The classic collection of 16 sermons preached and compiled by Dr. Martin Luther King, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and one of the greatest orators in U.S. history As Dr. King prepared for the Birmingham campaign in early 1963, he drafted the final sermons for
Strength to Love, a volume of his most best-known homilies. King had begun working on the sermons during a fortnight in jail in July 1962. While behind bars, he spent uninterrupted time preparing the drafts for works such as “Loving Your Enemies” and “Shattered Dreams,” and he continued to edit the volume after his release.
Full Sermon List:
1. A Tough Mind and a Tender Heart
2. Transformed Nonconformist
3. On Being a Good Neighbor
4. Love in action
5. Loving Your Enemies
6. A Knock at Midnight
7. The Man Who Was a Fool
8. The Death of Evil Upon the Seashore
9. Shattered Dreams
10. Our God is Able
11. Antidotes for Fear
12. The Answer to a Perplexing Question
13. Paul’s Letter to American Christians
14. Pilgrimage to nonviolence
15. The Drum Major Instinct
16. The Three Dimensions of a Complete Life
A Gift of Love includes most of the classic sermons from
Strength to Love, along with 2 new sermons. Collectively they present King’s fusion of Christian teachings and social consciousness, and promote his prescient vision of love as a social and political force for change.
“If you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. I won’t have any money to leave behind. I won’t have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. . . . Yes, Jesus, I want to be on your right or your left side, not for any selfish reason. I want to be on your right or your left side, not in terms of some political kingdom or ambition. But I just want to be there in love and in justice and in truth and in commitment to others, so that we can make of this old world a new world.”
—From “The Drum Major Instinct”
“But be ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. One day we shall win freedom, but not only for ourselves. We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.”
—From “Loving Your Enemies”
