Extended excerpt [Drummond lecture to a group of college students, reflecting on the Bible’s 1 Corinthians 13]:

“Above all, do not resent temptation; do not be perplexed because it seems to thicken round you more and more, and ceases neither for effort nor for agony nor prayer. That is your practice. That is the practice which God appoints you; and it is having its work in making you patient, and humble, and generous, and unselfish, and kind, and courteous. Do not grudge the hand that is moulding the still too shapeless image within you. It is growing more beautiful, though you see it now, and every touch of temptation may add to its perfection. Therefore keep in the midst of life. Do not isolate yourself. Be among men, and among things, and among troubles, and difficulties, and obstacles.” (pp. 41-42)

Source link: The Greatest Thing in the World (1887|1890 James Pott ed.) online via Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=4SsXAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA41&dq=Above+all,+do+not+resent+temptation;+do+not+be+perplexed+because+it+seems+to+thicken+round

Extended excerpt [Drummond lecture to college student group, reflecting on the Bible’s 1 Corinthians 13]:

“The greatest thing,” says some one, “a man can do for his Heavenly Father is to be kind to some of His other children.” I wonder why it is that we are not all kinder than we are? How much the world needs it. How easily it is done. How instantaneously it acts. How infallibly it is remembered. How super-abundantly it pays itself back – for there is no debtor in the world so honourable, so superbly honourable, as Love.” (pp. 23-24)

Source link: The Greatest Thing in the World (1887|1890 James Pott ed.) online via Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=n8QQAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA23&dq=How+much+the+world+needs+it.+How+easily+it+is+done.+How+instantaneously+it+acts.

Extended excerpt [Lecture/sermon]:

“Where does Joy come from? I knew a Sunday scholar whose conception of Joy was that it was a thing made in lumps and kept somewhere in Heaven, and that when people prayed for it, pieces were somehow let down and fitted into their souls. I am not sure that views as gross and material are not often held by people who ought to be wiser. In reality, Joy is as much a matter of Cause and Effect as pain. No one can get Joy by merely asking for it. It is one of the ripest fruits of the Christian life, and, like all fruits, must be grown.” (p. 51)

Source note: From the publisher’s note: “Pax Vobiscum,” prepared for publication by the Author, is now published for the first time, being the second of a series of which the “Greatest Thing in the World” was the first.”

Source link: Pax Vobsicum (1890) online via Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=hDQ3AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA51&dq=No+one+can+get+Joy+by+merely+asking+for+it.+It+is+one+of+the+ripest+fruits+of+the+Christian+life,+and,+like+all+fruits,+must+be+grown

Extended excerpt [Drummond lecture to college student group, reflecting on the Bible’s 1 Corinthians 13]:

“The test of religion, the final test of religion, is not religiousness, but Love. I say the final test of religion at that great Day is not religiousness, but Love; not what I have done, not what I have believed, not what I have achieved, but how I have discharged the common charities of life. Sins of commission in that awful indictment are not even referred to. By what we have not done, by sins of omission, we are judged.” (p. 62)

Source link: The Greatest Thing in the World (1887|1890 James Pott ed.) online via Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=n8QQAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA62&dq=The+test+of+religion+the+final+test+of+religion

Extended excerpt [McClure’s Magazine publisher S.S. McClure, recounting a conversation with friend Henry Drummond while both men were staying at American evangelical minister D.L. Moody’s Northfield school.]:

“During the first summer of the magazine’s existence, in the panic year of ’93, I was staying with Professor Henry Drummond at Northfield, where he was visiting Moody’s school. We took long walks together; and one day, when we were off in the country, sitting on the grass, I told Drummond that I did not see how I could possibly put through the task I had undertaken – that I did not feel strong enough to do it, and that I always seemed to be undertaking more than I could do. I have never forgotten his reply. He said: “Unless a man undertakes to do more than he possibly can do, he will never do all that he can do.” (p. 92, column 1)

Source link: “My Autobiography” (April 1914) in McClure’s Magazine; online via Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=obU7AQAAMAAJ&pg=RA4-PA92&dq=Unless+a+man+undertakes+more+than+he+possibly+can+do,+he+will+never+do+all+that+he+can