Some 75 years ago the great poet-preacher, Henry Van Dyke, traveled to the Holy Land. He returned from his journey with many memories and insights, but high among them was a "new conviction": "Christianity," he said, "is an out-of-doors religion." From Jesus’ birth in a cave to his crucifixion on a hill outside Jerusalem, all of its important events - with perhaps two or three exceptions - took place in the out-of-doors. Van Dyke was so impressed that when he returned to America and wrote the story of his travels, he titled the book, Out-of-Doors in the Holy Land.

My own experiences in the land of the Bible have confirmed this feeling. I have not felt the nearness of God so much in the shrines which have been built in traditional holy places as I have standing on a hillside or walking thr…