City News

The Greatest Thing in the World, by Henry Drummond, is a sermon on Love and Christian

living. It was first published in 1874. Drummond was a Scottish Evangelist and Biologist. He

lived for 45 years from 1851 to1897. He was a lecturer on natural science at the Free Church

College in Glasgow, which was a more free-thinking, evangelical group that broke away from

the Church of Scotland in 1843. Drummond believed in theistic evolution which looks at the

science of general evolution and how it relates to religious beliefs. Drummond traveled to Africa

and Australia where he studied these concepts before writing this book.

This book is one of Drummond’s lectures in which he analyzes I Corinthians, Chapter 13, in the

Holy Bible. This chapter is the apostle Paul’s letter to the Corinthians in which he singles out

Love as being the most ‘supreme good’ in all the world. Apostle Paul was one of the most

influential early leaders in the Christian church and author of 13 books in the Bible. It is ironic

that Paul in considered one of the most important people in biblical history besides Jesus, or

Muhammad, yet earlier in his life he was known for his persecution of Christians. Paul

proclaims Love is the most essential and the greatest thing in the world. It is even more

powerful than hope or faith.

Drummond’s book is a treatise about Love because he more fully defines the 9 components that

are listed in Chapter 13 of I Corinthians. They are patience, generosity, good temper, kindness,

courtesy, guilelessness (thinking no evil), humility, unselfishness, and sincerity. This book is

short at about only about 50 pages and it does not break any new ground. However, Drummond

does a good job laying out the importance of love, its source, and the characteristics of a loving

person. It is worth the short time it takes to read it. It is a good resource for those who are less

likely to read long and complex studies on biblical concepts. This book is one that can be read

over and over through the years and challenges the reader to be a kinder and better person to

the world.

I like how the “Introductory” statement at the beginning of the book by D.L. Moody is like a visual

travel back in time for me. The words give a clear picture of a Sunday evening in 1884 in a

country house in England where a group of friends are staying together. They were sitting

around the fire and the guests wanted Mr. Moody to explain a portion of the Bible. Mr. Moody

was tired after all the services that day and told his guests to ask Henry Drummond to explain it

instead. They had to urge and plead and finally Drummond gave his lecture “The Greatest Thing

in the World is Love”. Mr. Moody was astonished and said he had never heard anything so

wonderful. After that he required students at all his schools to read the book each year. I like

how there was an honest desire in this era to understand the scriptures, at a time when the

churches were often corrupt and heavily influenced by the wealthy.

This book was required reading for me as part of the U.S. Congressional Award class I am in. It

is definitely worth the read and I would give it a 10 out of 10. From antiquity until now, the same

question is still out there, “What is the supreme good in the world?” Whether the reader is

Christian or not, it is a good reminder we should all be more understanding, nicer, kinder, and

more loving to each other because world needs it.