Opening
Hannah Hurnard frames the preface as a promise: the love of Christ leaps over every obstacle, and believers can learn to move with the same freedom. Gazelles bounding across rock become the book’s guiding image—“hinds’ feet” that carry the soul to its “High Places,” a present-tense life of union with God and victorious living.
What Happens
Hurnard recalls her mission work in Palestine, where an Arab nurse reads from the Song of Solomon—“he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills”—and interprets it as Christ’s love overcoming all barriers. For The Shepherd, mountains of difficulty are no more treacherous than a smooth path. That vision of love in motion becomes Hurnard’s compass for the story that follows.
Watching gazelles spring up rocky heights without strain, Hurnard finds the central metaphor: the Christian longs to navigate trials with the same grace and certainty. The “High Places” are not heaven after death but a state of spiritual victory and unbroken union with God now. Suffering—whether unjust, painful, or seemingly pointless—functions as God’s workshop, shaping the believer’s character and fueling Spiritual Transformation and Sanctification. The deep human hunger for love, voiced in the Song of Songs, ultimately draws the soul into total devotion.
The path upward is not self-engineered. Hurnard rejects willpower, techniques, and self-imposed disciplines as the key. Instead, the way is daily surrender—accepting God’s will in hard circumstances and with difficult people. Each consent becomes an “altar of sacrifice,” a defining practice in Obedience and Submission to God's Will. The allegory will show a pilgrim learning to accept and overcome evil, growing intimate with grief and pain, and seeing them transfigured into treasure. She signals that the protagonist must walk with Sorrow and Suffering, not as enemies but as appointed companions. The book aims to comfort those under trial, offering them “hinds’ feet” for their own “High Places.”
Character Development
Though the preface precedes the story, it maps the archetypes that shape the journey and sets expectations for how they function.
- The Believer: The universal longing for union with God and victory in trial prepares the way for Much-Afraid, who embodies fear, desire, and transformation.
- The Shepherd: Christ, the “Lord of Love,” stands as the strong, tender guide who traverses mountains with ease and enables his follower to do the same.
- Sorrow and Suffering: Introduced as necessary guides rather than adversaries, they serve as the Shepherd’s appointed companions who teach endurance, trust, and joy.
Themes & Symbols
Hurnard grounds the pilgrimage in a theology of transformation. Suffering is not punitive but formative; consent to God’s will, repeated in the particularities of daily life, becomes the means of reshaping the heart. Love motivates the ascent: desire for God reorders lesser loves until the soul seeks union above all else. This becomes the engine of Spiritual Transformation and Sanctification.
The preface also establishes that spiritual victory is accessible now. “High Places” name a present reality of communion with God, not a distant postmortem reward. The path requires relinquishment—an “altar of sacrifice” at each crossroads—linking love intrinsically to surrender and obedience. In this light, hardship becomes a “glorious opportunity,” reframing The Necessity of Suffering and Sorrow and modeling Overcoming Fear with Trust in God.
Symbols:
- Hinds’ Feet: Spiritual agility and grace—the God-given capacity to meet trials with poise and joy.
- High Places: A state of maturity, freedom from fear and sin, and sustained communion with God in this life.
- Mountains: The obstacles, tests, and griefs that mark the journey of faith.
- Altar of Sacrifice: Each act of surrender that unites love and loss, central to The Relationship Between Love and Sacrifice.
Key Quotes
“He cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.” This verse from the Song of Solomon undergirds the entire allegory. It casts Christ’s love as active, joyful, and unimpeded, setting the pattern the believer is invited to share.
“High Places” Hurnard redefines this phrase as a present experience of unbroken union and victory, not a postmortem destination. The reframing shifts the reader’s expectation from escape to transformation.
“Altar of sacrifice” By naming each surrender an altar, Hurnard recasts daily hardships as sacred offerings. The image dignifies loss and links obedience to worship and love.
“Keep company with Sorrow and Suffering” This counsel prepares the reader to welcome painful companions as God’s instruments. It anticipates the paradox that affliction, rightly received, becomes the means of joy.
Why This Matters and Section Significance
The preface functions as the book’s interpretive key. It tells readers how to read the allegory: mountains are trials, hinds’ feet are grace, and “High Places” are a lived union with God. It also establishes the emotional tone—pastoral, honest about pain, and confident in transformation—so that the journey ahead feels both costly and hopeful. By defining the path as daily surrender empowered by love, Hurnard aligns the narrative with the heart of Christian devotion and equips readers to find meaning, courage, and companionship in their own ascent.