present, in the degree it ought to be, to the imagination of the
Christian churches, 'the missionary staff would be differen
tiated with more exactness than at present. Each man would
make his choice, and, equipping himself along certain lines,
would become a specialist. In the second place, it would
become possible for some men to be missionaries, and these
among the best men entering the universities, who see no
room for them at present in the foreign field.' . . . They
'would find, in a service which they had looked upon as
perhaps somewhat limited and narrow, something which,
when looked upon in all its length and breadth, was large
enough and rich enough in practical possibilities to make
them offer to it the whole-hearted work of their lives. To-day,
certainly, some of the best men do go to the foreign field, but
the reason why more do not go is uncertainty as to whether
they are exactly the type of men wanted, i.e. in plain
language, uncertainty as to whether the cut of their theology
quite qualifies them to be the successors of Carey or Williams.
. . . Now, this feeling is very real, but I am convinced it is
very ignorant — ignorant of the changed standpoint from
which scores of our missionaries are even now doing their
work, ignorant of the world's real needs, ignorant of the
hospitality which they would receive from many at least of
the officials of most of the Mission Boards.' Not that he
counts these altogether guiltless in this matter. ' I do not
think the Mission Committees of the world have ever worded
their advertisement for men in language modem enough to

iET. 38] THE NEW HEBRIDES 435
include the class of whom I speak. I am not arguing for
free-lances, or budding sceptics, or rationalists being turned
loose on our mission-fields, but for young men — and our
colleges were never richer in them than at this moment —
who combine with all modern culture the consecrated spirit
and Christlike life. ... It ought at least to be understood
that what qualifies to-day for the leading churches at home
ought not to disqualify for the work of Christ abroad, but that
there is for Christian men of the highest originality and power
a career in the foreign field at least as great and rational as
that at home. ... I am sure the committees at least of some
of the churches not only want these men but scarcely want
anything else.'
He then describes the different classes needed — ' first, the
old missionary pioneer of the Sunday-school picture-books,
who stands with his Bible under the stereotyped palm-tree,
exhorting the crowd of impossible blacks. . . . Their work
must still and always continue. Next, we have these same
men in settled charges . . . carrying on the whole evangeli
cal work of the Christian Church. But next among these,
and gathered from these, and in addition to these, we require
a further class, not wholly absorbed with specific charges, or
ecclesiastical progress, or the inculcation of Western Creeds,
but whose outlook goes forth to the nation as a whole — men
who, in many ways not directly on the programme of the
Missionary Society, will help on its education, its morality,
and its healthy progress in all that makes for righteousness.
This man, besides being the missionary, is the Christian
politician, the apostle of a new social order, the moulder and
consolidator of the state. He places the accent, — if such an
extreme expression of a distinction may be allowed, — not on
the progress of a church, but on the coming of the kingdom
of God. He is not the herald, but the prophet, of the Cross.'
Of course, he says, every missionary acquires some general
idea of this, but ' what is needed is more than a general idea.
The Christianising of a nation like China or Japan is an
intricate, ethical, philosophical, and social, as well as Christian,
problem ; the serious taking of every new country, indeed, is
not to be done by casual sharp-shooters bringing down their

436 HENRY DRUMMOND [1890
man here and there, but by a carefully thought-out attack
upon central points, or by patient siege planned with all
a military tactician's knowledge. . . .'
He then describes the fields he has seen, and begins with
the New Hebrides and their slowly dying populations. The
mission there, he says, has no place in the evolutionary branch
of missions, and cannot attract the class of minds he has been
describing. ' It belongs to the order of the Good Samaritan.
It is a mission of pure benevolence. Its parallel is the mission
of Father Damien on the Leper Island.' He follows with a
eulogy of the missionaries, and of the martyrs who preceded
them. ' I have no words to express my admiration for these
men . . . and their even more heroic wives ; they are perfect
missionaries ; their toil has paid a hundred times, and I count
it one of the privileges of my life to have been one of the few
eyewitnesses of their work.' But, he adds, the missionaries
themselves do not ask for more workers here.
On China he offers a ' surface impression of little worth.'
' Small congregations are springing up everywhere. The
industry and devotion of the workers is beyond all praise. . . .
But they possess no common programme or consistent method ;
there is waste and confusion — the sin not of the missionaries,
but of Christendom. A reconsideration of methods is needed
in face of the fact that the educated classes are not being
reached. The best missionaries themselves are crying for
this.' But he warns his hearers against the criticism of
missions which one gets from ninety per cent, of commercial
men who after a time in China return to this country. ' As a
rule, these critics have never had ten minutes' serious talk
with a missionary in their lives. If they had, they would
find two things — first, that there were some missionaries a
thousand times worse in folly and incompetence than they had
ever imagined ; and, second, that there were others, and these
by far the majority, than whom no wiser, saner, more practical
could be found in any of the business houses in the world.
It is men of this latter class who are calling for more scientific
work and more rational methods in the mission-field.'
' ... It is the deliberate opinion of many men who know
China intimately, who are missionaries themselves, that half

iET. 38] THE NEW HEBRIDES 437
of the preaching, and especially the itinerating preaching,
carried on throughout the empire, is absolutely useless. I
cannot verify this criticism ; I merely record it. But at a
time when the loud cry for hundreds of more laymen to pour
into China is sounding over this land, the warning ought at
least to be heard. I go further. This call is frequently
uttered in such terms as to take almost an unfair advantage
of a certain class of Christians — uttered with a harrowing
importunity and sensationalism of appeal, which, when it falls
upon a tender conscience or an excited mind, makes it seem
blasphemy to decline. The kind of missionary secured by
this process, to say the least, is neither the wisest nor the
best ; and China not only needs to be protected from these
men, but they need to be protected from themselves and
from those who, in genuine but unbalanced zeal, appeal to
them — protected by sober statements from sober men, who
love the work of God and souls of men not less, but who
understand both better.'
He passes to Japan, ' where the situation is still more deli
cate,' 'the most interesting country in the world at this
moment,' 'the past has never witnessed the birth of a civil
ised nation so remarkable, so orderly, so sudden.' 'The
Japanese have set themselves up with all the material and
machinery of an advanced and rising civilised state — all the
materials except one.' 'They are in the unique position of
prospecting for a religion.'
He describes the competition for Japan by the various sec
tions of Christendom, the chance for all, the ' mood and
malleability of the nation.' ' If there be here one prophet,
or half a prophet, or even the making of half a prophet, let
me assure him there is no field in the world to-day where, so
far as man can judge, his best years could be lived to so great
a purpose.' 'You are aware the work of the missionaries has
been so successful that there are already thousands upon
thousands of Christian converts, very many as perfectly read
in European literature and as cultured as the picked men in
our universities ! A leader of thought among these said to
me : " We have got our Christianity almost exclusively from
the missionaries, especially the American missionaries, and

438 HENRY DRUMMOND [1890
we can never thank them enough. But after a little we began
to look at it for ourselves, and we made a discovery. We
found that Christianity was a greater and a richer thing than
the missionaries told us. . . . We want Christianity, not per
haps necessarily a Western Christianity. . . ." In justice to
the missionaries, it ought to be said that all were agreed that
the Japanese Church could not yet be left to stand alone. . . .
In Tokio I had the privilege of addressing some thirty or forty
Japanese Christian pastors. At the close I asked them if
they had any message they would like me to take home to the
churches here or in America. They appointed a spokesman,
who stood up and told me in their name that there were two
things they would like me to say. The one was, " TeU them
to send us one six thousand dollar missionary rather than ten
two thousand dollar missionaries." But the second request
went deeper. I again give the exact words : " Tell them," he
said, "that we want them to send us no more doctrines.
Japan wants Christ . . ." To judge from the Japanese con
verts I met, I would question whether any mission work in the
world had ever produced fruit of so fine a quality. How deep
it is, how permanent, remains for the test of time to declare ;
but the immediate outlook, though disheartening possibly to
individual missionaries, seems to me one of the richest
promise.' On the whole mission-field which he had visited, Drum
mond said : —
' If one saw a single navvy trying to remove a
mountain, the desolation of the situation would
be sufficiently appalling. Most of us have seen
a man or two, or a hundred or two — ministers,
missionaries. Christian laymen — at work upon
the higher evolution of the world ; but it is when
one sees them by the thousand in every land, and
in every tongue, and the mountain honeycombed,
and slowly crumbling on each of its frowning
sides, that the majesty of the missionary work
fills and inspires the mind.'

CHAPTER XVI
1S91-1894
THE LAST LAP— CONTROVERSIES AND ATTACKS — THE DEATH
OF ROBERT BARBOUR — LIFE AND WORK IN GLASGOW — VISIT
TO AMERICA — THE LOWELL INSTITUTE LECTURES — NORTH-
FIELD — CANADA — CHICAGO — LAST ADDRESSES TO EDIN
BURGH STUDENTS
We have now reached the last lap of Henry Drum
mond's race : the point at which he had but three
years and a half of work left to him. These years,
with their many interests in Glasgow, their contro
versies, the visit to America in 1893, and the prepara
tion of the Ascent of Man, will occupy this chapter.
He was hardly back from the South Seas when he
was attacked from many quarters for what his critics,
friendly and unfriendly, called the defects of his teach
ing. The trouble started from the address, with which
he opened the winter session, on the ' Christian Evo
lution of the World.' ^ We have seen with what admi
ration the missionaries inspired him. He once said
that what he saw in the New Hebrides of the life of
the missionaries helped him to understand the Incar
nation. His address, too, had other tributes of the
same kind. Yet his critics fastened upon those por
tions of it in which he stated the still unsolved
problems of the mission-field, and urged upon the
churches a wider policy in meeting them, and a more
elastic choice of men. The perusal of the letters with
which he was bombarded reveals on the part of his
^ This address is summarised above in the end of last chapter.
439

44© HENRY DRUMMOND
assailants a genuine alarm and an honest zeal to put
down error. But the astonishing thing is that Chris
tian men should have so little sense as to base such
charges upon a necessarily brief report in a newspaper.
Also, it is still more grievous that when this has been
pointed out to them, they should not express regret at
having misrepresented a fellow-Christian, nor seem to
appreciate the pain it gives him to have his opinions
travestied to the public. On that line the morality of
the religious among us has not a little to make up.
Drummond's letters of this date are full of pain, and,
for the first time in his life, of warm indignation on
his own behalf. He calls his traducers ' assassins of
character.' But there is no use going into the details
of what was an utterly unnecessary controversy. 'Nov. 20, 1890.
' I am catching it for my " attack on missionaries "
— all the result of a one-sided newspaper report.
' The redeeming feature is tbat when I redelivered
the address last Sunday night in Edinburgh, it
bagged several really first-rate men for the mis
sion-field.'
The attacks, however, scattered from the Address
on Missions to the little books which for nine years
Drummond had published before Christmas, and they
were specially virulent upon the last of them. Pax
Vobiscum. All that need now be told of the temper
in which he met these criticisms, or of the substance
of his replies to them, is contained in the following
letters to his uncle, Mr. David Drummond of Dublin,
and to Mr. Sankey.
On January 4, 1891, his uncle wrote him a very
kind letter, expressing his disappointment at finding
that in 'all your writings and addresses you all but

i8go-i8gi 441
ignore the Atonement,' and deploring this ' in view of
the great influence you exert over young men.' To
this Drummond replied: —
' 3, Park Circus, Glasgow, Jan. 6, 1891.
'My DEAR Uncle, — Your letter has just this mo
ment been handed to me, and I sit down to
answer it at once. I am very glad you have
written me, and thank you most sincerely. It is
surely the only fair as well as the only Christian
thing to do in such circumstances, and not to
harbour dark suspicion and mistrust, as some of
my enemies do. I think you will find the straight
answer to your question in the little book -^ which
I enclose, if you will kindly look at the last two
or three pages. This will not only show you my
belief in the doctrine you refer to, but partly
explain my attitude towards it.
' The two little booklets lately issued were not
evangelistic addresses, but simple talks to Chris
tian people, and beyond these I have no other
" published writings " from which people can
judge my views.
' It passes my comprehension how people should
venture to "judge" at all — much less on the
ground of two half-hour addresses — and say the
fierce things that are said of me without any basis.
Therefore it is that I am grateful to you for asking
the question before sharing in my condemnation.
' A man's only right to publish an address is that he
thinks the thing said there is not being said other
wise. Now, ninety per cent, of the evangelical
literature of the day is expressly devoted to enforc
ing what I am accused of not enforcing, i.e. the
1 An Address to Workers at DoUis Hill.

442 henry DRUMMOND
fundamentals of Christianity. But if a doctor
treats a patient for nerve-disease, or writes a
book upon it, no one would accuse him of not
believing in heart disease ? He writes his book
because nerve-diseases are not being treated by
others, while half the profession is busy over
heart-disease.
' Of course, you may think I make an error of judg
ment in my reading of the popular pulse, and in
not writing books on the fundamentals.
' But there seem to me very many more books on
those aspects of Christ's work than on the others,
and I must give the message that, in addition,
seems to me to be needed. While saying this, I
repeat, I may be making an error of judgment
But one can only judge by the facts around him
and act for the best, as it seems to him, with such
dim light as he has.
' I am afraid I shall have to trouble you to return
the little booklet accompanying this, — say within
a month, — as I have only a copy or two left, and
I believe it is out of print. It is not expressed so
fully or clearly as I would like, for it was spoken
in a field, without more than ten minutes' notice,
and I had no idea a reporter was present. — I re
main, your affectionate nephew, ' Henry Drummond.'
His uncle's reply is so kind and true, that it is well
to give it : —
'Jan. i6, 1891.
' My dear Henry, — I had yours of the 6th inst.,
with enclosure, and your frank, open explanation has
greatly delighted me, and removed from my mind an
anxiety I confess pressed heavily on me. You have

i8gi 443
quite satisfied aunt and me, and we both express how
pleased we are at the kind way you took my letter ;
but, indeed, I knew you so well, I need not have had
any anxiety on that score. Now that you show in
your Address at Dollis Hill how clear your views are
on the Atonement, notwithstanding all that is written
and said to the contrary, I have every expectation that
in some of your future writings you will take your own
way of making it clear ; and you have such a hold of
the public through the immense sale of your publica
tions, it is quite incalculable the power you can wield,
and, therefore, I repeat, I hope you will yet give out,
by no uncertain sound, your belief on a matter of such
vast importance. I admit that as you have the blood
of the clan in your veins, like myself, you may be " a
wee thrawn," and won't be drilled as I see certain
writers are trying to do ; hence my reason for saying
that I have no doubt but that by and by you will take
your own way of speaking out on the subject, only
asking the " Sure Guide " to direct you. ... — Ever
your old uncle, D. Drummond.'
The other letter on this subject is of later date, 1892.
It was written in reply to Mr. Sankey, who was then
in Scotland, upon his and Mr. Moody's last mission
to the country. Mr. Sankey had come across the ex
tract quoted on page 8 of this volume, and wrote
Drummond asking if the words were really his.
Drummond's reply came next day. ' On his last visit
to America in 1893,' says Mr. Sankey, ' I showed him
this letter and the " extract," and asked him if he had
any objection to their publication if occasion should
arise. After reading them over, he replied : " Cer
tainly not ; you have my hearty permission to use
them in any way you think best." '

444 HENRY drummond
'3, Park Circus, Glasgow, April 3, 1892.
' My dear Mr. Sankey, — Would that all, calling
themselves by the sacred name of Christian, had
your charity ; knew the meaning, as you and Mr.
Moody do, of " judge not," and afforded a man at
least a frank trial before convicting him.
' These are my words, and there has never been an
hour when the thoughts which they represent were
not among my deepest convictions. Nor, so far
as I know, have I ever given any one ground to
believe otherwise, nor is there any one of my
writings where these same ideas will not be found
either expressed or understood.
' If you ask me why I do not write whole books on
these themes, I reply that I believe one's only
excuse for writing a book is that he has something
to say that is not beiiig said.
' These things are being said. Hundreds of books
and millions of tracts are saying them afresh every
month and year. I therefore feel no call to enter
literature on that ground. My message lies among
the forgotten truths, the false emphasis, and the
wrong accent. To every man his work.
' Let me thank you most heartily for your kindness
in writing. The way to spoil souls, to make them
hard and bitter and revengeful, is to treat them
as many treat me. If I have escaped this terrible
fate, it is because there are others like yourself
who "think no evil."
' But tell your friends that they know not what they
do, or what solemn interest they imperil when
they judge. — Yours very sincerely,
' Henry Drummond.'

i8gi 445
The session of 1890-91 was spent in his college
work, his weekly visits, after the New Year, to the
Edinburgh students, and a multitude of other duties.
In April came a call to the sick-bed of his friend
Robert Barbour, who had been carried, on a vain quest
for health, to the Riviera. In the beginning of May,
Barbour was taken to Aix-les-Bains, from which Drum
mond writes : — 'Hotel Splendide, Aix-les-Bains, May 6, 1891.
'¦ I have had a very anxious and doleful time and
much heavy nursing, as Barbour all last week
would allow no one near but his wife and myselt
No one can predict when the curtain may fall, but
I feel he has already left us. This day last year
I was standing by Ewing as the sand ran low in
the glass.'
This vigil lasted for three weeks, Barbour not caring
to have Drummond out of sight, and loving to hold
him by the hand. He read, cheered, and tended the
dying man, and wrote to the friends daily letters full
of those details which we all love to hear about our
dear ones when they hover between life and death and
we are far away. Barbour died on May 27.
To Lord Aberdeen
'June 18, 1891.
' Your letter much more than pleased — it touched
me. It is much, in this busy life, through what
ever silences and separations, always to be able
to count on the true beat of a heart. Friendship
can yield but litrie more, and nothing more that
is greater.
' So, many real thanks.

446 HENRY DRUMMOND
' It was hard to watch Barbour die. The impression
of his life is cropping up from many sides just now,
and it is very wonderful. His peculiar character
istic was saintliness, an element in life which one
is apt to think either superfluous or morbid, but
which is after all a vital ingredient When one
thinks of it, it is the unworldly people who have
really helped us most.'
Drummond spent July and August in Sutherland
shire, fishing at Loch Stack, and driving about the
country. All September he worked steadily at home,
was at Haddo House, fishing and holding services for
part of October, and in the end of the month, after
the publication of his new booklet. The Programme
of Christianity, he began the winter session.
Perhaps this is the most convenient point at which
to attempt to express Drummond's feelings towards
the city of his winter residence, and to describe the
place he took in her life. From 1885 he lived in
No. 3, Park Circus, above the West End Park, on the
summit of one of the range of low hills that run
parallel to the Clyde, and is covered by the north side
of Glasgow. It is a large house, and he could not use
the whole of it, but he worked best when there was
space about him, and the house afforded a noble study,
with a long view northwards across some suburbs to
the Campsie hills. The house was furnished, as he
himself put it, ' with dead hobbies,' one of which, how
ever, was not dead, for till the end he added to his
store of beautiful cabinets, and of pictures of which
accuracy obliges one to say that they were of more or
less ambiguous value. The hall had a few spoils of
travel — javelins, arrows, and curious candlesticks.
The large dining-room contained a carved sideboard.

1885-18 g4 447
which friends averred, but which he would never allow,
had been part of an altar ; on the walls were pictures
of the glories of the Yellowstone Valley, and some
European landscapes, one by Thomson of Dudding-
ston. The study contained a large hbrary, scientific,
theological, and literary, a table of new books, and the
aforesaid cabinets, an etching of Millet's Angelus, and
several portraits of friends. At the writing-table
against one of the windows Drummond wrote only
letters. All his other work was done in a chair with
his back to the light, and a large blotter on his knee.
His working day began after a half-past eight o'clock
breakfast. He read or wrote till his lecture at twelve,
lunched at one, and generally went out to walk or to
business till half -past four or five. After tea he settled
down, if he was permitted, to a long spell of work till
ten, when he supped, and so to bed usually by mid
night. But his evenings were often broken by visitors.
Sometimes there would be a constant stream of these,
most of them with errands that required his close
attention. For a few years after 1886, the interests
that poured into his study were largely political ; men
came to consult him about Liberal prospects in the
neighbouring constituencies. The philanthropic socie
ties of Glasgow are innumerable ; equally so are the
associations in need of lectures and addresses ; and
gradually, as the years went on, he became personally
engaged in movements like the University Settlement,
the Boys' Brigade, and the Pleasant Sunday After
noons at the Canal Boatmen's Institute. On behalf
of these he was constantly receiving visitors. But in
addition there drifted upon him from the vast popula
tion, in which he occupied so conspicuous a position,
all sorts of individuals, representing only themselves :
students with mental difficulties, unacknowledged

448 HENRY DRUMMOND
poets, artisans with a gift for writing, a host of ' cranks,'
and more than one actual madman. Yet even their
visits, frequent and prolonged as they could be, were
exceeded by the letters which came in showers, chiefly
after his lectures in America and Australia. Those
who blamed him for not answering all his letters ought
to have seen his daily post Much of his correspond
ence, of course, deserved no answer; but, with his
other work, it was impossible for him to overtake even
that portion which had a real claim on his attention.
He had no staff of clerks, like a business man, nor a
secretary. His interest in more than one ' settlement ' brought
him the acquaintance of a number of artisans ; and his
knowledge of their life was increased by his habit,
already described, of contracting for the printing and
binding of his books himself. It must have been out
of this that the following call came, soon after his
return to town in the autumn of 1891 : —
To Lady Aberdeen
'3, Park Circus, Glasgow, Nov. 2;.
' ... I am off to settle a strike, positively sole
arbiter. Printers. How A. would envy me —
and how I wish he had to do it ! '
The winter passed in the usual change of labours
between his class and other interests in Glasgow, and
his meetings with students on Sunday evenings in
Edinburgh. The latter were continued for a few
Sundays during the summer session of 1892, and it
was at this time that an Edinburgh journal raised that
cry against the meetings which has been referred to
in a previous chapter.

i8gi-i8g2 449
The summer of 1892 brought another General
Election, which carried Mr. Gladstone into power
with a small majority. Drummond took a smaller
part in this Election than in the previous one. The
following are the only notes I can find with regard
to it: — 'June 12.
' I had a call from John Burns and Cunninghame
Graham, mourning over their lost cause. The
latter will lose his seat certain. The labour
people are a serious threat this time.'
' July 1 1 .
'We [Captain Sinclair and H. D.] go to speak at
Helensburgh to-night. We sleep there, and go
all over the county [Dumbarton] from dawn to
dark to-morrow visiting the polling-booths.'
During September he took a fishing at Banchory-
Ternan, on the Dee. Then, and for the rest of the
autumn, he was hard at work on the Ascent of Man.
In November I joined the Glasgow College, and
lived for the first month of the session with Drum
mond. It was then I became aware of the big corre
spondence and large number of daily visits to which
he was subject, and learned to admire his constant
patience, and the leisure he made for those who had
the least claim upon him, although at the time he was
preparing his American lectures. A number of the
letters he used to get were very amusing. Some
admirers wrote him regularly, I think every day, but
at least every day or two. Other letters brought the
penalties of his American fame. Unscrupulous per
sons in the United States had put his name on the
title-page of pamphlets and of poems with which he

