A cross the street from an Enco service station, a competitor erected a large sign on which was written, “We Specialize in Removing Tiger Hair from Carburetors.” Though Enco’s “Tiger in Your Tank” ballyhoo produced a roar heard around the world, it did nothing to prove that the products of Humble Oil Company are better than those o f any other reputable oil distributor. Unfortunately, Christ The Tiger is bound to leave tiger hair in the carburetors o f a large num ber o f spiritual neophytes and restless college young people who have discovered that it is exhil arating to tear down religious walls. For this and other reasons, this lucidly-written book ought to be read and answered by evangelical leaders. The reader soon becomes aware that Howard’s book is not an exposition of Christ the Tiger. It is the autobiography o f a sharp and restless mind. In all fairness to the public, the book should have been titled, “ Tom the Tiger.” Of course, with that title, it would not have sold. But the fact remains that Howard spends far more time unveiling his own unmanageable soul than he does portraying Jesus Christ as being too great to be systematized and too strong to be incarcerated. In the preface, Howard writes, “ Things have a way of falling to pieces . . . nothing is exempt, not even our ideas.” To this, he adds, “ The process of becoming adult seems often to involve the corol lary process o f disavowing not only one’s child hood, but everything attached to it.” Howard ap parently has done a rather thorough job of discard ing much o f his own childhood training. Christ The Tiger conveys the idea that there are few if any certainties. All is change and decay. The reader is left with the conviction that there is a genuine value in possessing no certainties. Ma turity comes only to the individual who disavows absolutes. This leads to some questions. Is Tom Howard really asserting that there are no immutable major premises upon which life can be built? Is every thing relative? Are there no invariables? Is there no positive, unchangeable, eternal truth? Can a child not be taught that two and two are four with absolute certainty? Can he ever become a great mathematician without the starting base o f an ac curate and unalterable primary education? Or is it necessary for him to discard all basic principles ?
The following quotations regarding the author’s early religious experiences are revealing. He says, “ I felt myself a part of an almost invisible minor ity which had the saving truth for the world. . . . I believed that what God wanted was men who would be willing to bum out for Him. . . . Men around me were perishing. What did it matter in the light o f eternity whether or not my name ever got into the history books or the society? . . . I came to feel that the great thing was to have a single ness of vision. We must do God’s work, and this work was to fill up the gaps through which men were tumbling to perdition. . . . I thought about ‘let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us’ . . . I often pictured my self on my knees in a grass hut in Central Africa, with my Bible on my cot in front of me, pouring out my life in prayer and agony before God for the souls of the people to whom I had been sent.. . . I liked St. Paul’s ‘woe unto me if I preach not the Gospel’ . . . And I liked to think about the suffer ing servant, who ‘set his face like a flint’ to do God’s will. . . . I developed a vision o f godliness, then, that involved ardor, sacrifice, and simplicity.” Concerning his college days, Howard writes: “ On week-ends, we spent quiet hours in our rooms in meditation and prayer or in little fellowship meetings. We liked the idea o f all-night prayer meetings. . . . I concentrated on scriptural ideas like this, ‘Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life,’ and, ‘behold, thou desir- est truth in the inner parts.’ “ I began to rise at 5:15 in the morning to pray and read my Bible. I felt guilty for not being a soul winner. . . . It makes sense. If you have a rope and someone is going over the cliff, you give him the rope. Or, if you have an exciting possession, you want to share it with your friends.” To all of this, I simply ask, “ Is it a sign o f spir itual maturity to give up prayer meetings, to lay
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TH E KING'S BUSINESS
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