It's time I confessed to a long time romantic attachment. Some of you knew about it, but I have had a long time love affair... with books.

I remember when I first fell for them. Hackman's Bible Book store in Allentown Pennsylvania were selling a shipment of books from a retired Methodist minister. My mentor, Mel Dieter pointed out which books I should seize. I obeyed. That's when I got my huge leather bound Young's Concordance. And I picked up 25 or more of Colvis Chappell's sermons (which baled me out more than once during that first year pastoring). It was a delicious day. The books filled the entire back seat of my VW Beetle.

I devoured them for the information they contained, but beyond than that, I loved how they affected my senses. You know books are sensuous things. I liked how they looked, organized neatly on my bricks-and-plank bookshelves, how they felt to the touch of my hand, and the perfume escaping from a 25 year old book is powerful medicine for the soul.

Then I inherited my father's library. He was a preacher too. He had inherited many of his books from his own father, a Pennsylvania coal miner who had amassed quite a collection of 'holiness books.' I can't explain the feeling that overwhelms me handling my father's and grandfather's books -- but if you have some you understand. Suffice it to say that I am head over heals in love with books. I can't get over it.

But my oldest son, who is entering the pastorate this Spring, won't really need most of my books. Oh, sure, he'd take them. He'd display them on his shelves like he might display an antique wash stand or potato masher. But he won't use them much. Not unless the electric goes off.

He will access the library of the 21st century -- through his computer modem. In fact, with a $10 monthly fee, he has access from his bedroom at college to a thousand times more books than three generations of Drury's before him have been able to amass. I was in the ministry for 15 years before I could afford a collection of Wesley's sermons. He can get them free at http://ccel.wheaton.edu/wesley/sermons/. I had to pay for Clovis Chappell's sermons. He can get 20 years worth of Ray Stedman's sermons at http://www.pbc.org/dp/stedman/index.html. And if he wants to read after Leonard Ravenhill he can type in http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/ravenhill/ravenhill-home.html and read all night.

But, what about those hard-to-find specialty books like my grandfather's collection of holiness books? No problem. In fact the more obscure out-of-print works are coming on line the fastest. In the case of my son's own 'holiness heritage" he can access more holiness books than he could ever dream of having himself -- at http://