Tradition is the collection of vetted habits worth keeping. It is a body of culture which winnows itself as it goes. Tradition is not the ashes that remain of what was previously burned down, but the refined gold of what has passed through the fire and been made better off for it. The ashes are not the traditions, but the detritus.
2 Timothy 1:6
For this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God
The Christian religion is one of keeping flames ablaze. We did not provide the lightning, but we can throw more fuel on the fire that fell from above. Tradition, then, is not the admiration of ashes, but the continuation of conflagration. It is old fire and fresh wood.
"Then I saw in my dream that the Interpreter took Christian by the hand, and led him to a place where there was a fire burning against a wall. In front of this fireplace was a man continually casting buckets of water on the fire in an effort to extinguish it. Nevertheless, the fire continued to burn higher and hotter." — John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress
The Holy Spirit is active in keeping His fire within us burning. He will not quench the smoldering wick. He will keep the party alive and pour fresh oil on what the Devil attempts to dampen.
Isaiah 42:3, Matthew 12:20
The smoking flax shall he not quench.
Let us then do our best to keep ourselves from being wet blankets. Let us kindle afresh the fire within by looking to Him who first lit us up. May we tend to our flame and preserve it for the next generation that they too may see by the light of it and be comforted by its warmth and grow its circumference to shine brighter and burn hotter than ever before.
"Be of good cheer, master Ridley, and play the man; we shall this day light such a candle in England, as I hope, by God's grace, shall never be put out." — Hugh Latimer
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