450 HENRY DRUMMOND
had nothing to do. One day there came a letter in a
feminine hand —
' Dear Sir, — I am a widow with one boy of twelve
years of age. He promises well, and, I think, could
be secured for the Kingdom if you would send him an
autograph copy of your sweet hymn, " Are they safe
with Him?"'
One day he said : ' You are a decent fellow. You
never ask a man " whom he sits under," or " whether
he has been at church to-day?"' Now, it has been
commonly supposed that he hung loose to church life,
and very seldom of a Sunday worshipped with his
fellow-Christians ; and this idea has been strengthened
by a mistaken reading of his booklet The City With
out a Church, which was published that autumn in
1892. I can only say that during all the winters I
worked by his side in Glasgow I never knew him to
miss attending church on Sunday ; and a more hearty
and reverent worshipper it would be hard to find.^
During the week he very seldom went to any dinner
party, 'At Home,' or evening amusement He had
not the time for them, or he had a friend staying with
him. But he made an exception for the social meet
ings of students. There his gaiety was always infec
tious, and he joined in every chorus. On Saturday
afternoons he was always found watching football —
either one of the great League matches, or a match
between two companies of the Boys' Brigade.
By the end of the session of 1892-93 he had written
his lectures on the Ascent of Man, and on March 22nd
sailed on the Teutonic for America.
Drummond went to America to give at Boston
1 Compare what he says about church-going in his Addresses to Students, Nos.
I. and VI., given in the Appendix to this volume.

i8g2-i8g3 451
the Lowell Institute Lectures, founded by Mr. John
Lowell, Jun., in 1839, and delivered from year to year
by a series of famous scholars, artists, and literary and
scientific authorities. But before he started he re
ceived, even more numerously than on his visit in
1887, invitations from other institutes and societies,
and from nearly all the leading universities of the
States. The Chicago Exhibition was about to open.
Lord and Lady Aberdeen were in Canada, and his
friend, Mr. W. E. Dodge of New York, had asked
him to go on a fishing expedition up one of the
Canadian rivers. He left England, therefore, to spend
all the summer and autumn vacation in America.
Even if the material existed for doing so, it would be
impossible, for reasons of space, to follow his work
and his wanderings in detail. There is room only for
a few salient points.
In Boston, one of the most intellectual cities in the
world, the Lowell Institute Lectures of 1893 aroused
the most vivid interest.^ They were practically his
volume on the Ascent of Man. ' For every one who
received a ticket of admission to them, there were ten
turned away.' 'Standing room is at a premium, and
scores are turned away every evening.' On Wednes
day and Saturday afternoons, therefore, Drummond
repeated the lecture of the previous evening. But, the
strain of this notwithstanding, he remembered other
interests which were dear to him, and gave a number of
addresses upon the Boys' Brigade, and to the students
of Harvard University. One of the latter in Apple-
ton Chapel, by which he said he desired to reach those
who were not Christians, concluded with the charac
teristic words : ' Above all things, do not touch Chris-
1 For information as to this, I am indebted to Mr. Howard A. Bridgman, one
of the editors of the Boston Congregationalist,

452 HENRY DRUMMOND
tianity unless you are willing to seek the kingdom of
heaven first. I promise you a miserable existence if
you seek it second.'
In May he spoke to the students of Amherst Uni
versity^ upon Temptation, and delivered addresses in
other places. In the end of the month he went to
Chicago, to see the ' World's Columbian Exposition,'
and in particular the Irish village, which formed part
of it, and the existence of which was mainly due to
Lady Aberdeen. There he gave lectures on Evolu
tion, and addresses in connection with the Boys'
Brigade at Minneapolis and Duluth. In the former
of these towns he had a curious adventure. At the
close of his lecture he was denounced by a well-known
citizen as ' a fraud and imitator of the real Professor
Drummond, whom the speaker had heard elsewhere,
and knew.' In July he repeated his Boston lectures
at Chautauqua, and went on to a Conference, under
Mr. Moody, at Northfield. Here he delivered the
three addresses — ' A Life for a Life,' ' Lessons from
the Angelus} and ' The Ideal Man,' * — and it was here
that he encountered the inevitable attack upon his
teaching. Drummond told me that the reporter of
one of the leading English religious papers said to
him, that he had orders not to report a word of what
Drummond said ; and the story goes that a deputation
of the usual adherents of the Northfield Conference
waited on Mr. Moody and urged him not to allow
Drummond to speak. Mr. Moody asked a day to
think over the matter ; and when the deputation re
turned, informed them that he had ' laid it before the
Lord, and the Lord had shown him that Drummond
1 It was Amherst which gave him the only degree he possessed, LL.D.
^ Published with an introduction from Mr. Moody by the Fleming H. Revell
Co., New Yorli;, Chicago, and Toronto, 1897.

^8g3 453
was a better man than himself ; so he was to go on ! '
This, if true, was like the man who penned the tribute
to Drummond, given in the first chapter of this vol
ume, and who once said to the writer, ' There's noth
ing I ever read of Henry Drummond's, or heard him
say, that I didn't agree with.' What Drummond him
self felt about his Northfield visit appears in the follow
ing lines, written some days afterwards : —
' At Northfield I felt a good deal out of it, and many
fell upon and rent me. Before the close of the
Conference, I struck an orthodox vein and re
trieved myself a little. But it was not a happy
time.'
In the end of July he went on holiday into Canada.
To Lord Aberdeen
' Restigouche Salmon Club, Metapedia, Quebec,
July 27, 1893.
' My DEAR A., — You will see by the above heading
that I am at present not only one of your loyal
subjects, but that in spite of the contretemps with
the Cascapedia, I am permitted the indulgence of
my besetting sin. This river is perhaps the next
best to the Cascapedia, and as I know several of
the members of the Club, my deplorable instincts
are more than satisfied. . . .
' One goes up the river in a house-boat (primitive)
with a fleet of Indians and canoes for the actual
fishing, and sleeps either in the boat or in the
clubhouses at the various pools. Salmon abound,
and I have had my share, though the river has
been very low, and barely fishable these last few
days. A man sitting opposite me as I write.

454 HENRY DRUMMOND
along with a friend, captured ninety-two salmon
in five days — a phenomenal score, however, even
for Canada — at the beginning of the season.
Pardon all this fish-talk. Your thoughts must be
in better and graver directions at present'
To Lady Aberdeen
From the same address, July 31.
' Here is the last of this poor old Monkey^ — sent
in shame and confusion of face for writing such
stuff, and especially for not writing it months
ago. How ever did you get me to make such a
fool of myself I can't imagine. But you are an
angelic editor not to worry your contributors for
return-of-post copy, and how you have let me off
the scolding I deserve I can't fathom. Cannot I
make atonement by doing something else to help
on anything after you are gone from us ? I shall
really try, if you will commit some untied knot
end to me.
' At the moment, fishing being over, I am trying to
write a few papers for Chicago and elsewhere.
But the beauty of this river, absolute solitude,
and an extra good box of cigars are somewhat
against work. All the fishermen have gone home,
and I am camped in a snug farm a few miles from
the clubhouse.
' A humming-bird passed the verandah a moment
ago.
' A week hence, if I succeed in doing any work, I
shall pay a visit to Bar Harbour.'
'^ The end of his story, The Monkey that wouldn't Kill, published first in Wee
Willie Winkie, and separately, in 1898, by Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton.

i8g3 455
In September he stayed with their Excellencies the
Governor-General of Canada and Lady Aberdeen at
the Citadel, Quebec ; and it was here, on the great
rock above the St. Lawrence, one Sunday afternoon,
that he gave his beautiful address from the text,
' There is a River.'
In the first week of October he was back in Chicago
for the opening of the University. It was the begin
ning of the second year of that wonderful institution —
wonderful in its great and sudden endowments ; won
derful in the broad and complex organisation which
President Harper and his colleagues had already
achieved ; and wonderful in the way in which the
classes go on all the year round. Drummond often
said how large and open he found the life to be there,
and how strongly it roused the best that was in him.
On the first Sunday of October he gave his religious
address on Millet's Angelus and two days later the
Convocation Lecture on ' Some Higher Aspects of
Evolution.' Outside the University was the Great
Exposition, about whose beauty and vastness he could
hardly cease talking when he came home. Drummond
addressed the Congress of the Evangelical Alliance
under the presidency of his friend Mr. W. E. Dodge.
On his way home, in New York, he addressed another
meeting for the Boys' Brigade.
Drummond's American visit was accompanied and
followed by the usual showers of letters, which fell
wherever he spoke for any length of time. They re
call the results of his earlier missions. It is astonish
ing how his words touched the hearts of men and
women who, brought up to religion, had suddenly
found it mere routine, and had slipped away from
faith, and often from all hope. Their grateful letters
justify the jealousy with which, at the risk of offending

456 HENRY DRUMMOND
the orthodox, he adapted his teaching to such cases.
He knew that these existed in crowds, unsought, un-
cared for; and in numbers they responded to his
efforts to reach them. ' All the old hopelessness is
gone,' says one ; ' you sent it away.' — ' Your words
last night gave me back again the faith I had lost, and
.this morning I woke for the first time for long a happy
and a hopeful man.' And so on. Of course, with
these came the customary appeals from the simple and
from the twisted ; the young man who wrote, ' I like
your style of speaking so much, I venture to ask you
how you acquired it,' and the ' recipient of marvellous
revelations,' ' Heaven's vice-gerent on earth ' (as he
styled himself), who ' has been commanded to publish
the Gospel that the Coming Man is a Woman ! ' 'I
think,' said Drummond once, ' they do breed more
cranks in America than we do here ; yet we run them
hard.' On Drummond himself the energy and hopefulness
of the people — and all the more that upon this visit
he had seen it concentrated in the colossal exposition
at Chicago — had produced the effect which never
failed him on his journeys to America. From the
States he always came back, he said, as from ' a bath
of life ' ; and America and the Americans remained to
the end one of his great enthusiasms.
' I do think they are the most wonderful people un
der the sun. A nation in its youth is a stirring
spectacle.'
Physically, however, this visit to America tried him
greatly, notwithstanding the short rest he got while
fishing, and he came home looking much older. The
preparation of the Lowell Lectures had been a strain ;

i8g3-i8g4 457
he said that after he saw his audience at the first of
them he had practically to rewrite the rest.'^
The winter session of 1893-94 was passed in work
harder than usual. He was preparing his Boston dis
courses for the press. He gave a number of lectures
outside the College, and on February 5 th began his
last series of addresses to the Edinburgh students.
About this time he was offered the Principalship of
M'Gill University, Montreal, and he did not refuse it
till after long consideration. The summer was spent
in fishing-holidays, hardly enjoyed under the first pains
of his last illness, in addressing various clubs, and in
writing some articles, among them two for M'Clure's
Magazine, on Mr. Moody. One of his visits in June
was to a boys' club in Edinburgh. He asked them to
put questions to him, and he was so struck and amused
by those put, that he kept a list of them. Here they
are: (i) How can we find happiness? (2) What is
the bottomless pit ? (3) What is the camel through a
needle's eye ? (4) What do you think of gambling ?
(5) What do you think of strikes ? (6) Is it offensive
to God to smoke a pipe ? (7) Who is God ? (8) Why
do monkeys not become human ? (9) What is the use
of going to church ?
In May the Ascent of Man was published.
1 From a note by Mr. James Drummond.

CHAPTER XVII
THE ASCENT OF MAN
The Lowell Lecturer for 1893 did not intend to
publish his lectures in a volume for some years. He
had secured an American copyright,^ and Messrs. J.
Pott and Co. of New York were announced in the liter
ary journals as the American publishers. But no date
was fixed for the publication, and Drummond looked
forward to a long revision of his material. Before he
left America, however, he heard that a Philadelphian
publisher was about to issue a volume entitled ' The
Evolution of Man, being the Lowell Lectures delivered
at Boston, Massachusetts, April, 1893, by Professor
Henry Drummond,' and claiming to be made up from a
contemporary report of the lectures recently delivered
by Professor Drummond in the Boston Institute,
which ' reports,' the introduction further stated, ' have
been carefully collated and presented to the reader
with the certainty that they will prove of value.' The
reports were said to be taken from the British Weekly
of April and May, 1893, in which the first lecture had
appeared almost in full, but the rest in gradually dwin
dling summaries, up to the eighth, when they ceased.
They were, therefore, partial reports, and besides, in
^ To do this all that is necessary is to print or typewrite a title-page with name,
date, and ' copyrighted by So-and-So ' printed on the back, and enclose a regis
tration fee of a dollar. It is not even necessary that the book be written. ' Twelve
copies must be exposed for sale,' but at what time is not explicitly stated. An
account of the whole case appeared in The Bookman for July, 1894, and I have
verified the facts given there from the copy of the original papers, which Drum
mond had preserved. 458

Mr. 42] THE ASCENT OE MAN 459
the volume they were modified ; ' edited ' was the term
used. Drummond wrote to the enterprising publisher, who
answered that, though not legally bound to do so, he
would suppress the edition if all his expenses were
paid. As the edition consisted of some ten thousand
copies already printed, Drummond refused, and the
case was carried into Court — the Circuit Court of the
United States for the eastern district of Pennsylvania,
to the judges of which it was presented by the plain
tiff's agents 'in equity.' In pronouncing judgment,
Judge Dallas remarked that
' The subject of copyright is not directly involved in the
case. The complainant does not base his claim to relief upon
the statute but upon his right, quite distinct from any con
ferred by copyright, to protection against having any literary
matter published as his work which is not actually his crea
tion, and, incidentally, to prevent fraud upon purchasers. . . .
The defendant's book is founded on the matter which has
appeared in the British Weekly ; and if that matter had been
literally copied, and so as not to misrepresent its character
and extent, the plaintiff would be without remedy; but the
fatal weakness in the defendant's position is that, under colour
of editing the author's work, he has represented a part of it
as the whole, and even as to the portion published has mate
rially departed from the reports which he set up in justifica
tion. ... A most important circumstance in this connection
is that the defendant, while precisely adopting his title from
the headlines of the reports, has so altered their text as to
make it appear, contrary to the whole tenor of the reports
themselves, that what his book contains is the precise lan
guage of the author of the lectures, although, as has been
said, it contains only some of the lectures, not all of them,
and presents none of them fully or correctly. The complain
ant's right has been fully made out, and the case shown is
manifestly one which caUs for the interposition of the Court
at this stage.'

460 HENRY DRUMMOND [1894
Decree was accordingly given,^ temporarily restrain
ing the precipitous publisher from selling his edition.
The injunction was afterwards made permanent ; the
edition, ten thousand copies, with the stereotype plates,
was ordered to be destroyed, and Drummond got his
costs. It is said to have been ' the first case in which
a favourable judgment was given to an alien in such a
matter.' But Drummond was obliged to hasten his own pub
lication of the lectures, and after being able, to his
chagrin, to spend only the leisure of one busy winter
in revising them, he sent them to press in the spring
of 1894, and they were published in May of that year.
The Ascent of Man was looked for with the interest
and the curiosity which await the works only of the
most popular writers in literature or science. But
immediate and universal as was the recognition which
it received, its author could not have expected so
unanimous a chorus of praise as had greeted the
appearance of his Natural Law. The men who had
at first been carried away by the latter remembered,
and were on their guard. The author was not now a
new writer ; he had some enemies and many jealous
critics in the camps both of religion and of science.
Moreover, the reports of his lectures had already ex
cited the suspicion of some and the full-armed hostility
of others. On the whole, the criticism of the reviewers
when it came was worthy and without ulterior mo
tives. One daily paper, indeed, sought persistently to
stir up ill-blood in the author's church by its insinua
tions upon his adhesion to the doctrines of Evolution ;
one scientific critic wrote in a bad temper that be
trayed him into scientific error more grave than any
with which he charged the book; and Mrs. Lynn
1 This judgment was given at the October Sessions, 1893.

i^T. 42] THE ASCENT OF MAN 461
Linton^ made a furious onslaught on what she al
leged to be Drummond's ' pseudo-science ' and ' pla
giarisms,' overlooking, as her critics pointed out, his
acknowledgments of indebtedness to Herbert Spencer
and other writers on the very points with reference to
which she made her serious charges.^ But these were
almost the only exceptions in the adverse criticism
which the book encountered. The fairness of his
reviewers Drummond himself heartily acknowledged.
The book, as the critics confessed, had all the ex
ternal qualities of his previous works — the lucid
style, the power and charm of illustration, and the
many happy phrases. Nor had it any less of the
youthful courage and enthusiasm which made Natural
Law so famous. It disarmed, too, a large number of
1 In the Fortnightly for September, 1894.
^ A very trenchant reply to the good lady, whose zeal on this occasion outran
her knowledge, will be found in an author who has no sympathy with Drum
mond's religion, but, as an Agnostic, attacks this strenuously — Mr. George
Shoorbridge Carr, M.A., in Social Evolution and the Evolution of Socialism .•
A Critical Essay. London : W. Stewart and Co., 1895. I' i^ ^" ^^1^ ^°<i candid
essay, but very much mistaken in its conception of what Christianity is. Mr. Carr
says of Mrs. Lynn Linton's sentence, that Drummond ' brings his subject, which
only the educated can rightly understand, down to the level of the ignorant,' that
it ought to run : ' He brings his subject, which only the specially educated can
rightly understand, down to the level of ordinary minds,' and adds : ' This is true,
and it is to his everlasting praise that he does it.' As to her charge of ' pseudo-
science,' he points out that she has given no instance, and he claims that in the
main the science is correct; as to her statement that ' the philosophy is inadequate
and shallow,' he says that her ' attempt to prove it by the single instance adduced
of what she is pleased to call " clap-trap " about the fission in the cell, is unfortu
nate, for it involves her chosen authority, Herbert Spencer, in the same accusa
tion.' And he continues : ' Professor Drummond's vocation and object are quite
different from those of Herbert Spencer. No comparison need be instituted. If
Mrs. Linton prefers the philosophic diction of the latter, that fact does not abstract
one iota from the value of the Professor's eloquent, ingenious, and masterly argu
mentation. Thus in no instance does Mrs. Linton make good her sweeping
assertions, and she may be hoisted with her own petard. It is this wholesale,
indiscriminating, exaggerated criticism, so easy in the writing, but not pleasant in
the reading, that 'lets slip truth,' that is 'inadequate and shallow,' that is 'false,
strained, and inconclusive.' These furious onslaughts ... are mischievous, for
they tend to make a byword of criticism and a laughing-stock of the reviewer '
(pp. 46f.).

462 HENRY DRUMMOND [1894
the most severe critics of Natural Law, and won their
praise by a line of argument and by conclusions, set
in an opposite direction from those which had pro
voked their condemnation of the earlier volume. In
Natural Law Drummond had attempted to carry
physical processes into the region of the moral and
the spiritual ; in the Asceiit of Man he essayed the
converse task, and succeeded in showing the ethical
at work in regions of life generally supposed to be
given over to purely physical laws — or at least he
succeeded in exhibiting among the lower stages of
the evolution of life bases and opportunities suitable
for the action of moral feelings and for the formation
of moral habits. In the opinion of the same critics,
there was another improvement in his philosophic
attitude which was akin to the one just described.
Natural Law had drawn a very hard and fast line
through the universe ; it had divided human experi
ence on either side of the new. birth into two kinds
of existence, the lower of which was emphasised as
without capacity for, or prophecy of, the higher.
Drummond had favoured by his argument an oppo
sition between all man's natural qualities and powers
on the one side, and religion on the other; in the
feelings and the reason of the natural man he had
said there was nothing of grace nor the power of the
Spirit He had, in fact, excommunicated Nature, and,
without intending it, had given his support to a dual
ism prevalent not only in some of the churches, but
in certain of the philosophic schools, of our day, a
dualism which emphasises the opposition between
human reason and (according to the temper of the
writer) either revelation, or grace, or religious author
ity. Between 1883 and 1893 Drummond had seen
this dualism develop, and had recognised its falseness

^T. 42] THE ASCENT OF MAN 463
with a start which swung him free of his own entangle
ments in some of its premises. How free may be
seen from the following statements in the Ascent of
Man : —
' Nothing can ever be gained by setting one-half of
Nature against the other, or the rational against
the ultra-rational. To affirm that Altruism is a
peculiar product of religion is to excommunicate
nature from the moral order, and religion from
the rational order.' ^
And again —
' If Nature is the Garment of God, it is woven with
out seam throughout ; if a revelation of God, it is
the same yesterday, to-day, and forever; if the
expression of His Will, there is in it no variable
ness nor shadow of turning. Those who see
great gulfs fixed — and perhaps we have all
begun by seeing them — end by seeing them
filled up. Were these gulfs essential to any
theory of the universe or of man, even the estab
lishment of the unity of Nature were a dear price
to pay for obliterating them. But the apparent
loss is only gain, and the seeming gain were in
finite loss. For to break up Nature is to break
up Reason, and with it God and Man.'
There could not be a more complete recantation of
the principal philosophic heresy of Natural Law, and
for such a recantation the Ascent of Man received a
warm welcome from the most severe of the philosophic
critics of its predecessor. Nor was it in this respect
any less welcome to the theologian. For the book
vindicated Nature, as also the sphere of the God of
1 Ascent of Man, p. 72.

464 HENRY DRUMMOND [1894
Love, and sought to prove the presence of the char
acteristic forces of Christianity — sympathy and self-
sacrifice — upon the lower stages of the evolution of
man. It might almost be said that Drummond ex
pressed, in the language and with the information of
his own time, the vision which the ancient seer saw
of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
But having passed these tests, the Ascent of Man
had next to undergo the examination of scientific au
thorities as to the methods by which its author sought
to prove his great principles. The book covers the
evolution of man both as an animal, a rational being,
and a member of society. It draws its proofs and
illustrations from biology, the sciences of language
and of the origin of mind, as well as from that new
and interesting department of modern research which
deals with sex and the beginnings of the human
family. In all these departments Drummond made
use of the thoughts of many thinkers. His book
would never have been written without inspiration
derived (not to speak of the great authorities of our
time in physical science) from the investigations and
arguments of Herbert Spencer, Fiske, Westermarck,
and others, and from the brilliant suggestions of Mar-
tineau. Drummond has spoken of his main thesis,
the influence upon the evolution of man of the strug
gle for the life of others, as ' the missing factor in
current theories,' and as if it were a new discovery.
But no one who reads his frequent references to other
thinkers can honestly believe that he intended to take
the glory of this discovery to himself ; and he has cer
tainly expounded and emphasised the appearances of
Altruism, or the provocations to Altruism, which are
present in the earlier stages of evolution, as these had
never been illustrated, or impressed upon the public

^T. 42] THE ASCENT OF MAN 465
mind by any previous writer.^ Mr. Carr makes one
criticism, which I have not found elsewhere. It is
with reference to the distinction which Drummond
draws between ' The Struggle for Life ' and ' The
Struggle for the Life of Others,' and the charge
which Drummond makes against Darwin, of omit
ting all notice of the latter while expounding the
former. Mr. Carr points out that when Darwin spoke
of the ' struggle for life,' and consequent ' survival of
the fittest,' he had in view the struggle of the species.
The ' struggle for life,' therefore, included two aspects
— the struggle for self and the struggle for others ; in
the latter category the struggle for the preservation of
offspring being absolutely necessary for the continu
ance of the species. . . . Professor Drummond at
taches to the phrase the false, restricted meaning of
the struggle of the individual for its own life, and then
scores his point by opposing to this, in strong antith
esis, and with much rhetoric, the ' Struggle for the
Life of Others.' ^
By some critics the Ascent of Man was charged
with containing a number of errors in the domain of
physical science. On such a point the present writer
is incapable of offering an opinion, but here are the
criticisms of two authorities on the subject — Professor
M'Kendrick, of the Chair of Physiology in the Uni
versity of Glasgow, and Professor Alexander Macalister,
of the Chair of Anatomy in the University of Cam
bridge.^ Professor M'Kendrick calls the first chapter an excellent
account of the Ascent of the Body, but takes exception to the
1 Compare Mr. Carr's remarks quoted above, p. 461, n. 2.
^ Social Evolution, pp. 36, 37.
3 The latter reviewed the Ascent of Man in The Bookman for June, 1S94;
the former reviewed it in the Critical Review for October of the same year.

