The World's Great Sermons, Volume 10: Drummond to Jowett, and General Index — A Reader’s Guide

From Deliberation to Cascade: Drummond and Gunsaulus

Drummond's sermon on 1 Corinthians 13 moves with a lecturer's calm. He poses a question—"What is the summum bonum?"—then systematically dismantles the popular answer (faith) before offering love as the true supreme good. His sentences are balanced, his contrasts clear: "If I have all faith, so that I can remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing." The pace is unhurried, allowing each point to settle.

Gunsaulus, by contrast, builds a cascade of historical examples. He recounts Nero's persecution, the martyrdom of Polycarp, and the "awful carnival of bloodshed" in a single, accelerating paragraph. Short clauses pile up: "Women bound to raging bulls and dragged to death... others... coated with pitch, covered with tar, bound to stakes of pine, lighted with fire." The rhythm mimics the relentless violence he describes, creating urgency rather than reflection.

Direct Address and the Shifting Voice of Authority

Several preachers adopt a direct, confrontational voice. Gunsaulus repeatedly uses "you" and "the orator," positioning himself as a prosecutor: "If you would know what I am, I tell you frankly, I am a Christian." This second-person address turns the sermon into a courtroom drama.

Drummond, however, speaks in a more inclusive first-person plural: "We have been accustomed to be told... Well, we are wrong." He invites the congregation into a shared reconsideration. The voice is that of a guide, not an accuser. Other sermons, such as Jowett's "Apostolic Optimism," likely adopt a pastoral tone, though the excerpt does not reveal its full texture. The contrast between Drummond's collaborative voice and Gunsaulus's adversarial one shows how each preacher calibrates authority to suit his argument.

Repetition and Structural Pacing

Repetition functions as a pacing device across the collection. Drummond repeats the phrase "the greatest of these is love" to anchor his argument, each iteration reinforcing his central thesis. Gunsaulus uses anaphora: "This was the way infidelity treated free speech. In that way it unchained the soul of Polycarp." The repeated structure drives his narrative forward.

The volume's arrangement also creates a macro-pace. The sermons move from Drummond's philosophical opening to Gunsaulus's historical indictment, then to other voices. The general index at the end suggests a deliberate ordering, perhaps by date or theme, though the excerpts do not confirm a clear principle. Readers may notice how the emotional temperature rises and falls across the sequence, from reasoned exposition to impassioned defense.

Readers attentive to pace will find these sermons rewarding as performances. The volume invites comparison not only of content but of delivery: how each preacher uses rhythm, repetition, and direct address to shape the listener's experience. The general index provides a useful map for tracing themes across the ten volumes, but the real interest lies in the distinct voices captured here.

There’s a particular ache in old sermons, the way they turn urgency into a kind of quiet breathing. I found myself thinking of that while leafing through this collection—the shift from Drummond’s warmth to Jowett’s steadiness. And then I remembered To The Work! To The Work! Exhortations to Christians — Background and Themes, which feels like a whispered echo of the same call, almost forgotten.