J. Gresham Machen was a bright light in a dark age of American Christianity. While liberalism was rapidly spreading throughout the new world, Machen was one of the great leaders who recognized the waning of Gospel light among the Protestant denominations of the United States. His book, Christianity and Liberalism, is a classic and should be required reading for every man whose responsibility it is to preach the Word of God.

A few years ago I read one of Machen’s lesser known essays that further endeared this theological giant to me. “Mountains and Why We Love Them” describes his own fascination with these topographic outcrops that demand our attention. Originally presented to a group of ministers in 1933, Machen writes of his delight in ascending the summits of mountains in the Alps.