Boreham had a remarkable ability to see things in texts. ‘Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out’ (Jn 6:37) suggests to him the infinite approachability of Jesus, the infinite catholicity of Jesus (a welcome to all who would come), and the infinite reliability of Jesus.

He sees in the three measures of meal into which the leaven was put my spirit, soul and body, or my whole spiritual being, the intellectual, the emotional and the physical part of me. Or the three measures may stand for my secret life, my domestic life, and my business life, or at its widest they may stand for the past, the present and the future.

He calls Ephesians 3:17-19 the text of the Four Magnitudes. He quotes a Roman Catholic commentator as saying that the love of Christ is ‘wide as the limits of the universe; long as the ages of eternity; deep as the abyss from which it has redeemed us; high as the throne of God itself.’

In talking of ‘I am Alpha and Omega’ (Rev 1:8) he thinks of the symbolism of the alphabet. The text shows us the inexhaustibility of the Son of God. There is no end to what the philosophers and the poets and the thinkers can produce from the alphabet. It shows us the indispensability of the Son of God. There can be no communication of any truth without the alphabet. It shows us the invincibility of Jesus. Jesus does not stop half-way; he goes from beginning to end.

Boreham can bring texts out of secular writers. He finds advice to fishermen in Izaak Walton’s The Compleat Angler and transfers the advice to those who would be fishers of men. Walton has four rules for fishermen. ‘Be sure your face is towards the light’ he says. ‘Study the fishes’ curious ways.’ He who would catch men must understand men. ‘Then keep yourself well out of sight.’ And lastly, ‘Cherish patience all your days’. The four pieces of advice will, as Boreham sees, turn into verse:

Be sure your face is toward the light;
Study the fishes’ curious ways;
Then keep yourself well out of sight;
And cherish patience all your days.

What magnificent advice for the fisher of men!

Boreham has an eye for the apt and interesting quotation. He quotes Pitt’s tribute to Dundas: ‘Dundas is no orator; he is not even a speaker; but he will go out with you in any weather’. He quotes Dickens’ letter to his son when the boy was setting out for Australia: ‘I need not tell you that I love you dearly, and am very, very sorry in my heart to part with you. I have put a New Testament among your books, because it is the best book that ever was, or will be, known to the world. As your brothers have gone away one by one I have written to each such words as I am writing to you entreating them all to guide themselves by this book. Only one thing more. Never abandon the practice of private prayer. I know the comfort of it.’

Boreham has an interesting passage on the peacemakers. ‘First-party peace-making – abstinence, that is, from giving offence – is the easiest form of peace-making and the best. Second-party peace-making – abstinence, that is, from taking offence – is the next easiest and the next best. Third-party peace-making – the intervention, that is, of a disinterested person – is at once the most difficult and least satisfactory; but it is possible, and when occasion offers, the venture must be made.’

Lastly we quote another piece of advice to preachers. A church member, in saying good-bye to a minister leaving for another charge, said: ‘Well, sir, I am sorry to see you go. I never had but one objection to you; your preaching was always too horizontal!’ And then Boreham quotes the words of Jowett: ‘We must preach more upon the great texts of the Scriptures; we must preach on those tremendous passages whose vastnesses almost terrify us as we approach them’. If this little book sends preachers back to Boreham it will have done a good and useful work.

The Expository Times, September 1976, p. 384.