466 HENRY DRUMMOND [1894
statement on p. 79 that the ova of different animals are
practically identical. . . . ' Certainly the highest microscopic
powers can observe no marked distinction, although recently
¦progress has been made in this direction, and we may be
assured that physical differences exist' Of the same chapter
Professor Macalister says that ' once or twice his love for
analogy betrays [the author] into trivial misconceptions, as
on p. 86, and as a lecturer he only deals with what may be
regarded as the sensational points of his subject.' Both
authorities think he has been hardly just to the place of the
ape in the ancestry of man. In Chapter II. Dr. M'Kendrick
thinks it ' dangerous to reason as to habits supposed to have
been derived from ancestors,' e.g. to infer that the clutching
power of a new-born child is derived from the arboreal habits
of animal progenitors. Both Professors reckon the state
ments in Chapter III. on 'The Arrest of the Body' to be in
need of qualification. ^ Dr. M'Kendrick says, ' How unthink
able is the proposition that "the slumbering animal brain
broke into intelligence " : Professor Drummond cuts this knot
with a hatchet ' ; and finds otherwise on this point ' some con
fusion of language.' In Chapter IV., on 'The Origin of
Mind,' Dr. M'Kendrick thinks that the account of Mr. Wal
lace's opinion, in opposition to Mr. Darwin's, is hardly accu
rate ; and that the illustration, which Drummond gives from
the sensitive plant, 'is not cogent, as few naturalists would
admit the mimosa possesses sensation. Mere movement is no
proof of the psychological condition termed a sensation.'
Nor does this critic think the evidence adduced from the
writings of George J. Romanes trustworthy "regarding the
correspondence as to order in the evolution of the emotions
in the animal series and in the development of the same
emotions in a child, because of the great difficulty in the
interpretation of the motor phenomena accompanying these
emotions. . . . Unintentionally, we interpret the movements
by reading our own thoughts or emotional states into the
creatures we happen to be watching. Mr. Romanes was an
excellent observer, but his work in the direction indicated
' Dr. Macalister says ' it would be enough for his purpose to show that physical
owment could not progress at the same pace as psychical growth.'

eniJ

^T. 42] THE ASCENT OF MAN 467
was tentative, and it is hazardous to treat these observations
as if they were on a par with the facts of comparative anat
omy.^ With one exception, to be presently noticed, these
are all the defects which those two great authorities
find in the natural science of the volume. And it
cannot be denied that they give some grounds for the
charges of hasty inference and exaggeration of the
emphasis on certain points, which seem favourable to
the author's main thesis. Such charges were* chiefly
fastened by many critics upon that part of the chapter
on ' The Struggle for the Life of Others ' which dis
covers the appearance of altruism in the self-multiplying
cell. On this Dr. Macalister says : ' The multiplying
cell may be the potential, but can scarcely be cafled
the actual exponent [of the ethical element in life], for
in its origination cell division is really selfish, and
solely for self-interest, as far as this language of moral
import can be applied to a biological process. . . .
The physiological mechanism of cell reproduction
has its ultimate base in the necessity for small size
with relatively large surface, or else the cell cannot be
properly fed. If the division be regarded as an act of
self-sacrifice, it is one which is submitted to for a
purely selfish end.' Similarly Dr. M'Kendrick, who
adds, ' One cannot help feeling that in not a few of
the illustrations Professor Drummond reads into the
phenomena of nature some of his own mental moods.'
In his account of evolution Professor Drummond,
Dr. M'Kendrick hints, has emphasised disproportion
ately the favourable features, and this was also the
1 Dr. M'Kendrick does not think that the illustration drawn, in the last chapter,
from the Sigillaria and the Stigmaria is quite apt. Their relation is not a true
analogy. He thinks that Professor Drummond lays too great an emphasis on
environment, and is guilty of some confusion of thought in endeavouring to blend
the physical with the spiritual.

468 HENRY DRUMMOND [1894
opinion of a critic who approached the book from the
standpoint of philosophy. Professor Iverach, in a
review which called forth from Drummond a warm
acknowledgment of its justice,^ pointed out that the
argument of the book avoided such difficult questions
as are raised ' by the stumbling and the failures of
evolution, and the persistency of lower forms of life
alongside the higher.' In answer to this, it might be
urged that Drummond had set himself to emphasise
aspects of evolution, which, though mentioned by
others, had not had full justice done them; and it
might be added that the book is the work of a poetic
translator of the science of his time rather than of an
original scientific thinker.^ Still, if this were granted,
others might justly urge that in imputing ethical
character to some of the lower processes of life,
Drummond sinned also in art, by overdoing his case,
and rendering it open to ridicule.
It would not be fair to give these adverse criticisms
upon points in the Ascent of Man without adding
from the two distinguished critics who have been
quoted their appreciations of the volume as a whole.
Professor Macalister says of it : —
' The problems which Professor Drummond has dealt with
are perplexing and complex, and there will probably be much
difference of opinion as to the degree of success with which
he has applied the biological method to their solution ; but
the candid reader cannot lay down the book without feeling
that it is an honest and manly attempt to grapple in a rev-
1 The review appeared in the British Weekly ia-c May 24, 1894. On May
25th Drummond wrote to his critic : ' I wish I had had your own volume sooner,
for it would have made me wiser. It has already helped me, and it will do much
more in the future. Your criticisms are just. I did not like the " self-sacrifice "
passage myself, but let it pass, thinking the qualifications strewn through the book
ad nauseam might save it. But it is not good.'
2 ' Not so much science as the poetry of science.' — Mr. Benjamin Kidd, in his
appreciative review of the volume in the Expositor for June, 1894.

^T. 42] THE ASCENT OF MAN 469
erential spirit with these difficulties, and that it constitutes a
seasonable contribution to the literature of the fundamental
department of sociology.'
And Professor M'Kendrick says: —
'Towards the close. Professor Drummond indicates that
the appearance of Christianity is a part of the evolutionary
process. " What is Evolution ? A method of creation.
What is its object .!• To make more perfect living beings.
What is Christianity ? A method of creation. What is its
object.' To make more perfect living beings. Through
what does Evolution work 1 Through Love. Through what
does Christianity work.? Through Love. Evolution and
Christianity have the same Author, the same end, the same
spirit." This is the grand conclusion. Still one is inclined
to ask. Does Evolution really work through Love .' We
wish it were proven to be the case, but facts seem to be
against it.
' We have not entered on the consideration of the Introduc
tion, because we thought it better to let the lectures speak
for themselves. The Introduction is an excellent account of
the position of the author towards the Evolution view, and it
emphasises the contribution that the author has added to the
discussion, namely, the recognition of the great principle of
the struggle for others as a factor in Evolution. There can
be no question that this is a substantial contribution to the
philosophy of the subject, and it has never been put forward
with such force and fulness as by Professor Drummond.
Apart from the general literary excellence of the book, this
is the part that will live in literature, and this is the portion
that will awaken thought in many minds, and lead them to
look again at Nature. At present we feel bound to say we
are not convinced, although, as we have hinted, nothing
would be more delightful than to be able to look at the
struggle going on in Nature through Professor Drummond's
spectacles. ' As a contribution to the discussion of the great theme of
Man's relation to the evolutionary process, the book must be
regarded as tentative. The time has not yet come for any-

470 HENRY DRUMMOND [1894
thing like a final statement. The gaps that science has yet
to fill up are far too great to allow us to frame a consistent
scheme, as has been attempted in this book. The adoption
of such a scheme will not ultimately weaken faith, although it
will necessitate change of view. We doubt if Professor Drum
mond himself fully realises the tremendous consequences that
must flow from a complete acceptance of the theory of Evolu
tion as applied to man (body, mind, soul, religion, sin, death,
the future) as we are at present advised. A thorough-going
evolutionary view demands a new theology, and such funda
mental questions as the origin of sin, human responsibility,
the taking of our nature by the Son of God (as implied in the
doctrine of the Trinity), the possibility of miracle, the possi
bility of a future life for the individual, will all need to be
restated and to receive fresh answers. No one could attempt
such a task at the present stage of the world's history, as the
data are still far too insufficient. The last word has not yet
been spoken by science as to the evolution of life from dead
matter, or the evolution of animal forms, still less as to the
evolution of all that is included in psychology and morals.
Even physical science is only struggling to the light and
cannot yet explain Energy, Light, Electricity, Gravitation,
Matter. More light will come, but it may take years, hun
dreds of years, before it will pierce the darkness of our
present ignorance, and enable us to see things in their just
proportions. In the mean time. Professor Drummond deserves
credit for the courage with which he has applied the evolu
tionary hypothesis to current views, for his attempt to form
a consistent cosmology, for the clear-sightedness with which
he sees that all must ultimately be explained by the applica
tion of one great Law or Principle representing the Mind of
God working out the Harmony of His Universe, and for the
beautiful account he has given of the story of Evolution, a
story that reads like a fairy tale.'
In addition we may quote the following opinion by
Dr. Gairdner, F.R.S., Professor of Medicine in the
University of Glasgow ^ : —
1 Now Sir William Gairdner, K.C.B. The opinion was expressed in a let
ter to Dr. Stalker immediately after Yi. D.'s death; it is quoted in an article

^T. 42] THE ASCENT OF MAN 47 1
'The earlier book,i while fuh of suggestive and finely
expressed thought did not convince me nor appear to me a
permanent forward step in the Eirenicon between Religion
and Science. The latter book has, to my mind, a far wider
sweep, and a much more permanent value in its marvellously
lucid and at the same time profound exposition of the root
principles of altruism, as evolved in the wide field of nature.
Nothing that I have read on the subject of ethical theory has
appeared to me to go so deep or to be so convincing as this,
which makes it a fundamental part of God's universe from
the beginnings, at all events, of sexual life therein.'
And finally, we may take, along with the views of
these scientific authorities, the following expression of
opinion from a philosophical standpoint. It is by the
Rev. D. M. Ross, one of Drummond's oldest and
closest friends, whose criticism of the main thesis of
Natural Law had been adverse : —
' If Natural Law in the Spiritual 'World was an apologetic
for his early individualism, no less is the Ascent of Mart an
apologetic for his later socialism. The Ascent of Man, whether
we have regard to its literary style or its intellectual power, is
unquestionably his greatest book. Here again, for the study
of his religious teaching, the chief interest of the book is not
in its proofs, but in what it seeks to prove — that love, or the
struggle for the life of others, is a law deeply embedded in the
whole life of the universe. Love, service, sympathy, sacrifice,
co-operation, brotherhood • — these were dominant thoughts in
his own "wider outlook and social ideal." One may question
whether it is necessary to appeal to " nature " for a sanction
to the law of love in our social life, and one may question
whether the author is successful in obtaining from "nature"
the sanction of which he is in search ; but no one can read
this brilliant volume without being impressed by the social
enthusiasm which lies behind its reasoning and eloquence.
by Dr. Stalker, ' Henry Drummond,' in the Expositor, Fifth Series, vol. v. p.
293- ^ Natural Law.

472 HENRY DRUMMOND [1894
' It has been said that Professor Drummond had already
given the world the best work he was likely to achieve before
he was struck down in the prime of his manhood. It seems
to me that there are indications in the Ascent of Man that,
had he been spared, he would have given us work of a still
higher quality. The concluding chapter on Involution shows
an appreciation of the import of an idealistic philosophy
which is a new feature in his thinking. " Are we even quite
sure that what we call a physical world is, after all, a physical
world .''... The very term ' material world,' we are told, is
a misnomer, that the world is a spiritual world, merely em
ploying 'matter' for its manifestations." "Evolution is not
progress in matter. Matter cannot progress. It is a prog
ress in spirit, in that which is limitless, in that which is at
once most human, most rational, most divine." " Evolution
is Advohition ; better, it is revelation — the phenomenal
expression of the divine, the progressive realisation of the
ideal, the ascent of Love." I cannot help feeling that Pro
fessor Drummond hampered himself needlessly by seeking
arguments for the laws of the spiritual world in Nature.
The sentences I have quoted show how he was beginning to
work himself free of this hampering influence by recognising
that spirit is the prius of matter, that nature is itself only
interpretable through the mind of man, or (to use his own
phrase) the spiritual world. No one could have adopted a
more hospitable attitude towards new truth. Had he lived
to follow out the hints contained in the last chapter of the
Ascent of Man, he had it in him to do work as an Evangelist
to the scientific and cultured classes for which the great
work he has already done would have seemed but a prepara
tion.'

CHAPTER XVIII
BOYS AND THE BOYS' BRIGADE
Not only did Henry Drummond preserve the mem
ory of his boyhood, as the pure do, but to the end he
remained a boy, happy, whole-hearted and unspoiled.
None could be fuller of the love of sport or of the
spirit of fun than he. He would have confessed that
his chief liking was for a fire, a launch, or a football
match. He had climbed to the height of experience
and success; he was on familiar terms with the greatest
men of his generation ; but some angel had blessed
him with the fortunate gift of still being able to look
out on life from the level of a boy's eyes, and nothing
in him was more attractive than his wonder at a new
engine, or his awe of every great man whom he
encountered for the first time. Many men, when in
all sincerity they ' humble themselves and become as
little children,' do so awkwardly and with a clatter ;
they tumble down to the children's level, and are
childlike only by being boisterous. But he had never
left that level. I always think of him as the fulfilment
of the broken dream of which Mr. Wendell Holmes
tells us so prettily in one of his poems : Drummond
had the secret of being a boy without leaving his
manhood behind him.
This brought him great influence with boys, and he
won their love without difficulty. To us who were his
contemporaries, nothing gave more pleasure than to
discover, when we had boys of our own, all the way
from seven to seventeen, how quickly they too became
473

474 HENRY DRUMMOND
his friends. He was amazingly fertile in surprising
their wishes. Every new book a boy could love, every
new game or puzzle, on these he was our trusted
adviser. A children's party was sure to go off well if
he was there. When boys were at school or parents
from home, his visits to those, his letters to these, were
things to be remembered for many a day. In deeper
things it was the same. He read a boy's heart, under
stood his temptations, and knew on what side religion
touched him. Lads who shirked religious meetings
did not shirk those which Drummond held after they
had heard him once. His services for boys in Edin
burgh were happy and unforced. In style (it almost
goes without saying) his addresses had nothing about
them of the conventional or condescending — the ' my-
dear-young-friends ' attitude. In substance they were
true to his maxim that ' a boy's religion must be his
own, and ought not to be his grandmother's or his
aunt's.' What he counted such a religion to be, may
be found in First I printed for the Boys' Brigade, or
in Baxter's Second Innings. Here we may give a few
of his letters only to show how happy he was with
boys, and what trouble he took to be kind to them.
The first is in anticipation of a visit that some brothers
were about to pay him in Glasgow. It is to their
mother. ' Feb. 28 [year not given] .
' . . . The boys wiU swagger in later. Private. —
Can you indicate anything in the wide world
which I could buy, borrow, or steal which could
make them happy: anything edible, drinkable,
scentable, seeable, or feelable which could give
them delight Perhaps there is nothing; but
most boys have a particular brand of chocolate
or something.'

BOYS AND THE BOYS' BRIGADE 475
He sent Baxter's Second Innings to a young friend
before he published it
'3, Park Circus, Glasgow, Oct. 8, 1891.
' Boys are so terribly cute that I must have an old
boy's opinion before I can venture to print this !
You will notice there is a minimum of direct
religion, but that is designed.'
To another who wrote asking if he might pay a
visit there came on a card this reply : —
b' Mr. H. Drummond a^
^C- very much <n,-
$0 AT HOME ^<u

.^ on

<?.^

<§>¦ Friday, March ist '^

0°

^f?" From 6 p.m.

i^

93 till
^"^^^'IIV All Hours. The Hippodrome,
Feb. 28, 1889.
To the same boys, in 1889, he sent examination
papers. Here are some of the questions : —
' History
' I. Give a short life of Piggott.
' 2. Where was Major Whittle born .-' contrast him briefly
with Wellington, Napoleon, General Booth, General Tom
Thumb, and the General Supply Stores.
' 3. Who was Lord Fauntleroy, and what were his chief
battles .'
' 4. How long did it take Dante to " climb the mountain " ?
and what is the shortest time it has ever been done in ? Who
first beat Dante's record ?
' 5. Are you a Home- Ruler ? If so, why not .'

476 henry drummond
' Domestic Economy
' I. What is the retail price of sausages ?
' 2. Name the two best brands of shortbread. What is
longbread, and how does it differ from high-bred ?
' 3. Discuss the following : " Has the Discoverer of Chloro
form or of Beanbags done the most for humanity ? "
' 4. How would you spend 2d. if you got it .' Subtract ^d.
from 2d., and parse the remainder. ' Physiology
'I. Define the term " Get-your-hair-cut," and say if Red
Hair is Hair-red-itary.
' 2. Where was your face before it was washed .-• '
When he was at Dax, in the Pyrenees, in 1895, one
of the same brothers wrote him that he had discovered
a skeleton in the gravels of the river Garrie in Perth
shire. The skull had two ' clours ' in the back of it,
signs that it had belonged to some fugitive from the
battle of Kilhecrankie, caught from behind as he fled
south. Drummond wrote this reply, while he was
lying on his back, racked with the pains of his last
illness. The 'fama ' is a reference to the attacks
made upon his Ascent of Man by some Highland
Presbyteries. The card is undated : —
' Monsieur, — Honoured as I am by any communi
cation from you, I cannot but be aware of the
motive which has induced you to acquaint me
with your disgusting discoveries. No, Sir, / did
NOT kill that man. Doubtless he was fishing
with WORM, and therefore was worthy of Death ;
but if you judge my hand did this deed, the
suggestion is the product of a disordered intelli
gence, and I have witnesses to prove an Alibi.
I beg. Sir, that this fama clamosa — which, as

BOYS AND THE BOYS' BRIGADE 477
I am credibly informed, has, to my grievous
hurt, already spread to Dingwall and the borders
thereof — be immediately arrested, and that you
will cease to trouble the short nis:hts and linger-
ing days of a Poor Invalid with Base Suspicions.
— Your obedient servant, 'H(UND) D(ax).'
But it was not only the sons of his friends whom
Drummond loved. He studied, for he loved, the Boy,
wherever he found him. In Glasgow, message and
telegraph boys, the urchins that play football behind
the policeman's back, and the little ragamuffin bands
which used some years ago to parade the streets with
penny whistles and tin pails, — these were his con
stant entertainment. He was always stopping you
to watch some of them. Here is a picture he drew
from his own windows : —
' What are these creatures shambling up the cres
cent.? These are two message-boys. And who
is that troglodyte roosting on the railing ? That
is Drake's boy, waiting on Peel's boy and Smellie's
boy. Why does he wait.? Because he never
travels alone ; secondly, because he has infinite
time. Do they shake hands when they meet ?
No : Drake's boy puts out his foot and trips up
Peel's boy. What does Peel's boy do ? He
rises in haste and smites him with a leg of
mutton. Are they now enemies ? No ; these
are proofs of attachment. After burnishing the
leg of mutton, they sit down to discuss the uni
verse — i.e. the street, the pantomime, and one
Kidd, a pirate.
' Why does Smellie's boy go off by himself and
yell ? li he did not do that, he would burst. He

478 HENRY DRUMMOND
does not know he is yelling. Why does he lay
down his basket and dance ? Hush ! do not
betray him. All boys do that when they are
alone. Does he look ashamed if you see him ?
No ; boys never look anything. Will he come
to, if you leave him ? Yes ; he will whistle pres
ently, and calm down. How much does he get
for this ? Four-and-sixpence a-week.' ^
Since the days when he taught in the Sunday-schools
of the Edinburgh Cowgate, he had been face to face
with the religious problem of our city-boys ; when he
came to Glasgow he felt its urgency still more ; and
in addition, there were pressed upon his observation
one or two painful facts concerning, in particular,
message-boys, and still more, message-girls. I do not
know whether the evil continues, but some years ago
it was not uncommon for boys and girls to be sent
from shops with baskets or parcels far too heavy for
them. Drummond tested some of the weights him
self, while helping these poor children along the street,
and found them cruelly overladen. In some cases,
the constant carriage of a heavy basket on the elbow
drew round the shoulder-blade and rendered the child
slightly deformed for life. Drummond saw the folly
of using a child's elbow to hook on to a great burden,
and he had baskets made to strap over the shoulders
and rest on the back like a knapsack. Several trades
men in Glasgow adopted these, and we used to see
them in use on the streets. I have not seen any for
several years.
But the moral problem of the city-boy was a much
harder one, and there was nothing in existence which
had quite solved it In many Sunday-schools the
1 From article in Good Words printed by the Boys' Brigade.

BOYS AND THE BOYS' BRIGADE 479
disciphne was genuine ; and here and there teachers
of rough boys not only interested them on Sunday,
but kept in touch with them through the rest of the
week. To this extent Drummond's wholesale criticism
of Sunday-schools, which we shall presently quote,
needs qualification, as indeed he himself hints. But
of a very large proportion of Sunday-schools, whether
in the rougher or more respectable parts of our cities,
every word he says is true. The discipline was fitful,
and often secured only by threats of exclusion from
the winter soiree and summer trip, for the sake of
which many children would attend two or three schools
in the course of one Sunday. Beyond an occasional
visit to the homes of their boys, or having them once
a year at their own houses, the teachers did nothing
to control or refine the life of their pupils. The crisis
was becoming desperate, for a large number of teachers
annually deserted a work of which they recognised
the futility, and for which they knew of no other
methods. To one teacher who had felt all this the happy
inspiration came of bringing down upon the older
boys the methods of military discipline. Mr. W. A.
Smith was a Glasgow merchant, a lieutenant in the
ist Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers, and a Sunday-school
teacher, with good business capacity, soldierly effi
ciency, a sound judgment, and a real love for boys.
On October 4, 1883, Mr. Smith formed thirty of the
pupils of his own school — the Mission School of Col
lege Free Church — into a company, and tried upon
them the effects of regular drill. This was the first
company of the now famous Boys' Brigade. The
experiment succeeded so well that it was imitated in
some other schools; the movement won the confidence
of several men of position in Glasgow and other Scot-

480 HENRY DRUMMOND
tish towns; and at last in January, 1885, the Brigade
was formally constituted as a national organisation.
The movement rapidly spread, companies were formed
in every part of the kingdom, and in connection with
nearly every branch of the Christian Church.
The object of the Brigade was defined as ' The
advancement of Christ's kingdom among boys and the
promotion of habits of obedience, reverence, discipline,
self-respect, and all that tends towards a true Christian
manliness.' The Brigade seeks ' to secure this object
through the agency of military drill and discipline, as
a means whereby boys are attracted, held together,
and brought into a receptive attitude for the religious
teaching and guiding, which is the main work of the
Brigade.' ^ Each company is attached to some Church
or other Christian organisation, which is held respon
sible for everything connected with the formation of
the company, for the nomination of suitable officers,
and for the religious teaching of the Boys. The
management of the Brigade is committed to an execu
tive of fifteen members, elected annually by the council,
which represents every company in the Brigade.
The headquarters are in Glasgow,^ but the annual
gatherings of the council and the periodical meetings
of the executive are held in different large cities
throughout the kingdom. The patron is H.R.H. the
Duke of York, the vice-patron His Grace the Arch
bishop of Canterbury, and the honorary president, the
Earl of Aberdeen. In 1883 there was the single com
pany with three officers and thirty boys. On May
31, 1898, the returns for the United Kingdom were
786 companies, with 2828 officers and 34,209 boys.
1 From a Memorandum by Mr. J. Carfrae Alston of Glasgovif, the Brigade
President, to which I am indebted for most of what follows.
2 Full information may be procured from Mr. W. A. Smith, the Secretary, at
162, Buchanan Street, Glasgow.

