St John Baptist Church, Morton

The Church of St John Baptist in the Lincolnshire village of Morton is one of those rare jewels; while previous attempts to visit less interesting churches were thwarted by locked doors, this one proved to be more interesting and fully open. Indeed, signs without positively pleaded with people to come inside. It is mainly medieval with minimal Victorian vandalism and hosts a rather nice Book Exchange, the tomes of which I perused with pleasure.

St John’s is also interesting for the position of its tower. Standard practice constructed the bell tower at the west end of a church, away from the chancel and ‘altar’. Here, it is built over the church’s middle, rendering it a ‘crossing tower’, as one must pass beneath it when going from nave to chancel. This makes little difference to the affairs within, though it adds a little extra light to the floorspace below and the sound of the bells, if rung during worship, would seem to come from in front of the gathered worshippers rather than behind. Bells which are loud enough may not even offer any sense of their location and direction of their ringers, but here at St John’s, at least in theory, their sound radiates from where the eyes are gazing.

I recall attending an organ recital in one of Prague’s great churches. The huge instrument was in the gallery to our rear, while we occupied a pew, facing forward. It felt strange, for our eyes looked ahead, but our ears were attending something from another direction. It was pleasant enough and I may not have remembered it but for the oddity of the situation. When God speaks to us through scripture, He does so from the past, for the writings are ancient. Yet much of their content describes the future, as well as the present and that which was before. Their ultimate Author exists outside of space and time; He inhabits eternity and observes the affairs of men from a timeless position of perfect knowledge and understanding. Therefore, He speaks today, through words scratched into parchment thousands of years ago. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is the God of the Living, of the Now, of the present and future. He is older than the hills yet more youthful than a child; He is more stable than a giant rock yet livelier than a mighty river in flood. So hear His voice from the past, obey His will in the present and look ahead to His glory in the future.

The eternal God is your refuge, And underneath are the everlasting arms; He will thrust out the enemy from before you, And will say, ‘Destroy!’, NKJV, Deuteronomy 33:27

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