PROBABLY most young folks who read this magazine have been to the zoo and have seen the great beasts of prey, such as the lion and tiger. The two tigers shown in the photo, are quite young ones or cubs, but although they are young they have all the fierceness of older ones.
Many years ago an African traveler managed to capture a tiger cub similar to those in the picture. He determined to tame the animal. He gave it no meat to eat, and he would speak to it and stroke it, until the young tiger gradually became used to him. After a time the man allowed it to walk about loose and it would follow him like a dog, until at last he began to think that his kindness had completely overcome the animal’s natural tendencies.
One day, however, as he was walking through the garden, he scratched his hand slightly against a thorn. He thought nothing of it, and a moment later bent down to stroke the pet tiger. To his surprise, the animal commenced to display symptoms of uneasy excitement and refused to be quieted. He allowed it to lick his hand as he had often done before, but no sooner had the tiger touched the scratch than it pounced upon him and bore him to the ground. The smell and taste of the blood had awakened the beast’s nature, and had it not been for the quick thought and courage of a servant, the man would have lost his life. As it was, he was badly mauled and bore the marks to the end of his life.
All that man’s efforts to change the tiger’s nature had been unsuccessful. It had not been altered one whit.
Hundreds of people, and even boys and girls, are making the same mistake. The Bible tells us that we have a sinful nature and a heart which is desperately wicked (Jer. 17:99The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9)), but some boys and girls seem to forget that. They think that by always being good and obedient, by going to Sunday school regularly, and by trying not to do wrong, they will be quite sure of going to heaven when the Lord Jesus comes. All these things are good and we are always glad to see them put into practice, but none of these things will save anyone. None of these things will change our sinful nature or make us any the less sinners. Only one thing will do that, and that is the power of the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He died in order that you might be saved and given a new nature, and that He might make you a new creation in Himself.
ML-02/28/1960