John Henry Jowett, pastor of the Fifth Presbyterian Church in NYC in 1912 described a great preacher (but I think this should apply to all Christians) as one who is able:
to look at the horizon rather than at an enclosed field, or a local landscape. He [has] a marvelous way of connecting every subject with eternity past and with eternity to come...It is as though you were looking at a bit of carved wood in a Swiss village window, and you lifted your eyes and saw the forest where the wood was nourished, and, higher still, the everlasting snows! Yes, that was Binney's way, Dale's way, the way of Bushnell, and Newman, and Spurgeon - they were always willing to stop at the village window, but they always linked the streets with the heights, and sent your souls a-roaming over the eternal hills of God. (Jowett
, p 95)
I couldn't help but being reminded of these words when I walked behind our school the other day to look out over the village and was startled to realize the looming mountains far above where I had been concentrating. May the Lord cause us to make such great connections not just in our physical eyesight but also in our walk with Him.
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