BOYS AND THE BOYS' BRIGADE 48 1
The district battalions are inspected annually at their
centres by military officers. Among those who have
acted as inspectors, and have expressed high com
mendation of the discipline and efficiency of the bat
talions they have reviewed, have been Field- Marshals
Lord Wolseley, Lord Roberts, and Sir Donald Stewart,
General Chapman commanding Her Majesty's Forces
in Scotland, and other distinguished soldiers. From
Great Britain the movement has spread to the United
States, Canada, the West Indies, South Africa, Aus
tralia, New Zealand, and India. The numbers in these
countries, when added to the Home Brigade, made a
grand total of 1550 companies, 5400 officers, and
67,500 boys.
The Brigade is neither Presbyterian nor bound to
any other denomination. Nor is it confined either to
the Churches established by law or to Dissent. The
Church of England and the Episcopal Church of
Ireland are largely represented on its strength, and
throughout the kingdom most of the other Christian
organisations give it full support. The Roman
Catholic Church in Ireland and elsewhere has adopted
the methods of the Brigade ; and the Jewish com
munity in London has found that these can be adapted
to the religious training which they give their boys.
The movement had to make its way at first in
face of hostile criticism, chiefly from those who were
alarmed at its military side, and were ignorant of what
was behind. But the sound sense of its promoters, the
sincerity of the religious aims of the officers, and the
manifest effect upon the conduct and character of all
the schools in which companies were formed, very
speedily silenced objectors, and the Brigade has be
come established as one of the unquestioned religious
forces of our time.

482 HENRY DRUMMOND
The distinguishing feature of the organisation is
that it has two sides — the mihtary and religious —
which are not separate, but closely interwoven. The
first is the letter of the movement, the language,
the means, the discipline ; the second is the spirit, the
significance, the power, the final aim and purpose. By
the first, the methods of which have caught their fancy
to a quite remarkable extent, the boys have been brought
under a control rarely, if ever, attained by the methods
common to most Sunday-schools. They take the Bri
gade seriously, perform the duties with alacrity, and
obey the restrictions which it imposes upon them. A
boy takes readily to drill because he enjoys it. And it
is this liking that first brings him within range of the
good influences by which he is to be surrounded in
his company. Then there grow upon him the feelings
of strength in union, of joint responsibility, and of the
dependence of the boys upon each other, — all of
which by themselves produce within him acquiescence
in that wonderful pressure of discipline that is calcu
lated to bring important and permanent changes upon
his character. Those in charge of the movement,
however, have been very careful that its military side
shall not be carried further than is necessary. While
the formation of companies involves the appointment
of officers, aping of the style of a military force is
avoided. The uniform is limited to a cap, belt, and
haversack, added to the ordinary clothing of the boys.
A cross-belt and chevron distinguish the sergeants,
and the officers wear a suitable cap and carry a cane.
This simplicity does not prevent the drill being of the
very best quality. It is the Army Drill laid down by
the War Office in the Official ' Red-Book,' and in
many instances it has been brought to a remarkable
perfection.

BOYS AND THE BOYS' BRIGADE 483
But while this external evidence of the Brigade
is that which is most conspicuous to the public,
the deeper and the principal operations of the move
ment are upon the religious side. The personal deal
ing with each boy in relation to religion, to his home,
to his companions and his amusements, is not a thing
to be paraded, but it is here that the strength of the
Brigade lies; and just in proportion as this inner work
has been genuine, the movement has earned its great
success. The Brigade is not a conglomeration of drill-
classes. Religion permeates it in every department.
The religion of the Company Bible-class is the same
as that of the drill-meeting, the recreation-room, and
the club for cricket, football, or athletics, which is
attached to the company. It is sought to make the
boys realise that religion is for the whole life of a boy,
and not merely for one day in the week.
From this it will be seen how much depends on the
company officers. A company officer not only main
tains discipline, gives orders, and brings the drill up
to a high standard. He is the friend and guide of his
boys, the home visitor, the superintendent of sports,
and the Bible-class teacher. He conducts the short
service at drill and gives the tone to the whole life of
the company. If he be the right man, he can so
mould the boyhood of our land that Christ's kingdom
shall be truly advanced. Now, one of the successes
of the movement has been to secure a supply of able
and devoted young men to act as company officers.
When Lord Roberts came to inspect the Glasgow
battalion, he was satisfied with the discipline and drill
of the boys ; but more than once he expressed his ad
miration that so many young men of the requisite skill
and earnestness should have been found to act as
officers, and he repeatedly praised their diligence

484 HENRY DRUMMOND
in a cause so unselfish and so practical. They have
their reward. There is nowhere at the present day
such a field for young men who desire to work for the
community in the spirit of Christ.
I have thus fully described the Boys' Brigade, be
cause from the first the movement won Henry Drum
mond's heart, and secured his hearty and deliberate
co-operation. He was consulted by its promoters, en
tered its councils, became an Honorary Vice-President,
frequently addressed its members, wrote books for
them, and pleaded for them before the public both on
platforms and by articles. He started the movement
in Australia, and laboured for it strenuously in thg
United States and Canada. Next to his own work
among the Edinburgh students, there was no institu
tion of our time to which he gave more thought in
the last ten years of his life, or of which he used to
speak up to the very end with more satisfaction and
more hope. I have quoted ^ the opening of his article
in Good Words. Here are some more extracts : —
' The boy is accounted for by the Evolution Theory.
His father was the Primitive Man. It is only his
being in a town and his mispronunciation that
make you think he is not a savage. What he
represents is Capacity ; he is clay, dough, putty.
This boy cannot as yet walk straight or dress
better, or brush his hair. He is not good. He
is not bad. He has no soul. He has not even
soap. He is simply Boy, pure, unwashed, unre
generate Boy. Can anything be done for him?
Yes, a very great invention has appeared ; it is
known to the initiated as the " B.B." Until the
" B.B." was discovered, scarcely any one knew
1 See above, p. 477 f.

BOYS AND THE BOYS' BRIGADE 485
how to make a man, a gentleman, and a Christian
out of a message-boy. The thing had happened,
perhaps, as a chance or sport, but there was no
steady machinery for it. Specimens could be
turned out at the rate of a score or two in a year,
but under the New Process you have them by the
battalion. The message-boy of the close of the
nineteenth century, in fact, will soon become a
tradition. All that will remain of him will be a
basket and a woollen comforter.
' Like all really great inventions, the New Process
is very simple. It rises naturally out of a process
already in use, or rather in uselessness, for the
Old Process rarely effected anything. Let us
suppose you have gathered a Sunday-class of
boys, and treat them at first on the old or time-
dishonoured plan. Infinite trouble and infinite
bribery have brought these creatures together;
and as they come solely to amuse themselves,
your whole effort is spent in keeping order — in
quelling riots, subduing irrelevant remarks, mini
mising attacks upon the person, and protecting
your Sunday hat from destruction. No boy, you
know perfectly, has yet succeeded in listening to
you for two consecutive minutes. They have
learned nothing whatever. Respect is unknown,
obedience a jest. Even the minor virtues of
regularity, punctuality, and courtesy have not yet
dawned upon their virgin minds.
' What is wrong is that they have no motive, no
interest, and you have not tried to find these for
them. They are street-boys, and you have treated
them as if they had the motives and interests of
domestic boys. The real boy-nature in them has
never been consulted. You may be a very re-

486 HENRY DRUMMOND
markable man, but it is not their kind of remark-
ableness, so you are a person of no authority in
their eyes. You may be a walking biblical
cyclopaedia, but they have no interest even in a
stationary biblical cyclopaedia. They beheve you
to be a thoroughly good fellow in your way, only
it is an earth's diameter from their way ; and that
you should know precisely what their way is they
guilelessly give you opportunity of learning every
single second you spend among them.
' One night, after the usual emeute, you retire from
the place of torture vowing to attempt some
change. Next morning you betake yourself to
the Headquarters of the New Process and deter
mine to explore its secret The whole art and
mystery of making Boys is explained to you ; the
whole process of cleaning, restoring, renovating
them ; of clothing them and putting them into a
right mind, of giving them a sound body and a
reasonable soul. And at your preparation-hour
the following Saturday night, instead of trying to
find out whether the Israelites crossed the Red
Sea by the shoals at Suez or went round, " as
some say," by Wady Tawarik, you read up the
literature of the " B.B.," and learn how the chil
dren of your own city can be led across the more
difficult sea of life's temptations.
' When you faced your Boys the next night, the New
Process bursting within you, they discerned at a
glance that something was going to happen. To
be sure a carefully planned mutiny was to come
off that night on their part, but the look of you
arrests them, and they delay hostilities to give you
one more chance. You confide to them that next
Thursday evening you are going to secure a hall.

BOYS AND THE BOYS' BRIGADE 487
and if they will meet you there at eight o'clock
they will spend the most wonderful night of their
Hves. Yourself and a friend who is an Officer in
the Volunteers are going to tell them all about
Drill and teach them exactly how it is to be done.
You promise, moreover, by and by, to bring caps
and belts, which they may have for the price of a
few Sons of Britannia, and hint that in time a
haversack may be entertained, and a band, and
stripes, and prizes, and even a rifle, which, though
warranted not to go off, will yet be a weapon of
no mean calibre. After a few other details of an
equally enticing nature, the mine is fairly sprung,
and with a very brief postscript on the Israelites
you bring to a triumphant close the first successful
class-meeting in your experience.
' Next Thursday, strange contrast to all Sunday pre
cedents, every Boy is on the spot at the hour. In
stead of the wandering, bored look, every eye is
transfixed on the brown-paper parcel which, with
newly acquired cunning, you have labelled " Ac
coutrements " — not that they know the word, but
they feel sure it is something military. After cap
ping and belting them, — though this is not lawful
at this early stage, — and standing them up in a
row, you proceed to business. You do not start
off with the old injured Sunday air, " Now, Boys,
behave yourselves." There are no Boys in the
room. These are privates, full privates. You do
not cringe before them and beg and implore atten
tion. You pull yourself together and shout out
that last word, " 'Tenshun," like an explosion, and
the very change of accent to the last syllable par
alyses the whole row into rigid statues. Follow
ing up this sudden advantage you keep them

488 HENRY DRUMMOND
moving — marching, halting, marking time, and
doubling, till they are dropping with fatigue.
What liberties you take "this blessed night! No
lion-king making his wild beasts jump through
hoops could be prouder of himself. You order
them about like an emperor. You criticise their
hands, their faces, their feet — even their boots —
without a murmur of dissent. Number Five's
hair is pilloried before the whole company, and
he actually takes it as a compliment. Eleven's
coat has a tear across the breast which is de
nounced as unmilitary, and he is ordered to have
it repaired on penalty of the guardroom. If Three
of the rear rank again kicks Two of the front rank
he will be put into a dungeon. Any private absent
from drill next Thursday will be branded as a
deserter, while unwashed hands will be a case for
a court-martial.
' Amazing and preposterous illusion ! Call these
Boys, Boys, which they are, and ask them to sit
up in a Sunday-class, and no power on earth will
make them do it ; but put a fivepenny cap on them
and call them soldiers, which they are not, and you
can order them about till midnight. The genius
who discovered this astounding and inexplicable
psychological fact ought to rank with Sir Isaac
Newton. Talk of what can be got out of coal-tar
or waste-paper ! Why, you take your boy, your
troglodyte, your Arab, your gamin, on this princi
ple, and there is no limit to what you can extract
from him or do with him. Look at this quondam
class, which is to-night a Company. As class it
was confusion, depression, demoralisation, chaos.
As Company, it is respect, self-respect, enthusi
asm, happiness, peace. The beauty of the change

BOYS AND THE BOYS' BRIGADE 4S9
is that it is spontaneous, secured without heart
burn, maintained without compulsion. The Boy's
own nature rises to it with a bound ; and the live
lier the specimen, the greater its hold upon him.'
He then gives the history of the movement and the
details of organisation. After stating that the Brigade
takes boys between twelve and seventeen, being ' de
signed to operate on a Boy only during a specific part
of his development,' and then hand him over to the
Y.M.C.A., or Church Guilds, or the like, he con
tinues : —
' The Brigade, in fact, is meant to supply the miss
ing link between these institutions and the ordi
nary Sunday-school. As soon as a Boy becomes
a wage-earner, and breathes the free air of street
or workshop, the Sunday-school ceases to hold
him, and without something to bridge the interval
between school life and the educative and reli
gious associations for young men, he would either
be lost or spoiled before these could throw their
meshes round him. It is in this respect more
perhaps than in any other that the Boys' Brigade
is to be welcomed to a place among the staple
institutions of the country. If those higher insti
tutions are not large enough or elastic enough or
attractive enough to receive and hold the veterans
who pass out of the ranks of the Boys' Brigade,
they must either do better or give place to some
organisation which will.'
Then follows an emphasis on the fact that every
Company must be connected with a ' Church, Mission,
or other Christian organisation.'

490 HENRY DRUMMOND
'For it cannot be too emphatically said that the
Boys' Brigade is a rehgious movement Every
thing is subsidiary to this idea. It may not
always be brandished before the eyes of the Boys
themselves in so many words, and it would not be
wholly true to the type of boy-religion to over-
advertise it, but at bottom the Boys' Brigade
exists for this, and it is never afraid to confess it
On the forefront of its earliest documents stand
these words : " The Object of the Boys' Brigade
is the advancement of Christ's Kingdom among
Boys, and the promotion of habits of reverence,
discipline, self-respect, and all that tends towards
a true Christian manhness." That fiag has never
been taken down. "A true Christian manliness "
— that is its motto; and the emphasis upon the
manly rather than upon the mawkish presentation
of Christianity has been its stronghold from the
first
' Contrary to a somewhat natural impression, the
Boys' Brigade does not teach the " Art of War,"
nor does it foster or encourage the war-spirit. It
simply employs military organisation, drill, and
discipline, as the most stimulating and interesting
means of securing the attention of a volatile class
and of promoting self-respect, chivalry, courtesy,
esprit de corps, and a host of kindred virtues. To
these more personal results the military organi
sation is but an aid, and this fact is continually
kept before the Officers by means of the magazine
which is issued periodically from Headquarters, as
well as by the official Constitution of the organisa
tion. With the Officers, saturated as they are with
the deeper meaning of their work, feeling as they
do the greatness and responsibility of their com-

BOYS AND THE BOYS' BRIGADE 49 1
mission, it is an idle fear that any should so far
betray his trust as to conceal the end in the means.
As to the retort that the end can never justify such
means, it is simply to be said that the " means "
are not what they are supposed. To teach drill
is not to teach the " Art of War," nor is the drill-
spirit a war-spirit Firemen are drilled, policemen
are drilled ; and though it is true the cap and belt
of the Boys are the regalia of another order, it
may be doubted whether drill is any more to them
than to these other sons of peace. That the war-
spirit exists at all among the Boys of any single
Company of the Brigade would certainly be news
to the Officers, and if it did arise it would as cer
tainly be checked. One has even known Volun
teers whose souls were not consumed by enmity,
hatred, and revenge ; and it is whispered that there
are actually privates in Her Majesty's Service who
do not breathe out blood and fire. Besides this,
what is known in the " Army Red Book " as
Physical Drill is more and more coming to play
a leading part in Brigade work, and the govern
ing body may be trusted to reduce the merely
military machinery to the lowest possible mini
mum
' The true aspiration and teaching of the Brigade
could not be better summarised than in this fur
ther quotation from its official literature : —
' " Our Boys are full of earnest desire to be brave, true
men; and if we want to make them brave, true. Christian
men, we must direct this desire into the right channel, and
show them that in the service of Christ they will find the
bravest, truest life that it is possible for a man to live. We
laid the foundations of the Eoys' Brigade on this idea, and
determined to try to win the Boys for Christ, by presenting

492 HENRY DRUMMOND
to them that view of Christianity to which we knew their
natures would most readily respond, being fully conscious
how much more there was to show them after they had been

won.

' There are at least two points where religious teach
ing directly comes in. The first is the Company
Bible-class. Every Company being connected
with some existing Christian organisation, the
Boys are urged to attend whatever Bible-class
exists, and in most cases they do so. But wher
ever no existing interest is interfered with, the
Captains usually provide a class of their own.
These special Company classes now number
about two hundred, with an average attendance
of over four thousand Boys ; and that this side
of the work is receiving special impulse is plain
from the fact that last year saw the birth of over
fifty new classes.^
' In addition to these Sunday-classes, nearly every
Company reports an address given at drill on
the week-night, with more or less regularity ; and
each parade is opened and closed with prayer,
or with a short religious service. Once a year
also it is becoming an increasing custom for the
Companies in populous centres to have a united
Church parade, where they attend Divine Ser
vice in " uniform," and hear a special sermon
from some distinguished preacher.
' But though this is the foundation of the Brigade,
it is by no means the whole superstructure. The
Brigade has almost as many departments of activ
ity as a Boy has needs. It is clear, for instance,
that, in dealing with Boys, supreme importance
1 The report for 1898 gives 473 Bible-classes, with an average attendance
of 12,819 boys.

BOYS AND THE BOYS' BRIGADE 493
must be attached to maintaining a right attitude
towards athletics. And here the Brigade has
taken the bull by the horns, and formed a special
department to deal with amusements — a depart
ment whose express object is to guide and elevate
sport, and, by unobtrusive methods, to get even
recreation to pay its toll to the disciplining of
character.
' One or more clubs for football, cricket, gymnastics,
or swimming have been formed in connection
with almost every Company, and the honour of
the Brigade, both physical and moral, is held up
as an inspiration to the Boys in all they do. The
Captains are not so much above the Boys in years
as to have lost either their love or knowledge of
sports, and a frequent sight now on a Saturday
afternoon is to witness a football match between
rival Companies, with the Lieutenant or Captain
officiating as umpire. At practice during the
week also he will act as coach, and the effect of
this both upon the sports themselves and on his
personal influence with the Boys, is obvious.
The wise Officer, the humane and sensible Olfi-
cer, in short, makes as much use of play for higher
purposes as of the parades, and possibly more.
The key to a Boy's life in the present generation
lies in athletics. Sport commands his whole
leisure, and governs his thoughts and ambitions
even in working hours. And so striking has
been this development in recent years, and espe
cially among the young men of the larger towns,
that the time has come to decide whether ath
letics are to become a curse to the country or a
blessing. That issue is now, and in an almost
acute form, directly before society. And the

494 HENRY DRUMMOND
decision, so far as some of us can see, depends
mainly upon such work as the Boys' Brigade is
doing through its athletic department. Were it
for this alone — the elevation of athletics, the
making moral of what, in the eyes of those who
really know, is fast becoming a most immoral
and degrading institution — the existence of the
Boys' Brigade is justified a hundred times.'
The article then describes the Summer Camps and
other organisations for working-lads' holidays — which
when Drummond wrote (in 1892) had not reached a
tithe of tbe development to which, with vast benefit
to the health and morale of the boys, they have now
attained — the ambulance classes, musical bands, and
reading-rooms — and it closes with these remarks on
the Officers : —
' Behind all lies the supreme moulding force — the
personal influence, example, and instruction of
the Officers — manifesting itself in directions and
in ways innumerable and varied, and in results
which can never be tabulated. There is no limit
to what a good Officer can do for his Boys. He
is not only their guide, philosopher, and friend,
but their brother. In distress, in sickness, they
can count upon him. If they are out of work, or
wish to better themselves in life, they know at
least one man in the world to whom their future
career is a living interest In short, throughout
life they have some one to lean upon, to be ac
countable to, to live up to. He, on his part, has
something to live for. He is the Pastor of Boys ;
and, if he is the right man, of their homes. Great
and splendid is this conception — that every Boy

BOYS AND THE BOYS' BRIGADE 495
should have a brother, that every home a friend ;
not missionary, not ministering spirit, not even
woman, but man, a young man, himself in the
thick of the fight and helping others, not because
he is above them, but because the same powder-
smoke envelops both.
' Many of the prime movers in this new cause are
men who have been almost strangers to such
work before. But they saw here something defi
nite, practical, human ; something that they could
begin upon without committing themselves to
positions which they had not quite thought out;
soraething which could utilise the manlier ele
ments in them, and give them a useful life-in
terest outside themselves. Thus through the
instrumentality of the Brigade not only have
multitudes of Boys in town and country been
brought under a regime, morally and physically
educative, but numbers of influential young men,
including a great many Volunteers, have found
themselves for the first time enlisted in the cause
of social and rehgious progress. For a real field
of honest usefulness, a field where the tools re
quired are simply the stronger and better ele
ments in Christian manhood, there is probably
nothing open just now to laymen which has in it
anything like the same substance and promise as
this.'

