Customer Reviews

The Ideal Life and Other Unpublished Addresses

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Though largely forgotten today, Scottish-born Henry Drummond (1851-97) was a leading evangelist and theologian of his day. In 1873, Dr. Drummond joined American evangelist Dwight Lymon Moody (1837-99) on his campaign in Great Britain, and from there his fame spread. After his untimely death, his friends collected a group of his addresses, which he had made from 1876 to 1881, and published them. This book represents those men's labor of love for the great Henry Drummond.

I found these fifteen addresses to be quite lively, and quite interesting. I must admit that I wish that there was some way that I could hear Dr. Drummond give them himself. My favorite was definite The Eccentricity of Religion, where Dr. Drummond argues that true Christianity will appear strange and off-putting to the nonbeliever. I highly recommend this blast from the past to all Christians.

Drummond actually calls the Christian life a life of mission as the Christian wills and does God's will. Drummond's sermons and writings may sketch an ideal life, but he is no naive idealist. His teachings are practical and insightful and come from a century-old perspective that readers today can benefit from hearing.

His sermons and writings cover a range of Christian topics centering on Christ and living according to God's will. He approaches the problems of sin and the hope of salvation. The life he professes is one that rejoices with the prodigal and takes up his or her cross with Christ. It is a life that relies on grace and learns holiness through obedience in waiting upon the Lord and filling one's life with the Spirit of Christ.

Drummond not only offers practical insights into Christian living but also writes deeply about Christ and the Father. Here is a portion that offers a glimpse of his themes: "To live greatly like Christ is not to agonise daily over details, to make anxious comparisons with what we do and what He did, but as much more simple thing. it is to re-echo Christ's word. It is to have that calm, patient, assured spirit, which reduces life simply to this--a going to the Father." (83)

I think this is a book that will lead any sincere Christian closer to the Lord.

Two introductions are included in the book that provide biographies of Henry Drummond that offer compelling reasons for examining what he wrote.

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