Forget Not the Old

I speak of myself as a third generation Methodist preacher.  When my mother remarried after my father's death, she married a Methodist preacher who was also a Methodist preacher's kid.  My first theological library consisted mainly of books that had been on their shelves and in their hands.  I started out reading not the contemporary spiritual writers of my era, but people who had influenced both of them which meant I was introduced early to writers and saints whose ministries spanned the 20th century and stretched back into the 1800's.   

I was reminded of this spiritual heritage today in an unusual way.  I was waiting in an office when the receptionist ask if I would like to read her daily devotional book.  She handed me "Streams in the Desert" by Mrs. Charles Cowen.  It is a religious classic over a hundred years old and I was amazed this young woman was reading it.  It was passed to me nearly fifty years ago along with books by John Henry Jowett, Charles Spurgeon, Hannah Whitall Smith, E. Stanley Jones, John Bunyan, and Thomas a Kempis.  These are just a few of the many that I have read over the years because of the spiritual legacy passed to me.   

I wonder who the next generation will be reading.  There is a lot of stuff out there to be read and some of it is good, but I wonder which ones will stand the test of time?  Which authors will write words that will endure to bless the saints still to come?  I hope those walking the road of faith today will not dismiss everything not written last week for there is much to be gained from some of the saints who long ago walked where we are walking today.