CHAPTER XIX
THE END
The first touches of the disease which ultimately
killed him, were felt by Drummond in the spring
of 1894 — on the back of a winter of hard work.
Our club meeting, the last which he attended, was
held in the beginning of May at St. Mary's Loch,
and we noticed that of an evening he would sit in the
warm sitting-room with his topcoat on. He had an
easy summer, and spent several weeks fishing on
Loch Stack, on the River Beauly, and elsewhere. But
I am told he was sometimes so stiff that he could
hardly cast a line. When he returned to college in
November, his face looked worn, and he would shield
himself from cold in a way we had never seen him do
before. In December he had some sharp attacks of
sickness, but he held to his college work without com
plaint, spoke in November at a meeting of the Glas
gow University Settlement, presided in December
over the gathering of the West of Scotland Ramblers'
Alliance, of which he was President, and even arranged,
with some trouble to himself, for the opening of a new
line of work, to which for many years he had been
looking forward.
This was the establishment of a ' Pleasant Sunday
Afternoon,' for the men of that district of Glasgow
known as Port Dundas, round the terminus of the
Edinburgh and Glasgow Canal. Some citizens of
Glasgow had founded here the Canal Boatmen's Insti-
496

^T. 43] THE END 497
tute,^ in a fine building with a hall, library, and club-
rooms. In the early part of January the missionary,
Mr. Gilbert, distributed a large number of circulars
calling the men of the district to a preliminary meeting
on Sunday, January 20th, at which Professor Drum
mond and Bailie Bilsland were to be present; and it
was intimated that they were prepared, if the move
ment went on, to give short addresses on subsequent
Sunday afternoons. The meeting was full and hearty.
A large number of members was enrolled, and the
services were continued. Drummond had at first an
exaggerated idea of the dislike of the men for whom
the meetings were planned to the forms of religion,
and he intended that there should be almost no
prayers. This idea, however, was abandoned, and a
small service was printed ; good music was provided,
and besides pieces from visitors, two or three hymns
were sung by the whole gathering. Drummond grew
too ill to take his promised share of the work, but till
the last his heart was in it. I do not think he suffi
ciently realised the danger, which the P.S.A. move
ment involves, of leading its members away from the
family aspects of religion ; yet it is certain that, as in
other places, so here, the meetings attracted a large
number of men, who would otherwise not have attended
a religious service, and in his helplessness during the
next two years he was cheered by news of the progress
and the undoubted benefits of the work.
He intended to go to Edinburgh as usual for some
of the student meetings in February and March. But
at last he had to write as follows : —
1 In connection with the Canal Boatmen's Friend Society of Scotland. Presi
dent, Leonard Gow, Esq.; Vice-Presidents, Major Allan and Bailie Bilsland.
2K

498 HENRY DRUMMOND [1895
To Professor Simpson
'3, Park Circus, Glasgow, Feb. 5, 1895.
' My DEAR Dr. Simpson, — I am very loath to write
this letter, and have put off doing so from week
to week, in the strong hope that it would not be
necessary. But I see now the inevitable must be
faced, and I wish to say that I must abandon the
idea of coming to the Oddfellows' Hall this winter.
I have had a second breakdown in health since
Christmas ; and though not at the moment
actually ill or unfit for daily duty, I feel it would
be wrong to attempt Edinburgh in my present
condition.
' What you and the " Committee " will do in the
circumstances I do not know, nor dare I suggest ;
but I know how well my place will be filled by
others. Those who have come to our platform
all these years have each their message, and one
which will be fresher and weightier to the stu
dents than mine. I should stand aside with a
very much lighter heart than I now do if I
thought they would fill the breach. ... I shall
add nothing as to the disappointment all this
means to me.'
It was grievous to watch him during these days at
the work to which he clung in spite of all his pain and
our remonstrances. When he came to his daily lecture
the straight, lithe figure that used to bring brightness
into our sombre college, crossed the vestibule bent
and stiff. We found he was not sleeping at night,
and his face grew pinched. So he struggled on
till just a few days before the end of the session,
when his doctors peremptorily forbade more lectures.
He stayed in Glasgow a week or two, dissipating our

^T. 43-44] THE END 499
fears — all the more gloomy that fear for him was so
unusual — by his brightness between the attacks of
heavy sickness. Then for change of air and relief
from the constant siege of interests which his house
endured while he was in it, he left Glasgow — left it
for the last time. His work was done.
His work was done, yet one of the great services of
his life remained to be rendered. Looking back upon
the two 3fears of weakness which ensued, we can clearly
see that as it had been given to him to prove how
fame, prosperity, and wealth of brilliant gifts may be
borne with unselfishness, so now he was strengthened
to show us how to suffer pain uncomplaining, endure
long illness, thinking more of others than of himself,
and at last face death, not only without fear, but with
out even a strained or hectic consciousness of his
fate. His disease, though this was not known till
afterwards, was produced by a malignant growth of
the bones, that caused him intense agony. As the
months passed, and his hair whitened with the pain,
it deprived him of all power to move, and made him
so brittle that he could not endure even the grasp of a
friend's hand. Except for some moments of wander
ing — and these only during the last weeks — his mind
was unclouded. He retained unabated the vigour,
and even the brilliance, of his intellect. He took an
eager interest in politics and in literature, remembered
in an astonishing way what absent friends were doing,
surprised them with telegrams of congratulation or
sympathy, planned the entertainment of those who
came to see him, and used to pose them with puzzles
and problems which he invented as he lay. The only
game he could play was chess, and he often won a
hard match. His sense of humour never left him,
and his room became a kind of ' pool ' for new stories

500 HENRY DRUMMOND [1895-97
which were brought him by his friends, and passed on
by him to others. He greeted you in his old way with
a flash of welcome, had a score of questions to ask
about your work, chaffed you, and chaffed himself,
too, in droll descriptions of his helpless state. His
weakness reaped the harvest of the love he had so
richly sown in the years of his strength. No man had
such friends or more devoted physicians. Some of
the former, and his brother, were always within hail
of him ; the latter gave weeks out of their busy lives
to watch beside his bed. And so he sank slowly down
a long slope to the last edge, racked with pain, and
unable to move, but in clearness and peace of mind,
with faith and love and humour undiminished, and
with his friends about him to the last.
The stages of the journey were these. He was
taken from Glasgow to Edinburgh in the end of
March, 1895. In April he travelled to the south of
France for sunshine and the hot baths of Dax. In
May he removed to Biarritz. When these changes
failed to ease him, he was brought back to London
in July for further medical advice. From London he
was taken to Tunbridge Wells, where he lay under
the care of an old friend. Dr. Claude Wilson, his Scot
tish doctors visiting him from time to time. There
was always some talk of taking him south again, but
he was never fit for the long journey, and at Tun
bridge Wells he remained from September, 1895, till
the end, in March, 1897. At first he was able to go
about in a bath chair, and even to walk a few steps in
the open air. But as winter came on he moved only
between his bed and the dining-room. Soon he
ceased to sit up, and his couch was wheeled from the
one room to the other. Sometimes he was unable
even for this.

Mr. 43-45] THE END 5OI
I have tried to put together some of the relics of
those days — the wise and humorous words with which
he charmed us to the last ; his kind judgments of the
men who were prosecuting him before the courts of his
Church; his pencilled letters about the lands which
some of his friends were visiting; his amusing tele
grams ; the fresh stories he told ; his jokes and his
puzzles ; his sane criticism of books and men ; his help
ful counsels — but they won't come into print. He
spoke often of the ' stupidity of being ill,' and twice or
thrice he said : ' Ah, you can't think how horrid I feel.
I have been giving all my life, and now it seems to me
positively indecent to be only getting. Well, perhaps
there's a lesson in that too.' Every good work of
which he heard still roused his interest, and sometimes
he longed to be up again for his share of it. ' I would
like to give a shove in there, if only with a catapult.'
Nor would he cease to plan what fishing he would
take for the next season. He did not speak of religion
more than he had done in the days of his strength ;
yet you felt it was there, as natural and unforced in
the face of death as it had been in the fulness of life.
Sometimes he asked us to pray and to read the New
Testament. ' That is the book one always comes back
to.' And sometimes he asked for music : ' Oh, any
thing you like — a hymn for preference, or a Scotch
sons: ; ' and once he named ' The Land o' the Leal '
and ' Crossing the Bar.'
He was not without hopes of recovery, but it was
always difficult to know whether he really felt these,
or uttered them for our sakes. Yet from August, 1896,
his general health improved considerably; he put on
flesh. Towards the end of the year his pains abated,
and when his mother paid him at that time one of
her frequent visits, she could leave him without ap-

502 HENRY DRUMMOND [1897
prehension. To a friend who was leaving after a visit
at Christmas he said, ' You may see little difference
upon me in a week, but in three months I shall be
another man.' This was not to be in the sense in
which he uttered it The cessation of pain was due to
the progress of the disease, and only showed how nearly
this had finished its work. The constant strain was
telling upon his heart ; and we now know that when,
on New Year's Day, he spoke so brightly, and ex
changed telegrams of congratulation with his col
league, Professor Candlish, who, like him, had been
bedridden for months, the end for both was only
a matter of days. Through February they grew
weaker, and when Dr. Candlish passed away on Sun
day, the 7th of March, Drummond lay feeble and
languid. In the afternoon Dr. Barbour played to him
the music of the hymn, 'Art thou weary, art thou lan
guid ? ' and other hymn tunes, with no response. Then
he tried the old Scots melody of ' Martyrdom,' to which
Drummond beat time with his hand, and joined in the
words : — ' I'm not ashamed to own my Lord,
Or to defend His cause,
Maintain the glory of His cross,
And honour all His laws.'
When the hymn was done, he said, ' There's nothing
to beat that, Hugh.' It is a paraphrase of the words
of Paul : / know whom I have believed, and am per
suaded that He is able to keep that which I have com
mitted unto Him, against that day.
On Monday he raUied, but on Tuesday he was
weaker again, and his brother James and Dr. Green
field were summoned. His mind wandered upon
old themes. He talked, half-dreaming, about John's
Gospel.

^T. 43-45] THE END 503
On Thursday morning he was very low. He mur
mured a message to his mother, became unconscious,
and passed away very quietly about eleven o'clock.
The news came to us. in Glasgow, by a tragic co
incidence, as we were gathering to the funeral of his
colleague. Professor Candlish. Upon the following
Monday we went to Stirhng to lay his body beside his
father's, on the Castle Rock, in the shadow of the old
Greyfriars' Church. This was not the only mourning
for him. On that day, or upon one of the Sundays on
either side of it, services were held in many towns of
the kingdom ; also in Princeton University, at Ottawa,
at Adelaide, at Singapore, and I know not where else.
Telegrams, public and private, with many later letters,
proved that there was hardly a country on earth in
which he was not being mourned. Yet at Stirling it
seemed as if all were represented. The day was a wild
one of sleet and rain, the steep town black with wet
under heavy clouds, the surrounding hills white with
snow. To lay him to rest there, upon the playground
of his boyhood wrapped in gloom, there gathered
mourners from every stage of the life that thence had
started on its brief but brilliant way : his own people,
the magistrates of the town, his mates at school and
college, his fellow-workers in every cause for which he
had laboured ; but chiefly a crowd of young men,
students in Edinburgh and Glasgow, yet from all parts
of the empire, and from lands beyond, whose fresh faces
shone through the dark church, not with the light of
memory only, but with the bright assurance that for
at least another generation Henry Drummond's work
on earth would not cease.

APPENDIX I

Addresses to Students of Edinburgh University, Oddfellows'
Hall, January-March, 1890
The reports from which these have been transcribed by me were
taken down, with Professor Drummond's permission, by Mr. George
Newman.^ I have abridged or summarised them where they re
peat any part of his published works. The audiences to which they
were given were of students, graduates, and professors only. They
were spoken from notes, for the most part very meagre notes, which
I have collated, so far as they are extant, with Mr. Newman's re
ports. The reader will keep in mind that these are mere reports;
and that, while the substance of the addresses is given in them, and
also, so far as they go, Henry Drummond's very words, yet they are
not complete, and cannot reflect, except in a broken way, the ease,
the vividness, and the grace of his style. G. A. S.
I. EVOLUTION AND RELIGION
(January 26, 1890. Chairman: The Earl of Aberdeen.)
After illustrating Evolution as the method both of Nature and
History, the lecture takes up those aspects of it which concern the
Individual — (i) The Evolution of the Body, (2) The Arrest of the
Body, the Arrest of the Animal, amply described in the Ascent of
Man, Chaps. I.-HI. The lecture continues: —
'Henceforth the man must rule, the body serve. Marcus Aurelius
tells us that the body is to be considered nowhere, and Paul says,
Reckon ye yourselves dead. This,, gentlemen, is one of the most
radical and subtle utterances ever spoken. But it does not mean
that the body may be treated in any way. Nay ! Neglect your
body, and it immediately comes from "under arrest" and cries
aloud. But this speaks and aims straight at the Temperance of the
1 See above, p. 353.
505

506 APPENDIX
Body,' which the lecture then illustrates in a homely fashion by 'the
effects of a "third pipe," indolence,' etc.
He continues : —
'Religion is not negative; it consists in spending life and time
for the man, i.e. the spirit — to evolve. Give this a chance, and it
v/ill evolve. Hence, crucify the flesh, take no thought for the mor-
ro-w, but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. The
moment a man allows his body to rule — • this is sin, against God and
against Nature. . . . Men say as justification that sin is natural,
and man must sin. Aye, aye, gentlemen, he will do it naturally if
the body is supreme; but if the spirit is noble and ruling, sin is not
only not natural, but repugnant. One night some years ago in a
University town there was a meeting of the White Cross Society.
The meeting was over, one of the members had argued that sin was
not natural, and at the close one of the medical professors, gather
ing a group of students around him, said, "That's gammon 1 The
sin you have heard of to-night is natural," and the students to a man
hissed him out of the room. It was not in Edinburgh. What I say
is this. I answer you, and I answer the world. It is not natural to
be inverted, not natural for the man to be dead and the body to rule.
'"Sin is the subordination of the higher nature to the lower"
(Martineau). It is, as I say, the subordination of the man to the
beast. But, remember, the Body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost,
and a violation of this Temple will be punished by certain death — ¦
nothing else, simply and purely death. Cell by cell, molecule by
molecule, the magnificent fabric will tumble to pieces. The rule
of the Body over the man is death. You (say, for example) are
allowing your body to rule; project your life imaginatively a decade,
and I say, tremble as you think. Death here, now and forever.
Religion gammon? Gammon, when it tells you that the Body shall
grovel to the man ? I tell you, this is by far the grandest thing in
the wide world. . . .
' Temptation is music to all ears. What is it that makes this vast
throng of men feel to-night like brothers? Temptation. You know
the man sitting next you is tempted like as you are. We are all
tempted, and we thtis grow. The man grows as "the man" wins.
It is the brotherhood of temptation, a new and real tenderness,
which binds man to man, not body to body.
'Why is it that student life is critical? Because the body has
grown through all these ages, and we are thus full-grown "men-
bodies," so to speak, whereas that man in us, that good spirit in us,
is but a child, at the very most perhaps a score of years old. Train

ADDRESSES TO STUDENTS 507
that boy to beat down the "man," the young spirit to beat down the
old body. How? By a Power not his own, a Power which is
greater than the power of evil.
'Religion, etymologically, is that which binds — binds a man to
something higher, nobler, and better than himself, and binds man
to man. All the accessories of Religion are merely auxiliaries.
Prayer and church and reading your Bible are not Religion itself;
they are auxiliaries. They help to bind you to a Perfect Man, and
that Man is Jesus Christ, from whom can issue power to beat the
Body. You must be associated with something stronger and higher,
as the pure love of a sister or a faithful companion. You must be
bound to Jesus Christ, and this will help you to withstand, and
having done all to stand, that is, to rule.
' 'Without Me ye can do nothing. That is, without something
higher and nobler than yourself you will do nothing good. You
must have an aim to evolve yourself to. This is an imperceptible
and a natural thing. You do not think about breathing. It is
natural. Your mother has thrown a sacredness over your life. Her
name brings to you purity and love in their highest forms; you are
bound to something higher, and through her you are bound to Christ.
Thus naturally you are evolved into the Perfect Man. You reflect
Him everywhere; in other words, gentlemen, you are growing like
Him. A man at college who reflects Christ is a man who is bound
to Christ, and thus the "man" in him rules his life. You must
bind yourselves to Christ to get it at first hand; you must become
acquainted with the Lord Jesus Christ as your best Friend.
'Gentlemen, my object has been to bring into relief the great
line running across Nature. On which side will you live? I call
for decision. No man can serve two masters. Religion is what
meets you on the upper side of the line, and carries you upward to
live the life of the Spirit. Henceforth there is a dividing line in
your lives between dead (the body) and living (the man) ; between
temporal and eternal; between bad and good. I have one word to
utter to you — Choose.
' Gentlemen, choose ! If you choose life and good, you choose
"the man"; something which can evolve and go on from better to
better, even to the Image of the Perfect Man, backed up as you will
be by evolution and nature. Grace and strength come from the
Power to which you bind yourself. Remember, you cannot live on
meetings. This impetus will only last a day or two. Go home to
your knees and your Bible. Lay hold of Christ. You are a child in
Christ to-night; wait and trust Him, and you will evolve — if once

5o8 APPENDIX
you are in connection with Christ. Reckon ye yourselves dead —
seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all things
shall be added.
' May God bless the men of this University, and evolve in His
grace and power "perfect men," noble and upright and pure, that
they may go forth in their lives to bless and to heal, to purify and
to sanctify the world. '

II. EVOLUTION AND CHRISTIANITY
(February 2. Chairman: Sir William Muir, K.C.S.I., D.CL., Principal and
Vice-Chancellor of the University.)
Professor Drummond began by speaking of Love upon the same
lines as he has expounded it in The Ascent of Man : —
' Love is the greatest evolutionary force the world has ever seen.
All opposing forces fall at the sight of it. The animal power in
life yields to it. The power of war is broken by that which formed
the power of war at the first. . . . This has been a long story, but
its application, I trust, will not be so long. Last Sunday it was
Evolution and Religion. To-night it is Evolution and Christianity.
'For what is this great ascent of power rising out of mere grega-
riousness into sympathy, into love, into sacrifice — what, I say, is
this, if not the dawn of Christianity before Christ comes? . . .
Christianity is as old as the dawn of life itself. It began in the
nooks and crannies, far away down there in the past, built in to the
very foundation of the world. . . .
'A man came to my house last week, and said he wanted to talk
over religion, for he was in a muddle. I asked him in, and we set
to. He was not a Christian, he said. He found Kings very diffi
cult to understand. He knew a man who called himself a Christian,
and did not seem to live by the Bible truth. He thought the
commas in the Bible uninspired, for he could not make things tally.
I thought. Is it possible that this is a "man " before me? Has all
this absurdity anything in the world to do with Religion? Not un
derstand Kings! Nor the "six days" of Genesis! A few days
before I had been thinking about this most glorious scheme of Chris
tianity, and here before me stood a man whose whole religion I
could put in a pill-box ! And yet I say to you that there are men
listening to my voice now who will not accept Christ because they
do not understand the Old Testament nor see how Jonah could live
in a fish's belly. — Oh, gentlemen, look for one moment at the

ADDRESSES TO STUDENTS 509
magnificence and sublimity of Christianity from the standpoint of
evolution. Look at the sublime age — from the earliest dawn of
life 1 Look at the size — illimitable ! Look at the beauty ! Could
anything be more perfect than the greatest thing in the world : any
force so irresistible as the greatest evolutionary power. Love ! I
say, stand back if you can. A man with the faintest touch of reason
sees something before which everything else fades. He cannot
help reaching forward and grasping the most splendid treasure in
the universe.
'All this fits in perfectly with Science. ... A Christian is a
man who furthers the evolution of the world according to the pur
poses of Jesus Christ. I do not see how men can resist religion if
they have the most elementary views of evolution. . . But has
everything occurred by its own evolutionary power? I answer
definitely and distinctly, No. As there is a force pushing cell to
cell, or a cell onwards alone through life, so precisely in the course
of nations, God Is behind all. The love of God pushes on society,
pouring itself into the hearts of men. What is the outcome then
to you sitting before me to-night, looking forwards to your lives and
professions? It is this in a word: Choose that life and profession
in which you can work alongside this evolutionary force for the re
demption of the world. Work with God !
' Work with this love of God. An iota short of that you are lost
and useless, but this power will last to the end, till all else has passed
away. It is for you and me simply to choose. Oh, for a new poet
to place in a religious poem the power of this evolutionary force !
' Gentlemen, it is nothing sudden or capricious, nothing vague.
It has come now in perfect order, not a day too late, and it could
not have come sooner. By the revelation of God in Christ Jesus it
is yours; and how does it affect us to-night? This-wise, that if you
and I agree now to cast in our lives with His scheme, we shall be
different men to-morrow morning from what we are to-day. To
morrow in this University there will be a new evolutionary force of
Brotherliness to stimulate our actions. . . . Every word you utter,
every thought you think, every action you do, will be said, thought,
and done by Christ Jesus in this power of the love of God. . . .
' There was a medical student a year or two ago, who was half way
through his course, when it dawned upon him that he had lived for
himself, and he decided to change and go and see if he could find
any one to help. And he found an old chum who had gone to the
dogs. He had fallen to pieces, given up his work, and his exams.,
and was living aloof from other students and drinking hard.

5IO APPENDIX
No. I went and found him lying on the floor drunk. He paid his
debts and took him to his own rooms, gave him supper, and put
him to bed. On the next day he had a talk with him. He pro
duced a piece of paper, and they made a contract to keep them both
straight : —
'(i) Neither of us to go out alone.
' (2) Twenty minutes only to be allowed to go to the college
and return : overtime to be accounted for.
' (3) One hour every night to be given over to reading other
than studies.
' (4) That byegones be byegones.
'Both men put their names to this, and for weeks they lived.
No. I praying and doing all he could to help No. 2. After a time
No. 2 saw that the odd evening hour was spent by No. i in reading
his Bible. No. i never spoke to him about it; he simply sat and
read. Aye, gentlemen, I tell you that was a fine sermon. He
never spoke about Religion; but he spoke Religion. He was teach
ing the brotherhood of man and the life of Christ. Now No. 2
was learning unconsciously to know God. Why? Because God is
Love — No. I loved him; and Christ is Sacrifice — No. i sacrificed
his life for him. Not a word was said. At last No. 2 changed.
What he changed to I need not say. The last I heard of them was
this. No. I is filling an appointment of great importance in Lon
don. No. 2 passed his exams, that year with the highest University
distinction, and is now in private practice.
'Gentlemen, you have that opportunity of doing good. You have
asked me here to-night. I have come, and you have brought on
yourselves this responsibility. I lay it upon you. Gentlemen, you
are not doing a small and silly thing when you follow Christ. That
man was a Christian. Take up the cross of Christ to-night and
follow Him this week, for it is the most reasonable and natural
thing for you to do. Band yourselves together as consecrated men
in the Divine struggle of the world. It will bring you happiness of
which you have never dreamt. Arise as men in Christ to-night, and
give yourselves altogether to this supremest duty ! '

ADDRESSES TO STUDENTS 5 1 1

IU. SIN
(February 9. Chairman : Professor T. Grainger Stewart, M.D., LL.D., etc.,
President of the Royal College of Physicians.)
'For two evenings, gentlemen, I have tried to speak to your
Reason^ . . . but this is only one part of your existence, and to
night I want to open the Book of Human Nature. As your Princi
pal has said, the great thing is your life: we do not want your
theories and your knowledge, but your life. Religion is not to be
p7-oved, but to be lived, and every man among us to-night is trying
the experiment of how best to conduct his life. You must remem
ber that this life of yours is an original creation. Each life is a
fresh gift from God, for usefulness or uselessness. How can I use
this precious gift to the best ends?
'To-night I would like to say a few words on the deepest thing
in Human Nature — that which is called in theological language Sin.
We may view this subject in three different aspects, (i) There is
the guilt of Sin. (2) There is the power of Sin. (3) There is the
stain of Sin. It is to this last I wish you to look — to the conse
quences of Sin — that something which you and I cannot turn our
backs upon and let alone. It is a stain. . . .
'Sin is a living thing. The idea which I had as a child, and
which probably many of you had as well, was that our sins were like
bad marks put opposite our names. They were placed against us in
the Book, and then Some One would come and wash away the whole
lot, and we should be fit for the Kingdom. Our page would be
white and clean, and therefore the little things one added to the list
mattered little, because it all would be washed away and made clean.
'There is no more disastrous view that you can possibly take.
'Once when I was at Sunday-school I heard this story: In the
East there was a man lying in his prison cell for murder. A friend
came to see him, and in their conversation they spoke of the mur
der. I should have said that between the cells there was only a
curtain, so that one on the other side could hear all that was being
said. Well, the man told his friend all about his life, and then came
the story of the murder, when, in the middle of it, he suddenly
pulled up startled, and stopped. Why? Because he heard through
the curtain the scratch of a pen. So he remained silent; the inter
view ended, and his friend went. The man was afraid lest his words
should be noted against him. So I used to think that a Recording
1 Here follows a summary of the last two lectures.

