The autobiography of G. Stanley Jones is titled A Song of Ascent, and is considered to be one of the spiritual classics. Jones was a great man: a missionary to India, a friend to Gandhi, a tireless world traveler, and a great writer and speaker.

What's amazing is that this book was actually his third attempt at an autobiography. And he was 83 at the time. He had actually written two previous books but was unwilling to publish them. The first, he said, was too filled with the little events of his life, things he judged not worth telling. In the sec…