The times., 1899-03-26
An Interpreter of Religion.

made up largely of unpublished letters
journals of travel, and other writings OF
Drummond, with comments by the editor;
and there is also a connected account OF
the evangelists life. drawn for the most
part from the personal recolleetions of Dr..
Smith. He was chosen by the family and
friends of Drummond to prepare the ar-
fhorized biography, and they turned over
TO him all papers which might be OF value
in such work.
Henry Drummond was one OF the unique
figures OF the present generation. There
has never been anyone else just like him.
and If be had lived out the usual three-seore
years and ten, instead of dying at the COM
para;iyely early age of thirty-six. he might
have become even more important 10 the
world than he was. He was not leader SO
much as a type-a singularly perfect ex-
ample of class of men developed by the
present conditions of intellectual life. BY
the laws OF natural selection he became
the leader OF this class; but he did not
originate its arguments nor create the class
Itself. He was simply man of an extra
ordinarily sensitive. pure, and high nature,
who was strongly affected by the thought
currents of his time. and whose nature in
stinctively rejected the brutal and mate
rial on the one hand, and the ritualisuc
and narrow religious idea on the other. In
some ways he was more like woman
than man, and it is not improbable that
he exerted over some men an influence
similar to that of pure and high
minded woman: yet there was nothing
particularly effeminate about him. as the
record of his travels in Africa shows.
There have been in all ages men OF this
finely organized and highly spiritual ma
ture Some have been priests, and some
reformers, and some preachers. The es-
sentiaI difference between Drummon1 and
these leaders was that his influence was
no; only emotional but intellectual; and
that was due TO the age in which he lived.
With his unerring intuition he saw that
no merely emotional religion cou.d perma-
uently hold its own among those whom
he sought to influence; and he therefore
endeavored. as the phrase is. TO reconcile
science and religion. II would be more
accurate TO say that he applied sci. n.ific
principles to matters which had hitherto
been considered above all natural law. and
that he made religion reasonable rather
than supernatural. He did successfully
what many thousands Of conscientious ana
boOk-lCNlnS men nave bStu tls1ht " ~
ever since the nineteenth century Gu cken-
ing of the scientific spirit. He was an in
terpreter, a o-between-and an honest
one Above all, he was a man who lived
what he believed, and TO that his immense
influence was largely due. He satisfied
the pathetic longing of human nature for
the man who embodies his princ!pl s he
did not drive or command; he led To al
he was the same simple, true-heaTtei, IN
selfish man. interested in all that he saw,
ready to meet every man on his oTn
ground, never priggish. never descending
TO cheap cant. The things Of religion were
as real to him as the things of the cricket
ground, and be would talk of them as read
ily. though not exactly in the same way
Those who heard Drummond speak during
his visit TO this country more than ten
years ago will remember him as re.
markably unaffected and lovable person
ality, whose speech had nothing OF the
hacl-neyed or of the sensational. There was
one curious quality in his public speaking
which was generally noted; he had way
of making everyone in his audience feel
as if he were speaking 10 that person
alone He had no oratorical or rhetorical
tricks. aud his tone in speaking seemed
hardly 10 rise above the pitch OF ordinary
conversation; his voice was clear, so-t
and pleasant, and his appearance agreeabl.
without being in the least imposing Those
who heard him at that time viii hnd thai
the photo-engraving which forms The
frontispiece of this biography is remark
ably good likeness
To appreciate fully the work which
Drummond did one must remember that
like thousands of young men who have
read his books and heard him speak, anc
been won over to his way of thinking he
was brought up in the old-fashioned or
thodox faith. When a man has beer
taught, by all those whom he most re-
spects, the dogmas of old-fashioned ortho-
doxy; when he is told that the Bible, from
cover TO cover. is literally true. and all ths
biologists. biologists. historians, archaeol-
ogists. and other scientific men of the da,
are either fools or liars if they contradic
ii; when he is instructed from his earlies
infancy In the sternest dogmas, and LEI
TO suppose that goodness in this lie an'
salvation in the next depend ON crush
ing out any doubts he may feel and be
lieying these things literally; when he i
the sort of man who has well-develop
ed and hereditary conscience which fight
his reason at every step, his problem i
rather a serious one. Sometimes ne give
IL up and blindly refuses to Investigate
more often. since the human reason Is
hard thing 10 stifle, he dispenses VIII
what the church calls religion and goes OF
with science; sometimes he becomes a SCOT
fer at everything that bears the name
religion. Drummond furnished stepping
stones for this quagmire OF doubt. IN
truth is that real religion is not incom
patible with scientific thought, and Drum
mond with his quick intelligence. came
see this clearly where his comrades saw
only dimly. Thus he saved some multi
tudes of people from making the mistak
either of blind credulity on the one han
or cutting loose from real as well as shaI
religion on the other hand. The old teach
ing was that If a man did not believe ina
the world was made in six days II was {
no use for him to believe ths
truth and purity and unseltishness weT
good for the health of the soul; and, be
ing shut out from the beaten road, man
stumbled into quieksands. Drummond al
pealed TO this type of man not on IN
emotional side but on the intellectual sid
and cleared the doubts from bewildere
minds. while he broadened his own moiht
church SO that she has now more eharit
toward outsiders than she had at one tim
That was DrummoDd's work. And II,
the earlier chapters of the biography.
seems that he was rather narrow ID u
days of his youth, il should be consldere
that his evolution, like that OF everythin
else. proceeded by natural law. The wor
der is not so much that ne oid hot d' oh'
leap the chasm between superstition an
reason, but that he ever managed to brids
it at all, and convince others that h
bridge was safe.
The fame of Drummond began In II
seventies. when Moody and Sankcy mad
their first visit to England. To the cas-
ual observer il would seem exceedingl
queer that these men should have any
thing in common with those OF the quie
unsensational, intellectual. refined youn
Scotchman: but the truth probably is thi
Drummond. inst.netively seeking for som
u,av Inv which he conid roach directly thos