512

APPENDIX

Angel stood by me and noted down all I did or said. This, gentle
men, is an erroneous view to take of Sin. God does not play the
detective with us. That would make men dislike God, not Sin, and
they would attempt forthwith to forget Him and live without Him.
They would have no hatred for Sin. Since then I have found out that
there is, after all, a Recording Angel. She is yourself, and her
name is Nature. And her pen never scratches, and you never hear it.
It is silent, for it is great. Year by year, moment by moment, all is
taken down, but in complete silence. The pen never ceases to write.
It works in the body, aye, in the very nerves and tissues of the soul;
and all you have ever said or done, or left undone, is registered
forever in your own nature.
' Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he reap. Mind you, he
shall not only see it grow and see it ripen, but he shall reap. And
everything you sow shall grow, and you, and you only, shall most
certainly reap. Be sure your sin will find you out. It won't per
haps be found out. But, I say, it will find you out. It will grow
and grow and eat out your life. It will run you to earth a doomed
man. For the end of these things is Death.
'And you will reap in many directions. You may not know the
seed or the ground you sow, but sow and you will reap. You will
soon know what harvest when you reap. Men know thistles from
oats. You sow and sow, and then you hope God will forgive and
your page be clean. I answer you. Nay. Sow thistles, and thistles
will come up. Sow oats, and thistles will not come up, oats will
come up. "Sow thistles," you say, "and then sow good oats,
and thus clear the thistles." No, the harvest will be thistles and
oats. . . .
' Physiologists tell us that men never forget — tbat the memory is
independent of the will, and that our memories will follow us, will
live to the end, and will go down with us to the grave. ^ . . .
' Students' sins are special sins. Every class of man is tempted
in its own special way. You are not tempted to avarice, stealing,
murder. No. You are tempted to dishonesty; and though it is
not spoken of in sermons, it is, all the same, as big a sin as drunk
enness and lust. Nay, more so. Why? Because it is a sin of the
higher nature, and sins of the higher nature are blacker than sins of
the lower nature. If there is a man in this University who is doing
evil things; if he is scamping his work, he will reap. ... In the
church, in law, in commerce, in medicine, scamp your work, cheat
your examiners, and you maim your lives. I say the consequences
^ Here follow some cases of cheating at examinations.

ADDRESSES TO STUDENTS 513
of Sin are living and real, and a man has not done with them at the
moment. He may have done with them, but they have not done
with him. He will reap in his memory, in his conscience. Re
morse is the most awful thing that can haunt a man's life. It is, in
a word, a stain.
'And the stain spreads to those around him. . . .
'The whole of a man's nature is built up, I might say, of cells.
One after another, good and bad, all things have become part of
him. His sins have made sin a part of him. That unkind thing
you say or do makes you an unkind character. That selfish thing you
do makes you selfish, pure and holy and noble thoughts are turned
out, and you become an animal. Paul says. Wretched man that I
am, who shall deliver me from this dead body ? Chained as they
were in those dark dungeons of the East, if one prisoner died he
was left chained to the man next him. . . . This dead body — it
was Sin. But, gentlemen, we are making dead bodies with our own
hands and lives ; cell by cell we become dead. Sin is a part of one,
and the end of these things is death, and all of a sudden some
morning we awake and say, Wretched man that I am, who shall
deliver me from this dead body ?
' Sin finds men out in the form of Temptation. Temptation is
the result of constantly yielding. A constant doing passing into a
habit — it really comes to be a predisposition to do what we have
done before over again, and this is temptation. We have built up
the muscle-fibre of temptation by constantly using it. Some day
Tennyson's lines will be true, that our character is a part of all we
have met. Look at the brain. It is made up, as you know, of
countless cells and processes. If an intellectual process runs
through our brain once, it leaves comparatively no effect. But say
it over a hundred times, and a foot-path is worn through the brain ;
the hundred and first time will be easy. Say it a thousand times,
and lo ! through all the cellular structure of the brain there is for
ever laid a thoroughfare upon this one intellectual idea, and tempta
tions and sins march to and fro in endless procession along the
beaten track. Men do not commit two different kinds of sin.
You have your own favourite sin, and I have mine, and as it grows
the trick is intensified, the path more beaten still, and the end
is Death. One thing kills a man, and if you are guilty of one
sin, your doom is sealed. Therefore guard against making a
thoroughfare. Decide once for all to close the thoroughfare by
gates which shall last forever. Let that evil thought never pass
that way again.

514 APPENDIX
' Some say and will tell you that religion has the power to take
away the punishment of Sin. I think not. You and I shall bear
the punishment of the sins we commit, for whatsoever we sow we
shall reap. But what is taken away is the guilt. The guilt of Sin
is forever swept away from us by one thing only, and that is the
death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
' If you are drinking hard, don't think religion will give you a
new body. No; you must go back and undo it. Your religion will
not uproot it [the old body], however much it may change you.
But I believe, gentlemen, that if a man goes back, the grace of God
will overpower and minimise his sin, but it must be paid for. In
other words, you shall reap.
' Now, what am I to say to the man who wakes up to-night from
the past and looks back, and wants now to change. I say three
things, and the first is a hard saying.
' It is Restitution. If it be possible to go back along the trodden
road, find the place where you fell, and undo the mischief. . . .
God can give you courage to go through fire and water for His sake,
and He will do it now and here for any man who hears my voice in
this silence.
' I knew a man who led a woman astray. He was fast and evil
then, but a year or two after he was changed, and became what he
is — one of the most prominent men in the religious world. But
through all his success and apparent blessings there was the stain
and the shadow of that woman's life upon him. Only three people
ever knew about it, and it was twenty years ago. He preached all
through England and Scotland and Ireland in the hope, I fervently
believe, that that woman might hear him and be saved. Every
prayer he prayed, he prayed for her. Not long ago I was in Lon
don at a meeting which he was addressing, and after the meeting a
woman walked up to him with bent head, weeping. I saw them
alone as they stood. That was the woman he had searched for in
the restitution of twenty years. That man's sin was finding him
out, and God will help and stand by you if you will make a manly
and heroic effort to turn back and undo the past.
' The second, gentlemen, is Resolution. Be decided for Christ.
Don't just come here and go away again and forget. Don't let it
be any passing emotion. Go away home across the Meadows to your
rooms, and stand alone in the silence of the night before God, and
decide, and be prepared to pay the cost.
'And the third is Religion. It is cruelty to tell a man to give
something up if you don't give him something in its place. Nature

ADDRESSES TO STUDENTS 515
abhors a vacuum. He must not say, "Yes; I will arise and be this,
that, or the other; " but it must be, Iwill arise and go io my Father;
and in that Father's presence, love, and power, he will find a new
life, a new love, a new power — aye, something that will change
him and restore him to the image of his Maker. Put off the past,
but in putting off the old, put on the new. Emerson says that the
great crises in men's lives are not marriages, deaths, or great occa
sions, but some afternoon at the turn of the road you find new
thoughts and new impulses fill your breast. You are C£?«-verted to
something. Your life is changed, and you henceforth live for that
new and higher impulse. As you sit to-night alone, before your
Maker and your God, is there no new impulse fills your heart?
Something which sweeps the past away? Something which wins
you; something which is the perfection of loveliness; something
peaceful? Do not fear it, but listen, and in the stillness there
comes the voice of Jesus : " Come unto Me, all ye that labour and
are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." '
IV. TEMPTATION
(February 16. Chairman : Professor Calderwood, LL.D., represented by
Dr. C. W. Cathcart.)
'Gentlemen, I must ask the forbearance of the men here to-night
who are in intellectual difificulties if I speak to the men who are in
moral degradation. It has come to my knowledge through the week,
from a bundle of letters from men now sitting in this room, that
there are a large number with their backs to the wall. They are
dead beat, and I shall consider their cases first.
' 'I want to say a few words on the subject of Temptation from an
evolutionary point of view, and I shall begin by planting one ray of
hope in the heart of the man who listens to my voice at this moment
who is in utter despair, for this is the most brotherly thing I can
. possibly do for him. He says his best resolutions for years have
been broken, and his prayers apparently unanswered, so that all his
hope for the future is gone down in the struggle for his life.
'It was said once that the Duke of Wellington was in a foreign
country trying to get his soldiers to a place of safety, and between
him and this hoped-for safety there was a deep and rapid river,
neither bridge nor ford could be seen, and it was a hostile country;
he sent his men up and down the side of the river to hunt for
a bridge or ford, but they found none. So the Duke went to the
top of a hill near by and looked through his telescope, and far away

5l6 APPENDIX
down the river side he saw a town, and on the other side of the
river he saw a straggling village, and he said, " Now, between that
town and that village there must be a ford or a bridge." So when
night came he sent his soldiers in the darkness and silence to see,
and they returned and said, "Yes, there is a ford." He passed
his army over in the. night, and the next day they were found in the
land of safety. Gentlemen, many men have been in dangers as
great and greater than you, and have found a ford. So I say to that
man and to you all — Don't despair!
'You can do nothing when you are in despair. The very first
thing to do in this, as in everything else, is to believe in possibility.
All things, you remember, are possible to a certain class of men.
'There may be some here to-night who were here some years ago
when these meetings had their first beginning, and you may remem
ber me reading a letter which was characterised by some of you as
"A Letter from Hell." You remember, it was a frightful revelation
of a tortured, sunken, lost human soul. It was anonymous, and
signed "Thanatos." ^ Years have gone by, and I have not forgotten
that man; and if ever I thought a man was hopelessly, irretrievably
lost, it was that man. He was an intellectual, physical, and moral
wreck. I thought that case an impossibility. Gentlemen, I have
in my pocket to-night a letter from "Thanatos," which he sent me
this week, and he says he is at last a changed man — a new creature
in Christ Jesus. He says the new life has choked the old, and that
he is now in a position of responsibility and usefulness in this
country. '
The address then proceeds to 'view the whole subject of Tempta
tion from an evolutionary standpoint.' 'Temptation is this man
enticing that man,^ flesh versus spirit. . . . Temptation is not sin,
and not only not sin, but it has a high evolutionary value. Count
it all foy when you fall into divers temptations. It is an opportunity
for virtue; it stimulates us to a higher and nobler life; it is the test
of a "man." . . . Now comes the practical teaching. To-day I
asked one of your professors : " What do you tell a man will help
him to resist temptation?" He said: "I tell him that the best
thing by far is to ignore it." Do you hear that, gentlemen? — "Ig
nore it." Don't think he meant "take no thought of it, or don't
think it of any consequence." But it is to be ignored. Reckon ye
yourselves dead. . . . Give it no quarter, and the moment you do
that a great natural force comes at once to your rescue, and the
most wonderful principle of nature backs you up — " vis a iergo " —
' (Sdyaros = Death. ^ See above, in the first address.

ADDRESSES TO STUDENTS 517
Degeneration, that great power which removes everything that is
not used — the great lopper off, the Scavenger. For some time,
however, the temptation will appeal to you. It will ask to be heard
again, or for the last time. It has [too] a habit of hibernating. . . .
I say to you — Trust in Nature and trust in God, and Degeneration
will do its perfect work.
'That is the negative, and now I turn to the positive, and would
like to express it to you in Scriptural formula : Walk in the Spirit.
Expand and enrich that higher life. In all ways and in every way
expand. In music, in the arts, in literature, in poetry, in religion
— anything which is stimulating to the man. And I would mention
another way which is foremost for us, and that is, Work, good hard
work, nothing can keep the devil out so well. . . . But let me
add, don't work too hard. In the interests of physiology and the
physiological relations to temptation, don't work to excess.'
Then follow some wise counsels about food and exercise; some
counsels taken from The Mental Diseases (p. 490), by Dr. Clouston,
the lecturer on Insanity in Edinburgh University; and a beautiful
parable. The address closes : —
'Now I have only two words to say. The first is. Begin thor
oughly. It is a thousand times easier to live altogether for Christ
than half for Christ. Don't be an amphibian, half in one world,
half in another. Be men, through and through, men in Christ Jesus.
Come to Jesus now, and come altogether. — And the other thing is :
Every man will only finally succeed in gaining the victory in himself
so that it includes others. A man this week was in difficulty about
these things, and I said, "Have you ever helped any one?" He
said, "No." So I said, "Well, go now and help somebody. I
don't care how or when you do it. Simply do it. Go and help
somebody."'
V. THE NEW NATURE
(February 23. Chairman : Professor A. R. Simpson, M.D.)
'I think, gentlemen, I can get to the position at which we left off
last Sunday night if I tell you a story about an Indian officer.
'A certain Indian officer lived in a bungalow in India, and this
bungalow was elevated on the top of a mound. One season the
whole country was inundated with a flood; water was everywhere;
but there was just a speck of land which was left, and it was the
mound with the official bungalow upon it. And upon this mound
was gathered together a motley crowd of natives, some wild beasts,

5l8 APPENDIX
insects, and birds, all having gone there for safety. And after a
while, to the consternation of the company, they observed a large,
fine Bengal tiger swimming to the island. It reached it, clambered
up on the bank, and lay down close to the edge in fear and quiet
ness. It lay like a dog, and did not know what to do. What made
that tiger be like that, so quiet? What made it forget its natural
and ordinary fierceness? It was the expulsive power of a new emo
tion. It was Fear : the fierceness and wild nature were gone, and
it lay perfectly still because it was afraid. But the officer knew
that shortly that fear would pass away, and the fierceness would re
turn, so he took his gun and walked close up to the tiger, and put
the muzzle of the gun into the tiger's ear and shot; and the great
beast rolled over dead. You say that was cruel. Maybe, but it was
the wisest thing to do. I tell you that because it brings out a point
of great importance. It shows the power of a new emotion, and it
also shows its transitoriness. What would you and I not give, I
would like to know, to shoot dead in us the tiger? Some men here
have for the last five weeks been slowly killing it. I ask you to
shoot. Shoot it dead.
' Last Sunday we tried to see how to deal with the animal. To
night I want to show, if I can, what is to be done for the Develop
ment of this New Nature when we have ceased to live the animal
life after our own nature. But I need scarcely tell you that the new
nature, the new life, may fade away and pass off as an emotion
would fade. If the officer could have kept that tiger in great fear,
there would have been no need to shoot. The tiger would have
been domesticated. The secret of all taming of animals is by a
process of fear and subduing nature. If you and I could keep up
the new nature of ourselves, we should go on aright to the end of
the chapter. But to keep in the new life and to keep out of the
old animal is the great problem of religious life. How can we be
brought into the new life, that the new life may stand by us to the
end, not for a session or two, but be something which will build its
foundation into our deepest nature, that we may be ready for the
struggle of life which is before us?
'How is the ship tested? When it is in mid-ocean, in the middle
of a cyclone? No; the ship is tested with its ropes down, its masts
not yet fixed, and the last rivets not driven. It is tested first,
and then it goes out to sea. Shortly, gentlemen, you will be out
at sea, and I must ask you, Is your building stable? Is the helm
adjusted? Because if it is not thoroughly made, it will not over
come in this world of temptation.

ADDRESSES TO STUDENTS 519
'The question of Evolution, as you know, is divisible into two
factors: (i) The Nature of the Organism; (2) The Nature of the
Environment. We have learned in the past something of being
evolved. There are two compartments — one the animal, the other
the spirit. That is a correct classification; but, to be exact, split
the higher into two or more parts, because men must not only stand
above the animal nature, but between him and the animal nature a
long, weary series of years, during which our ancestors existed, has
welded a force into our nature, and we must deal with both. Many
of you are not troubled with flesh temptations, but you are troubled
with temptations of the disposition, so I divide temptations into two
classes — from the Beast and from the Savage.
' The question to-night is. How to evolve, how to pass from the
Savage. We have already learned of the Passage from the Beast.
We know we must reckon ourselves dead, our animal nature dead.
We simply let it alone and evolve past it. But what is to be done
with this savage disposition?
'In this disposition we have one fact, the organism, and a second
fact, the environment. There is no organism that is self-supporting
or self-sufficient. Nothing can do for itself. It must of necessity
be helped by its environment.^ . . . Now of all created beings
man is the most sensitive to his environment. . . . God has pro
vided environments for all other constituents of man's nature. . . .
It is inconceivable that He has provided nothing for the highest of
these. What has He done for the environment of the soul? He
has done the most natural thing conceivable. What is it you want
to be in the Spiritual Life? I say, you want to play the Man. We
want to be above the Savage, not below. The Savage state is self
ishness, love of approbation, absence of sympathy ; these are the
marks of the Savage. We have the same savage in us. He has,
come to us through our ancestors, and he is in every one of us. We
must find somewhere a larger mind, a sweeter disposition. Now,
what God has done is to place before you and me an absolutely Per
fect Man, with whom, as we are in contact, we shall rise. He is tO'
be our environment, and we shall slowly change till we are like Him.
Can a man be born when he is old? Not so easily, I grant you, as.
when he is young. But still he may be born when he is old ; it is
not impossible, and this new birth is a change in a man's nature, as
he is in contact with the perfect spirit and the perfect nature of the
Lord Jesus Christ. I am not talking any false religion or cant.
It is perfectly natural that a man's nature may be changed by-
"^ Here follow several illustrations from the physical sphere.

520 APPENDIX
the spirit and nature of another man. God sent Newton to teach
physics, Kepler astronomy, Darwin biology. And God sent Christ
to teach humanity. I do not put Christ on the same level as
Newton or Darwin. I am speaking of analogue, not of homologue.
As Christ was a perfect representation of God Himself, by so much
more was He greater than Newton, Kepler, or Darwin. But just as
these men were provided by God for the times, and each taught and
perfected his own science to his best ability, so Christ was provided
as an environment of thought and nature for the spirit and nature
of man. In a word. He was divine. But that does not remove
Him from the rational and intelligent, for it is by taking Christ
as a man that we understand the power of His life. There's the
principle, and it is demonstrable by science. Nothing can evolve
of itself. . . . There is something without which you cannot
possibly grow. Without Me ye can do nothing. Get into contact
with the perfect life of Christ, and leave the rest to nature. But
how is this to be done?'
There follows a passage on the real and full manhood of Christ,
and the absence of mawkishness, sanctimoniousness, and effeminacy
from true Christianity.
' Find out the people who are the friends of Christ. Read books
about Him. Find how He spoke, how He lived, what He lived
for, how He died, and what He died for. Faith cometh by hear
ing, and you will find as certainly as anything that an irresistible
passion will rise within you. . . . You say to me, " Give me de
tails about Him." I cannot do that, for time is passing. Read
Ullmann, read Ecce Homo, read any of the recent great biographies
of Christ. Can you not spend thirty minutes of your life in getting
to know the Perfect Man? Go home and take up the best of all
the lives, the exquisite biographies by simple, honest men, the
authors of the New Testament. Begin with Matthew; and if you
don't run aground before the end of the fifth chapter, I shall be
astonished. You cannot help yourselves, gentlemen. You read a
few verses, and you fall hopelessly in love with a Man you have so
far neglected. Slowly the knowledge changes into character, and
that is changed in turn into the same Image. . . . Then you lisp,
"My Lord and my God"; then you know His Divinity.
'This is not a sudden change. . . . You won't find this life in
Christ in these meetings; no sensation revival and sweep and all
done. To-day and to-morrow will be the same, generally speaking,
because the evolution of a life is a gradual process. Start in a
moment. Be bom now; but grow like unto Him, and be changed

ADDRESSES TO STUDENTS 521
in time into His image, for the kingdom of God cometh without
observation. what coming to CHRIST MEANS
' There will be two more meetings only, and I want to say a very
few words to those who are really anxious for these things. I want
to be practical, and so I am going to ask those of you who would
like to stay for ten minutes to keep your seats while we sing a hymn.
You will be asked no questions; you'll not even be called to come
forward. You may remain in the seats you occupy. We want new
lives and consecration to Christ. Now I hope all the rest will go
out quietly as we sing the last verse of the hymn. '
Some two dozen men left. 'The rest,' eight hundred or nine
hundred, remained for the ten minutes.
' Gentlemen, I proposed this because, unless I am wrong, there are
men in the hall to-night who have seriously made up their minds
to live for Christ. And there is another set of men, more numerous
still perhaps, who do not know whether or not they are Christians.
There is a certain value in decision on our own parts; not that the
change from the old to the new life is marked by any decisive
periods, but it is help to many following Christ and to many hang
ing back to have definite epochs of encouragement or choice.
' I want to ask you one or two questions in the secret chambers of
your hearts.
' Why do you come to Christ? What do you want? Is there a
sense of need ? Do you want the unholy part to be blotted out for
ever? If so, you have come to the right place, for God for the sake
of Jesus forgives sin.
' Have you a sense of the power of sin that nothing you know of
can break? Do you believe Christ is stronger than the Devil? If
so, again you have come to the right place, for that is true.
'Are you longing to live a better, nobler, truer life? If so, again
you have come to the right place, because Christ alone can give
you this. Remember, Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after
righteousness. 'Another question is. Have you counted the cost? Have you
made up your mind to throw in your lot with the people of Christ?
I don't ask you to be identified with all that is done in the name of
Religion. Religion is a popular thing, and many things are done
in its name which will make you revolt; but I do insist that you
shall not be ashamed to be identified with Christian men and join
them in their work for the world. Gentlemen, count the cost.

522 APPENDIX
Have you made up your mind to say good-by to the world, the flesh,
and the devil ? If your answer is. Yes, I have to say that you are
eligible candidates for the kingdom of God, for of such is the
kingdom made. And I have further to add, that you are not only
eligible, but invited; that on the authority of Chirst. It is not
presumption on your part. You are to come just as you are. Little
as you have and are, yt>u are requested to bring it all for the service
of the Master. Otherwise, otherwise you are not wanted. He says,
Co7ne iinto Me; Give Me thine heart, thine all; and. Him that
cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out. It is Recruits Wanted!
A personal invitation. Christ has set His heart on you here and
now; and now and here invites you to enter into His life.
' What steps must you take? Different are the aspects, different
the ways all leading unto Him. We are told in the last chapter but
one in Revelation that the twelve gates of the city were twelve
pearls. You may come in by any of them : some of you will come
by one, some by another. Don't think you must go in by the way
your friend went. Go your own way. Every single gate was of one
pearl. Spurgeon goes in by one ; Robertson of Brighton by another;
you by a third. Go just as you are in your own nature. You must
get near to Christ and close to Him. The emphasis is on the
object, not the action of faith; and that which is in us showing us
the way is Christ Himself holding out His hand to help us.
' There are one or two different aspects in the New Testament of
the Christian Life — a Race, a Fight, and Fellowship (John's aspect).
. . . They are all the same, and include one another.' . . .
' You are before God now. Just tell Him all about it. Tell Him
your need. Consecrate your life and talents to His service; and if
you will listen, you will hear Hira say, f-iim that cotneth, him that
coi?ieth I will not cast out.
'I cannot guarantee that the stars will shine brighter when you
leave this hall to-night, or that when you wake to-morrow a new
world will open before you. But I do guarantee that Christ will
keep that which you have committed to Him. He will keep His
promise, and you will find something real and dependable to rely
on and lead you away from documental evidence to Him who
speaks to you in your hearts at this moment.
'Gentlemen, He will be youi leader. He will be your guide. He
will be your highest ideal. He has asked you for your life, and He
will make you just as you are at this moment His — entirely His.'
1 Here follows what he said in 1885 about matriculating in the school of Christ.

ADDRESSES TO STUDENTS 523
VI. WHAT IT IS TO BE A CHRISTIAN
(March 2. Chairman : The Rev. Professor Flint, D.D., LL.D.)
'Gentlemen, I do not feel at all anxious to continue the some
what formal set of addresses which I have given to you. Not only
because this is one of the last, and we are near the end, but because
we cannot possibly go on to-night as if nothing had happened last
Sunday evening. You remember that at the end of the meeting I
expressed a wish that those who desired to come to the point and
know what were the first steps into the Christian life should wait
behind the others for ten minutes; and, as you know, several hun
dred men remained; and therefore, gentlemen, it is impossible to
go on as usual. You remember that I asked you to count the cost.
Have you done so? I asked you if you felt a sense of need, and
I put Christianity before you in the form of four metaphors, which
I chose from Scripture, in which I explained to you the beginning
of the Christian life.'
Professor Drummond then summarised his second address of the
previous evening, and added : —
' Decide once for all, and have no more coquetting with the world,
the flesh, and the devil. You cannot serve two masters. Make up
your mind, gentlemen, what you are going to do.
'When a man begins to be a Christian, he does not commit him
self to a great many things which some people think necessary.
The antithesis is not whether good or bad, but the choice between
temporal and eternal. Christianity is not to make men behave
themselves ^ all men should do that. Paul did it before his con
version. . . . Christianity is io be something more than good.
'I need not tell you, of course, that it is not necessary for Chris
tians to go to church. Thousands of Christians never go, and thou
sands go who are not Christians. . . . But I qualify the statement
by saying that every right-minded man will go to church, because it
is advisable and expedient. Not only as a personal matter, but for
the sake of the community, associate yourselves with the people of
God. A Christian can do without church, but it weakens himself
not to go. To go to church is to be taught how to do without
church, and, though I say this, I also say that if he goes he will be
fed. He will be helped, and he will have a better chance of sur
vival in the higher life. However much you like to despise such
institutions, if you give them up you will get lost; because they pre
vent Reversion. A domesticated animal cannot go back to the wild

524 APPENDIX
state — it will die. All Christians should make that an impossi
bility by building up around them a fortress.
' In the next place, to be a Christian does not mean that you must
believe in all the various doctrines. All doctrines are not Chris
tianity. Many a man with no doctrine is a Christian. . . . Chris
tianity is not a thing to be proved, but a life to be lived. But I
qualify this also. You men will be wise indeed to find out and
study the great doctrines of Christianity. There are doctrines in
Christianity as much as in medicine. The authorities are as scien
tific in method as the most learned scientific observer here. You
must search theology as you do other subjects. Go to the experts,
not to the penny magazines. From tracts men get depraved and
distorted views of the great Christian doctrines, as, for example,
the Incarnation and Atonement. Take your stimulus from wherever
you like, but for doctrines you must go to authorities as trustworthy
and confident as you go to in any other subject.
' I do not say that to be a Christian you must have no doubts.
Doubts show interest and zeal, and I pity the man here to-night who
is cocksure of everything in Christianity. It is not all plain as a
pikestaff. . . . Doubt is one of the most blessed states a man can
be in. It is the purifier of thought. Until he has doubted and
then thought, faith to a man is merely credulity. . . . No man
can live in this nineteenth century and not have doubts. ... All
great truths are doubtable. I don't say doubtful, but doubtable.
The instrument through which a doubter looks is broken more or
less, and it must be corrected for achromatism or distortion. Men
don't understand, and when they don't understand they doubt.
There was no class of men with whom Christ was more sympathetic
than those who doubted. He liked to get away from the Pharisees
and the men who were cocksure, the men who "knew it all," and "to
walk with the humble, true-hearted, loving spirit. . . . Christ was
not hard on those who were not sure. He was not narrow, like so
many Christians to-day. There was no speculation about His teach
ing. He taught truth which men might lay their hands upon and
grasp. He said to them all: I don't speak truth, or about truth
either, but I am truth. I am truth — the truth of life, of conscience,
of righteousness. . . .
' Well, all these things, gentlemen, are non-essential ; and there
are one or two minor things which men must not hold back for. I
am often told by men here in Edinburgh that they don't come to
Christ because they are told that it is setting themselves up. This
is a charge made against every man, and I acknowledge the possi-

ADDRESSES TO STUDENTS 525
bility that self may wrongly get set up. But so far from a man feel
ing set up by accepting Christ, he feels like a brand plucked from
the burning, and it is the grace of God which is holding him up by
the skin of his teeth — the grace of God which has pulled him out
of the mire of his temptations.
'Others come and say they don't like to begin, because they are
afraid they will go back. This is remedied completely by making
a decided step and stand for Christ. Be a Christian, and let men
know it.
'Everything in Christianity, I always think, should be in the
superlative degree. The best men are the men Christ wants. The
best mentally, the best morally, the best socially. '
Then he pointed out the high places in the honours list of medi
cine which were gained by men foremost in the Christian life of the
University, and also how some of the latter were members of the
University Fifteen.
'I have said all this, gentlemen, because there are men who delay
because they expect some marked epoch in their lives to usher them
into the Christian life. They are waiting for some catastrophe to
begin the new life. I tell you, it is a mistake. Nature does not
work by bangs, catastrophes, and great events. Nature works silently,
Nature glides; and I solemnly say that I know of nothing in the
wide world more natural than Christianity, for the Kingdom of God
cometh without observation. '
He then stated the case of the Metazoa, and illustrated meta
morphoses taking place after birth, from the caterpillar and butterfly.
' So is it,' he said, 'with man. No wonder that Christ said Marvel
not. ' Here follow the heads and much of the matter of his own
sermon on 'Marvel Not ' in the Ideal Life.
'And now I have told you the negative side of the question with
which we started, and the positive is, Help on the evolution of the
world. Although Christ allows us to be indefinite about our beliefs
[? doctrines], still He has expressed this duty in the plainest pos
sible way. Look all through the New Testament, and the important
facts of Christ are marked by 'Verily. To those you must be con
sistent, for He has asserted His purpose to carry on the evolution of
the world. But He uses a figure of speech. The Kingdom of God.
This is evolution. It begins. He says, in the grain, then the blade,
then the ear, then the full corn in the ear. What do you want more ?
Is not that a precise evolutionary statement? . . . The man who
joins the Christian Life finds security and something which, as a
Law of the World, will evolve the animal into the perfect man.

526 APPENDIX
'Let me choose three words which Christ used to make His teach
ings plain, — Salt, Leaven, Light.
'What use is Salt? It is to keep things from going rotten. . . .
It is Christ that keeps this University from going rotten. It is the
followers of Christ in this city that keep Edinburgh from going
rotten. . . . Without Christ this world would fall to pieces. There
is nothing in Nature which can hold together without the salt of
Truth, Honour, and Righteousness.
'What does Leaven do? It raises. Why is it that education fol
lows Christ round the world? Because Christ is the elevating and
raising force of the world.
'And, gentlemen, Christ is the Light of the World. The moral
Light and the mental Light. Half of the great problems are un
solved, because they are without Christ and without light. Increase
your knowledge, and you will increase your sorrow. It will trouble
you. You will be weary of it, and there will be no end. But hear
this from Christ: Learn of Me, and ye shall find rest. The more
you think and know, so much the more will you find in Christ.
'Christ wants you to join Him in His work: this is the motif cl
God through all the ages. Is it not worthy to accompany Him in
the evolution of the world? There is no higher life than helping
others. And the only way it is to be done is by men's lives. . . .
I solemnly say, God wants you. As you came along the street to
night you heard a man preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus. You
heard the bare, narrow, stern religion, and as you passed, a smile
crossed your lips. Why? Because you know of something which
is broad and lovely, infinitely loving and beautiful. I say, don't
laugh till you have done better; for these men are the evangelisers
of the world. So don't sneer at them, but, gentlemen, cast in your
lot with them, go forth, stand under the lamp-posts, and tell out to
the world the grand old story of Jesus and His Love.
' The first thing is to carry that story into the world in your lives.
Every man here to-night who names the name of Christ is to create
round him an environment of Christ, so that men shall see the king
dora of God, and grow up like Christ. Give them the social posi
tion to serve Him; give them legislation, give them wages, give
them houses; to keep, to spend, to live in for His sake and service.
'And, gentlemen, to you, some of you, who will go out to your
village and be the doctor of the neighbourhood, to you I say : Create
the environment of Christ. Be some one to remind the people of
Jesus. Be some one to represent Christ in the district. Do what
He would do; say what He would say; live as He would live, just as

ADDRESSES TO STUDENTS 527
if He were the Doctor of the neighbourhood. Live the life, and
reproduce the life of Christ.
' To those of you who have in the past few weeks learned the rudi
ments of following Him, I offer my sincere congratulations, because
this will grow. Be decided for Him. I am more and more con
vinced of the fact that what the world wants now is not more men
of the ordinary type of Christian, but better men and finer men :
men consecrated to Christ, men out and out for Christ, whose one
life's ambition is not to get rich or achieve a great name, but to
learn of Him, and to s&tk first the kingdom of God and His righteous-

VII. ADDRESS BEFORE COMMUNION
THE BREAD OF LIFE
(March 9. Chairman : Rev. Professor Charteris, D.D., who afterwards pre
sided at the Communion Service and dispensed the Sacrament. There also
assisted Principal Sir William Muir, the Rev. Principal Cairns, Professor
Calderwood, Professor Crum-Brovvn, Drs. Coldstream, Barbour, etc.)
' Gentlemen, I am glad that this series of meetings is to close by
our sitting down together at the Lord's Supper. Because it is one
of the many things that bring into our memories the necessity of
living upon Christ. It teaches you and me, in the first place, that
man may be hungry, and it shows us that Christ is the Bread of Life.
And, secondly, the presence of the actual bread is an object lesson
to us which will emphasise the essential things that we are to carry
away with us, I was talking last Sunday to a man who said that
though he could live for Christ at the close of the meetings, or could
even for a month or so keep straight, yet after that his new life went
down and was lost. Now, gentlemen, this proves two things. It
proves the possibility of a man living for Christ and keeping straight
under suitable conditions, and it proves also that if a man tries liv
ing without the Bread he will flag and die. You can't live on air.
You can't live on one another. You can't live on what I say; but,
gentlemen, you can live on the Bread of Life, which is Jesus Christ.
'Now the great question which we must ask ourselves is this. Have
we ourselves, at first hand, learned to draw our nourishment and
strength from Christ? I want you to settle now and forever. Is He
the heart and kernel and spring of your life, or is He not? If He
is not, then all these meetings are of no avail, all this talk of no use;
but if He is, then, gentlemen, you need nothing else, for He is the
Bread of Life.

528 APPENDIX
' Your holidays are coming to some of you, and to some of you
your examinations. Now I warn you the hour will come when
hunger will assert itself, and I tell you to-night that Christ is the
Bread at that hour. The time will come when temptation will knock
at the door, and it will be something then to know that Jesus Christ
is the Bread. Perhaps during the summer you will meet another
beggar, and you will hear his piteous cry, and you will see his con
dition, and you will want to feed him. It will be something then
to know that Christ is the Bread of Life and can keep a man from
starvation. Keep from starvation? Aye, and not only that, but
give happiness and fulness to life.
' The problem of Nutrition is the fundamental problem of physi
ology, the fundamental problem of living beings. So exactly is it
the fundamental problem of the Christian life.'
He then drew a long analogy between physical and spiritual nutri
tion in the terms of physiology.
' But the closest parallel I can draw is that which we see in life and
read of in tales, where one man is the sustenance and life of another,
or more often where a woman is the sustenance and help of a man.
Something which is very pure, which is fresh, which is high and
lofty — why, it throws an influence around the base life which ele
vates and ennobles that miserable life to the level of its own. Not
in a day. Not in a year. But in a long continuous process which
works unseen. How is it done ? By abiding in the presence of
that which is pure and noble. One life affects the other, and the
weak becomes stimulated and roused; there are the elements of
growth. So a man who abides in the presence of Jesus Christ in
some mystical way appropriates, unconsciously and unavoidably,
the life and character of Christ, so that he is built up like Him.
That is the whole process. It is perfectly simple and perfectly
natural. The point of importance is this, that it is quite impossible
to go on at all in the spiritual life without living in the immediate
presence and fellowship of Christ. This, gentlemen, is to reach
the Supreme. This is to be nourished and strengthened for life,
not showing just a leaf or two of the fruits, not something that will
last only to the end of the session; but something that will last /row
day to day. You know of people who have fasted thirty days.
Don't try that in your own spiritual lives. You cannot do it. Give
us this day our daily bread. And, gentlemen, I warn you in all
affection and humility that if we try living on ourselves, it will fail.
Why? Because Jesus has said. Without Me ye can do nothing.
Nothing at all, so don't try it. Our spiritual lives will dry up; our

ADDRESSES TO STUDENTS 529
characters become poor, our faculties atrophied. You may have ill-
health and a breakdown in your spiritual, as in your natural, lives.
It is just as simple, just as natural. Eat bad food, or no food, and
it will tell in a fortnight. Your nourishment must be pure, noble,
lovely, and of good report, or else you will lose your appetite.
These meetings may come again, but you will not be there. The
Christian men will know you not, and you will not be found with
them, because you have lost the taste of better food. This I say :
Let us keep ourselves in Christ as we are now; live day by day; and
be renewed day by day into the image of Christ Himself. Surely
that is simple to understand, and perfectly natural.
' But, gentlemen, you need something more than bare life, I tell
you. Christ expects from men like you more than mere life. He
wants the fulness and richness of Himself impressed for ever upon
you. He wants from you the Christian graces in their fullest and
utmost perfection. We hear that as long as men have the roots of
these things they are all right, and never mind about the graces. I
answer. What do you imagine a garden like full of roots only?
Beautiful soil yet — nothing but roots ! What do you say to a gar
den full of sour apples? What is the difference between a sour
apple and a sweet pippin? The gardener will tell you it is a differ
ence mainly of nutrition. Transplant that sour apple, give it your
best soil, give it fresh air and sunshine, and lo ! it becomes larger,
and then it changes and becomes sweet, and then luscious and juicy.
Take only average food, and you will have average life; but good
nourishment will bring forth a strong and beautiful character.
' You will find in your Bibles a lovely phrase which I like very
much. It is this: The Beauty of Holiness. The Beauty! The
perfection of the Christian character; not simply things done after
a good style, but things done with beauty and with grace. Look for
a moment at the exquisite loveliness, beauty, and grace which char
acterised all the actions of Jesus. There is a marvellous ^mc^ about
each and all; there is an attractive peculiarity which calls forth un
bidden our deepest love and admiration. What is it? Gentlemen,
it is the Beauty of Holiness.
' There are a great many graces which go to form our religion.
Religion does not just consist in stopping this sin and stopping that,
and fleeing this temptation or that, but it consists in growing — not
perfection, but growth — growing into the likeness of Christ. If a
man's ideal is simply to stop sinning, his Christian life becomes
monotonous. The man here who knows how to play the violin goes
to hear R  play, and it dawns upon him that it will take at least

530 APPENDIX
another twenty years before he can play at all. The artist goes
through the Turner gallery, and he finds it will take him a lifetime
to copy the major points from Turner. The man who will sit down
for twenty minutes in his room and look at the character of Jesus
Christ, feels his longest life not long enough; nay, that eternity
itself is not long enough to approach the surpassing and infinite
glory of that Figure. Then, gentlemen, a new sensation comes.
He rises and — what? Lo! He is hungry and thirsty. He hun
gers and thirsts to live like that, or see in himself and in others the
mind which was in Christ Jesus. The spiritual life becomes stale
and uninteresting when the man has lost sight of his Ideal. He has
forgotten his life's work. He perishes morally, just as he would do
in his physical nature by ceasing to take nourishment.
' But we are told by some that beauty in character is a matter of
birth; that it is a matter of temperament whether you and I have a
bad temper or not; whether we have patience, gentleness, meek
ness, and that therefore we need not trouble about them. These
may have been affected by predisposition — they are, I grant you,
influenced more or less by heredity — but I say, these are fitted into
men's lives. Any man in this hall who covets any single virtue or
grace can have it, if he sets about getting it in the right way. Let
me try and indicate some of these graces.
' I remember well how I used to pray for joy. I was told that a
Christian must be joyful. I prayed and prayed, and I must say I
did not get it. Why not? Because it does not come by prayex,
alone. It may come that way, but not alone. I used to think that
joy was kept in lumps — packets which were stored up and then
doled out — or injected like morphia — and that if I prayed a lump
would come. This is a material conception that many hold. They
want virtues and graces, and they set to and pray. They pray for
rest, peace, love, joy, and they hope these will drop from heaven
and stay with them forever. But these are Fruits. How can you
have Fruits without Branches ? Where are your branches to bear
fruit, where is your blossom to precede it? What's the use of a
lump of joy if there are no branches? Now, gentlemen, look up
in your Bibles and find out how to get joy; find the cause of joy.
Work by the law you know of as " cause and effect. " Joy is an effect,
find the cause. There is one, just as surely as you have a cause for
toothache. Turn to the fifteenth of John, and there you will read
the parable of the Vine in the words of Jesus. He tells His disci
ples about the tree and its branches, and then He tells them the
"why" of these things: These things have I spoken unto you, that

ADDRESSES TO STUDENTS 53 1
My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. That
is the end of the parable — the cause of joy, something of which
the effect is joy. Joy comes of a great law. But what is the con
dition? Go home and look and see. It is to do good. Abide in
Christ and bring forth fruit, then comes the joy, and you can't help
yourself. You don't make the joy. It simply follows after a certain
cause, and I defy any man in this hall to go off and do something
for somebody, comfort them, help them, any one whom you may
meet — I say, I defy him to do that and not come back happier and
full of joy. This is cause and effect, and any one can get joy in this
way. Abide in Christ, be in His presence, and you shall certainly
have fulness of joy. These things have I spoken unto you that your
joy may be fuU. Find out these things, and the joy must follow.'
Then follows a paragraph or two on the same thought, applied to
the gift of Rest — as in Pax 'Vobiscum.
'All this is simple, and it comes to a Christian. By living on the
Bread of Life we get the form and the functions of the Christian.
Those things follow . . . and make your lives fair and lovely, which
is the Beauty of Holiness.
' You know how healthy and full of vigour you feel after a walk
or exercise. So it is after spiritual exercise, doing good to those
around you, that you have the fulness of spiritual health and vigour.
But while each grace and virtue has a cause, of which it is the effect,
yet to secure them we must go back to the source — which is Christ.
As you know, all power in the mechanical world is from the sun.
It is the source of all energy. ... So also all the energy of the
Spiritual Life comes from the Bread of Life, which is Christ Jesus.
God is our Sun.
' There are a few other things I would wish to say. No man
liveth or worketh for himself. Live for others. Work for others.
Work unitedly as members of His body. This at once brings me
to the social character of the members of Christ. Let there be
among you Christian Solidarity. The man who goes away from the
world and shuts himself up in his rooms and won't come and join
you in the social life of his time is useless, and useless things die.
Don't, gentlemen, don't live for yourselves. The finger is not use
less. Cut it off and place it on the table, and it is not only useless,
but ugly. But you are living; you must be useful and lovely. Take
away any member from the body, and it becomes ugly. Apart from
Christ — you may say what you will — you are ugly, and you are use
less, and you will die. Watch these men on the street finishing
those figures to adorn that building. How foolish the pieces look

532 APPENDIX
until they are put together in the building, until they become part
of the building. A solitary Christian life is an anomaly. You are
to be social, joyful, beautiful, and fresh for His sake. For the
body has for its Head Jesus Christ. That changes life, and man has
a new tie to the man next him, because they are both members of
one body . . . each in its own place with its own work to do for the
body. And the hand is not to say to the foot, I have no need of thee ;
nor the ear to say it has no need of the eye. . . . There is nothing,
I think, of more comfort than that we are all, as members of the
body of Jesus Christ, of some use; and made by Him especially for
His work in the world. If you have not discovered your function,
depend upon it, that is something out of the ordinary. . . . There
is an endless variety of things in the Christian life. One says : No,
I have nothing to do. I say, let that man believe he has something
very definite to do as a member of the Body. Because the Head
expects it, and will show him what it is.
' Gentlemen, you will not live long before you find your work for
Him. Do it with all your might. Seek first the kingdom of God
and His righteousness. I have said it so often, I am almost ashamed
to repeat, but I must. It is this. Do your seeking thoroughly. Be
out and out for Christ. It is far away easier. I have the most
supreme pity for the man who is an amphibian, a sort of Dr. Jekyl
and Mr. Hyde — at church to-day, to-morrow with the world — a
constant struggle to get back the life. Some men think it is easier
to do so. But they will, I hope, live to discover that it is a thou
sand times easier to be out and out for Him. Go in for His service
thoroughly. Be soldiers of the Cross. Be completely consecrated,
as you have sung in that hymn —
" Take my life, and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee ! "
Reversion to the old man and his life will be impossible. Not
until each of you has consecrated his whole and his all will he have
any chance of usefulness or joy in the Christian life.
' You will remember what is said in Revelation of the lukewarm,
the amphibian — Because thou art neither cold nor hot, I will spue
thee out of my mouth. This is the only passage in which words of
disgust are written from the lips of Christ. A last love, a dying
man, a sacrifice because of the half-hearted ! / would thou wert
cold, for thy sake, but especially for the world's. Why? Because
He says that tepid Christians bring the world's contempt upon Jesus
Christ. They crucify Him.

ADDENDA 533
' Resolve to-night at the Table of the Lord. Make an oath before
Him to consecrate your lives to Him — a living sacrifice, holy, accept
able unto God which is your reasonable service. You, come to min
ister, not to be ministered unto. For me to live is Christ. Don't,
oh, gentlemen, I beg you, don't go out at that door to-night without
Christ, without God, without hope in the world. Leave the past,
forget it, and come to Him now: men consecrated entirely to
Christ. ' The harvest is past, the winter is gone, and yet you are not saved.
You will look back over years to this night, and you will see you
missed your chance. Have no fear, for perfect love casteth out fear.
Jesus loves you, loves you all with an everlasting love. If you are
the chiefest among sinners, come now to Him, just as you are, and
He will receive you gladly and cleanse you from all unrighteousness !
' May God bless and elevate this University ! May He purify it
by His followers ! May He bind together a band of men who shall
go forth to the ends of the earth to spend their lives and be spent
in His service.'

APPENDIX II
ADDENDA
Since the larger part of this biography was in print, papers of
Henry Drummond, and recollections of him by others, have contin
ued to reach me. They contradict nothing that has been recorded;
for the most part, they only corroborate this; but a few report some
facts which I have overlooked, and which appear important enough
to demand notice. I give them here, with references to the relative
pages. Pages 82, 91. For Dr. Dale's opinion of Moody and Sankey's
Mission, see his biography, just issued.
Page 120, line 8 from bottom, read 'in the Free Church of Ayr.'
Pages 137 ff. Henry Drummond did see Holmes after all — on
his third visit to America in 1893. To his delight, the old man, who
was then eighty-four, talked 'straight on for an hour and a quarter,
then apologised that no one that day had previously called to " run
off the electricity." He says he usually gets ladies to call first and
"go into the water like the horses to take the electricity off the elec
tric eels before the men come." He talked of all the Immortals of
New England.'

5 34 APPENDIX
Pages 147 ff. Henry Drummond has left notes for a new Preface
to Natural Law in the Spiritual World. These make it clear that
he meant not to rewrite the Book, but in the Preface to qualify a
number of its absolute statements. He restates more guardedly the
physical law of Biogenesis. And in the spiritual sphere he says
that 'any suggestion of spiritual birth as an isolated phenomenon or
unrelated effect is to be taken with reserve.' Cf. pp. 157 and 463
(the quoted paragraph).
Pages 190 f. It should have been stated here that the United
Presbyterian Church has a share in the Livingstonia Mission of the
Free Church of Scotland. Dr, Laws, the head of the Mission, was
a member of the former Church, and is supported by it.
Page 224. Here, or on some other page of the chapter on Henry
Drummond's African journey, it should have been stated that the
natives called him by a name which signifies 'He who looks' or
'gazes'; whether because of his careful scrutiny of minerals, in
sects, etc., or because of the keenness of his eyes when he looked
into another man's face, is unknown.
Page 237. It is a remarkable fact that Mr. Campbell Finlayson 's
very able reply to Natural Law reached in 1895 a third (a posthu
mous) edition : London, James Clarke and Co.
Page 380. Yale University, Oct. 3, 1887.
' I spent half-an-hour with Mark Twain at his own house [Hart
ford, Connecticut]. He turned on the gun at once, and is really
a very droll creature. He speaks just like his books. He let off
several jokes which would have printed on the spot. He has a
reputation for great kindness to all who need help.
'Next door to him I found Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe — a won
derfully agile old lady, as fresh as a squirrel still, but with a face
and air like a lion's. I have not been so taken with any one on
this side the Atlantic. '

INDEX

Aberdeen, Lord and Lady, 272, 280,
283, 299, 356, 451, 480.
 Letters to, 273, 284 f., 290 ff.,
307 f., 331 ff., 341, 372 f., 375 f.,
387. 391.445. 448, 453 f-
Aberdeen Meeting of British Associa
tion, 280.
African Laltes Company, 191.
 Natives, 198.
Native Funeral, 206.
Native Service, 211-214.
Alston, Mr. Carfrae, President Boys'
Brigade, 480 n.
America, visit to (1879), 136-138, chap.
vii.
— ,  (1887), chap. xii.
Conference of Students at Northfield,
368, 371-
Chautauqua, 368, 372, 373, 376.
S. Framingham, Mass., 372.
Greenfield, Mass., 374.
Niagara, 371, 373, 376.
Clifton Springs, N.Y, 374.
New York, 375.
Williamstown, Mass., 377.
Dartmouth, 377.
New Brunswick, 377, 378.
Washington, 378.
Philadelphia, 378.
Yale, 379.
Harvard, 381.
Wellesley, 381.
H. D.'s visit to (1893), 450 ff.
Lowell Lectures in Boston, 451.
Dodge, Mr. W. E., 451, 455.
Boston, 451.
Bridgman, Mr. Howard, 451 n.
Amherst University, 452.
Northfield, visits to, 368, 371, 452.
Canada, fishing in, 453.
Quebec, visit to, 455.

America, Chicago University, 455.
M'Gill University, Montreal, 457.
McClure's Magazine, 457.
 University Extension in, 370 ff.
American Association for the Advance
ment of Science, 368, 373, 374.
Antelope-hunting, 184.
Arran, 130, 166, 197, 295, 298, 340, 345.
Ascent of Man, 298, 343, 351, chap.
xvii.
Publication of, 458 ff.
Copyright in America, 458 n., 465 n.
Criticisms of, 460-472; by Mr. Ben
jamin Kidd, 468; Prof. Iverach,
468; Prof. Alex. MacAlister,
465-469; Mrs. Lynn Linton,
460; G. S. Carr, 461 n.; Prof.
M'Kendrick, 465-470; Prof.
Gairdner, 470; Rev. D. M.
Ross, 471 f.
Associated Workers' League, 279, 305.
Atonement, The, H. D.'s faith in, 361.
Australia, visit to, 386.
Melbourne University, 386.
Melbourne Student Meetings, 394-
397-
Adelaide, 394.
Sydney, 396, 397, 426.
Queensland, 426.
Queensland Aborigines, 426.
Importation of Kanakas into Queens
land, 426-431.
Walker, Rev. John, letter to, 397.
Bain, Rev. James, 192, 202, 209, 218,
219, 221, 387.
Balfour, Right Hon. A. J., M.P., 299.
Bandawe Mission Station, 191, 208,
222.
Barbour, Dr. Hugh, letters to, 150, 282,
327,502.

535

536

INDEX

Barbour, Mr. George F., death of, 294.
Barbour, Robert W., 109, 294.
Letters to, no, 125, 132, 133, 135,
144. 14s. 388.
Letters from, 270, 275, 281 ; death
of, 445. 446.
Barnetson, Mr. (criticism of a paper of
H. D.'s), 53.
Baxter's Second Innings, by H. D., for
Boys' Brigade, 474.
Beaver dams, 186, 187.
Beecher Stowe, Mrs., 380.
Biarritz, 500.
Biblical Criticism, 140, chap. x.
Binnie, Rev. Dr., 39.
Blaikie, Prof., 45, 60.
Blackwood, Miss Jane (Mrs. Drum
mond, senior), 19.
Mr. James, 19.
Blantyre Mission Station, igi, 200,
222.
Blathwayt, Raymond (quoted), 143 u.
Bonn, 292, 342.
Bonskeid, Perthshire, 109, 124, 294,
312.
Students' Conference at, 349.
Boulder, Colorado, 168.
Boys' meetings in Edinburgh, 343 ff.
Boys' Brigade, chap, xviii.
Origin of, 479.
Objects of, 480, 483.
Management of, 480.
Growth of, 480, 492.
Inspected by Lords Wolseley and
Roberts, Sir D. Stuart, and Gen.
Chapman, 481.
H. D.'s interest in, 484.
Article upon, 477, 484-495.
Religious character of, 489 f.
Athletics and amusements, 492 f.
Summer camps, 494.
Officers' duties and opportunities,
491. 493. 494-
Official heads of, 480.
In Australia, 317, '484.
In United States, 484.
In Canada, 484.
Addresses in America on, 451, 455.
British Association, Aberdeen Meeting,
280.

Brodrick, W. St. John, M.P., 299.
Browning, Robert, 308, 317, 319,
387 n.
Bruce, Prof. A. B., 134.
Bushnell, Mrs., 380.
Butcher, Prof., 320.
Cairns, Prof., 60, 65.
Cambusbarron Mission, 19, 39.
Calderwood, Prof., 32, 60, 320.
Canal Boatmen's Institute, Glasgow
(Friend Society) , 496.
Officials of, 497 n.
Candhsh, Prof. James, 134, 140, 502.
Canyons, 170, 173, 174, 183.
Cathcart, Dr., 325.
Charteris, Prof., 60, 320, 325, 340,
345-
Chautauqua, 295, 368, 370 ff., 452.
Chicago University Summer School,
370, 455-
 Exhibition, 451, 455.
China, 434-436.
 Inland Mission, 320.
Christian, The, letter from H. D. to,
348.
Christlieb, Prof., 341.
Church, Dr. H. M. (reminiscence), 38.
Church of Scotland, General Assembly
of, 280.
Blantyre Mission, 191, 200, 222.
City -without a Church, 450.
Cochin China, 430.
Congregationalist, The, 384, 45 1 n.
Crerar, Rev. T., reminiscences, 23 11.,
29, 3°-
Crieff, 27-28.
Curzon, George N., M.P., 299, 331.
Darwin, reference to, 47, 149.
Davidson, Prof. A. B., 44-47, IJ2.
Dax, 500.
Denney, Prof. James (criticism of
Natural La-ui), 155.
Depew, Hon. Chauncey, speech on
Student Movement, 382.
Diary of African Travel, in chap. viii.
Dods, Dr. Marcus, 134, 143, 310.
Douglas, Dr. Carstairs, 46.
Douglas, Principal, 127, 134, 268, 327.

INDEX

537

Drummond Family, 18-20.
Henry, senior, 18, 19; illness and
death of, 296 f.
William (H. D.'s grandfather), 153.
David (H. D.'s uncle), letter 10,441.
Drummond, Henry —
Early years, 18 ff.
School life, 21-29.
Student life in Edinburgh, chaps, ii.,
iii., and v.
Early writings, 28, 31-37, 46, 53-
Preparation for ministry, chap., iii.
First interest in Natural Science, 31,
46, 54.
At Tubingen, 51, 52.
Missionary in Edinburgh, 56, 67.
Work in Great Mission, 1873-75,
101-108.
Lectureship on Natural Science in
Free Church College, Glasgow,
126, 130; in Malta, 132; pro
fessorship, 265.
Visit to Rocky Mountains, chap. vii.
Publication of Natural La-w, 161-
164.
Travel in Africa, chap. viii.
Grosvenor House meetings, 274 ff.
Offered Shipping Commission Secre
taryship, 268 n.
Political life, 283-289.
Visit to Ireland, 285.
Requested to stand for ParUament,
287.
Student meetings, chap. xii.
Second visit to America, chap, xiii.
Visit to Australia, chap. xiv.
New Hebrides, chap. xv.
Third visit to America, 450 ff.
Publication oi Ascent of Man, 457.
Boys' Brigade, chap, xviii.
The end, chap. xix.
Dublin Y.M.C.A. Convention, 273;
Trinity College, 285.
Duns, Prof., 45, 130, 264.
Ecce Homo, 339, 351.
Edinburgh University, matriculation at,
29.
 conditions of, 30.
 professors at, 31, 32.

Edinburgh University, Philomathic So
ciety, 31,32; Magazine, 33.
 Chair of Geology and Mineralogy,
189.
 Tercentenary, 319.
 Students' Meetings, chap. xii.
 Settlements, 343, 345.
Eighty- Eight Club, 305 ; Magazine of,
305-
Emerson, R. W., 295, 381.
Episcopalian Missions, 66 n.
Evolution and Revelation, chap. x.
Ewing, J. F., 51, 71, 385, 386, 389-394;
letter to, 93.
Expositor, Articles in, by H. D., 244-
256.
Fairbairn, Principal, 372.
Finlayson, Mr. Campbell, criticism of
Natural La-w, 232.
First, by H. D., for Boys' Brigade, 474.
Fiske, Mr., 381.
Foote, Capt., R.N. (at Mandala), 224.
Fossils in Central Africa, 218-221.
Fotheringham, Mi*., reminiscences, 24,
25. 39-
Free Church of Scotland, 43 ff., 266.
 professorships of Natural Science
in, 129 ff.
 General Assembly (1883), 264.
 General Assembly (1884), 265.
 Rite of ordination, 265.
 New College, 43 ff.
Gaiety Club, 116, 117, 144, 274, 285,
496.
Gairdner, Sir William, 325; opinion of
Ascent of Man, 471.
Gardiner River, Yellowstone, 171-174.
Geikie, Prof. Archibald, 50, 127, 130,
321; reminiscences, 10, 188-
189; letter to, 167, 189; travel
with, chap. vii.
Geological Observations —
In Yellowstone, 170-188.
In Africa, 194, 203, 21 1 f., 218.
In New Hebrides, 405, 406, 408.
Geysers, observations of, 1 71-183.
Gilbert, Mr., secretary Canal Boatmen's
Institute, 497.

538

INDEX

Gladstone, Mr., article in Nineteenth
Century, 256, 283; letter to,
from H. D., 288.
Glasgow, Free Church College, 127-
130.
Lectureship in, 127, 130.
Professorship in, 265.
Colleagues at, 134.
Glasgow University Settlements, 309,
314, 496-
Theological Club, 160, 229.
Possilpark Mission, 134, 139, 145 f.
Renfield Free Church, 134.
Boys' Brigade, chap, xviii.
Canal Boatmen's Institute, 496.
H. D.'s home in, 446.
Good Words, article by H. D. on Boys'
Brigade, 477, 484 ff.
Grant, Sir Alexander, 319.
Greenfield, Dr., 320, 325, 345, 375,
378; letters to, 330, 337.
Grosvenor House addresses, 272-279.
 second series, 299-305.
Haddo House, 280, 312, 446.
 Association, 281.
Haeckel, History of Creation, quoted,
259 n.
Hamilton, Sir Robert, 286.
Harkiss, Mr., 202, 205.
Harvard University, 381, 451.
Hay, Dr., 325, 327.
Hayden, Prof., 167.
Hedderwick, Mr. (Blantyre), 193, 200,
223.
Helmholtz, von, 319.
Henderson, Mr. (Blantyre), 193, 200,
223.
High School, 20.
Higher Education of Women, H. D.'s
views on, 298.
Hinton, James, 236.
Hippopotami, 202.
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 138.
Home Reading Union, 317.
 Rule, 283-289.
Huxley, Prof. (Zay Sermons), 150,
250.
 article in Nineteenth Century,
256.

Inner-Afrika, 194 n.
Ireland, 283.
Japan, 432, 434, 437.
Java, 430.
Keddie, Mr. 126, 130.
Kelman, Rev. John (Leith), 58.
Laidlaw, Dr., 291.
Laveleye, de, 319.
Laws, Dr. (Bandawe), 203, 208, 211,
222.
Lenormant, Les Origines de I'Histoire,
261 n.
Lesseps, Count de, 319.
Lindsay, Prof. T. M., 134.
Livingstone, David, 190.
Livingstonia Mission, 176-190.
Longfellow, 138, 295, 381.
Lowell, Russell, 319, 381.
Lucas, Mr. W., 386 n.
Lyttelton, Mr. Alfred, 299.
Macdonald, George (quotation), 259,
317, 355, 388.
Mackintosh, Rev. Robert, 314.
Maclagan, Prof. Sir Douglas, 320.
Macphail, Dr. James M. (letter from),
325-
Madison River, 183, 186.
Malta, 132.
Mandala, 200, 224.
Mark Twain, 380.
Marsh, Prof. 376.
M'Culloch, Rev. J. H., reminiscences,
23 n-. 33. 38, 39 1., 56.
M'Kendrick, Prof., 325.
M'Murtrie, Mr., quoted, 60, 65.
Mesmerism, paper on, by H. D., 33.
Mission, The Great (1873-75), chap. iv.
Liverpool, 58, 83, 88-91.
York, 58.
Newcastle, 58, 71.
Sunderland, 58, 71-75.
Edinburgh, 59-69.
Supporters in Edinburgh, 60.
Glasgow, 63-70.
Supporters in Glasgow, 65.
Greenock, 63.

INDEX

539

Mission, The Great, Stirling, 64.
¦Perth, 64.
Dundee, 64.
Aberdeen, 64.
Inverness, 64, 70.
Oban, 64.
Campbeltown, 64.
Rothesay, 64, 77.
Student workers in, 67, 69.
South Shields, 71, 76.
Bishop Auckland, 71.
Hartlepool, 71, 73.
Hexham, 71, 75.
Morpeth, 71.
Belfast, 77.
Londonderry, 77, 78.
Dubhn, 79-82.
Sympathy from Episcopalians in Ire
land, 80 ; and from Roman
Catholics, 80.
Manchester, 82-85.
Sheffield, 82, 85, 86.
Birmingham, 82, 87.
London, 91-97.
General results of, 97-101.
H. D.'s special work in, 96, 100-108;
and its effect on his character,
100-108.
Missions, Address on Foreign, by H. D.,
432 ff.
Moir, Mr. and Mrs., 200, 218, 224.
Moncrieff, Sir Henry, 131.
Moody, D. L., chap, iv., 368, 373;
estimate of H. D.'s character, 8,
9; letter from, 112; visits to,
138, 144-147. 451-
 and Sankey, Second Mission, 144.
Morison's Academy, Crieff, 27-29.
Morley, Mr. John, 285.
Mount Washburne, Yellowstone, 173,
175-
Moxey, Dr., 320.
Muir, Sir William, 324, 345.
Munro Ferguson, Mr. R., M.P., 299.
 Mr., 238.
Murray, Mr., W.S., 277.
Natural Law in the Spiritual World,
148-164.
Publication of, 161-164.

Natural La-w in the Spiritual World,
first news of its success, 221.
Its fame, chap. ix.
Criticisms, 237.
Fame abroad, 240.
Translations, 240.
New College, Edinburgh, 43.
 Hebrides, 397, 399, chap. xv.
Missionaries, chap. xv. passim.
Aneityum, mission in, 403.
Futuna, 404.
Tanna, 406.
Volcanoes, 408-411, 418.
Eromanga, 411, 424, 425.
Efate, 41 1 n., 420, 424.
Fila, mission in, 41 1 .
Tongoa, 413,424.
Natives in New Hebrides, 405, 410,
411, 4i3ff'., 421.
Malokolo, 420.
Climate of, 423.
Products of, 421.
Mission in, 436.
Newman, Mr. George, 353 ff., and Ap
pendix.
 Mr., 161 n.
Ne-w York World, extract from, 382.
Nineteenth Century, article in, by
H. D., 244, 256-262, 282.
Northcote, Sir Stafford, 319.
Noumea, New Caledonia, 425.
Nyasa Lake, 190, 204.
Ordination, rite of, 265.
Orphans' Home, Leominster, 161.
Oxford, mission to undergraduates, 330-
339-
Fremantle, Canon, 334.
Liddell, Dean and Mrs., 333, 334.
Broughton, Miss Rhoda, 334.
Jowett, Mr., 334, 356.
Talbot, Mr. (Warden of Keble, 1885),
letter from, 336.
Anson, Sir William, 331.
Holland, Scott, Canon, 331, 334, 336.
Girdlestone, Canon, 331.
Butler, Rev. A. G., 331, 334, 336.
Percival, Canon, 331, 334.
Christopher, Rev. Mr., 331. ¦
Munro, Mr. (Provost of Oriel), 331.

540

INDEX

Oxford, Broderick, Hon. George (War
den of Merton), 331.
Fowler, Mr. Thomas (President of
Corpus), 331.
Bryce, Prof., 331, 334.
Pelham, Mr., 331.
Partick Division of Lanarkshire, 287.
Paterson, A. S., 44, 225.
Pax Vobiscum, 439.
Peabody, Prof. Francis, letter from,
384-
Perth Conference, 272.
Pleasant Sunday Afternoons, 496.
Pomalombe, Lake, 204.
Programme of Christianity, 351.
Qua-qua River, 194, 195, 224.
Quarry, Genesis, 262 n.
Quilimame, East Africa, 193, 224.
Rainy, Principal, 60, 114, 131, 319.
Ramblers' Alliance, West of Scotland,
496.
Red Indians, 1 66, 170, 173, 186.
Reith, Rev. George, ordination charge,
267.
Rentoul, Prof., 426.
Revelation and Evolution, chap. a.
Rocky Mountains, 138.
Travel in, chap. vii.
Diary, 170-188.
Ross, Rev. D. M., 44, 51, 113.
Letters to, 132, 390.
Criticism of Ascent of Man, 470.
Ruskin, 308.
Russell, Mr. George W., 299.
Saffi, Count, 319.
Sankey, Ira D., chap. iv. ; letter to, 444.
Schools in Scotland, 20.
Science and Religion, chap. vi.
Scott, Dr. and Mrs. Livingstonia, 193,
202, 223.
Shanghai, 430.
Shearer, Mr. and Mrs., African Lakes
Company, 193.
Shire Highlands, Africa, 191.
 River, 196 ff., 224.
Simpson, Mr. R. R., 106 n.

Simpson, Prof. A. R., recollections,
108 n., no, 126 n.
Pamphlet by, 319 n., 377, 378.
Letter to, 498.
To Mrs. Simpson, 279.
Sinclair, Captain, 289, 299, 375, 449.
Singapore, 430.
Slave trade, 191, 226.
Smith, Mr. G. P., 325, 342, 378.
 Mr. W. A., Boys' Brigade, 479.
Smith, Prof. Robertson, 43, 116, 131,
139-142.
 Stanley, 320.
Spectator review of Natural Law, 221,
228, 232.
Spencer, Lord, 286.
Stalker, Dr. James, recollections, 53,
68-71, 103, 470 n.
Steele, Sir Richard, quotation from, 1 7.
Steven, Rev. G., 113.
Stevenson, Mr. James, 192, 209, 264.
letters to, 267, 268.
Stewart, Dr. (Lovedale), 190, 208, 209.
 Mr. James, death of, 208, 212.
 Grainger, Sir Thomas, 301, 320,
325-
Stirling, 18, 24, 28, 503.
Stuart, Mr. and Mrs., letters to, 118-
121, 122, 135-138, 147, 192.
Studd, C. T., 320.
Student Movement in Edinburgh, chap.
xii.
Meetings in Oddfellows' Hall, 322-
324. 338, 343. 345-350. 448.
H. D.'s addresses to students, 350-
366, and Appendix.
Deputation of students, 282.
 Holiday Mission, 295, 327-329,
340. 344-
 Meetings, in Edinburgh, 293, 298,
342 ff., 345.497-
Aberdeen, 325.
Glasgow, 325, 338.
Oxford, 330-339.
America, 295, chap. xiii.
Australia, 316.
Germany, 342.
Sutherlandshire, fishing, 280, 289, 305,
311,446,496.
Swedenborg, 236.

INDEX

541

Switzerland, visits of H. D. to, 290 ff.,
306 ft
Tanganyika Lake, 192, 209, 215, 217.
Thomson, Peter, 44, 112.
Times of Blessing (quoted), 66 n,, 80 n.
 translations of, 240.
Tropical Africa, 194, 194 n., 198 n.,
201 n., 205 n., 210, 214 f., 221 n.,
226 n.
Tsetse fly, 202.
Tunbridge Wells, 500.
Tyndall, Prof., 150.
University Extension in America,
370-
 settlements in Glasgow, 309, 314.
 in Edinburgh, 343, 345.

Virchow, 319.
Watson, Rev. John, 22, 25, 44.
Welldon, J. E. C, 299.
Wellesley College, U.S.A., 381.
Westminster Confession of Faith, 266.
Whyte, Dr. Alexander, 340.
Wilson, Dr. Claude, 500.
World, The, article on Grosvenor House
meetings, 275.

Yellowstone, the, 170-1S

D.,

Zambezi, article on, by H.
298 n.
 , 190, 224
Zockler, Dr. Otto, criticism of Natural
Law, 242.

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