The racy, versatile and prolific pen of Brother Harry Whittaker (thinly masquerading here under the pseudonym of Tychicus, the Apostle Paul’s much-loved companion in the gospel) has produced this stimulating volume of advice and comment on just about every topic, issue or problem that faces young people in the Truth today.
Cast in the form of fifty or more fictitious letters from Tychicus to two typical (but imaginary) young Christadelphians, Brother Whittaker’s thoroughgoing review of the difficulties of living in the modern world without being of it is carried through in the most natural and readable way. Of course, as the many young people who have received real letters from the real-life Tychicus over the years will know, H.A.W. is an exceptional letter-writer anyway; but here he has developed the genre ahnost into an art-form, with topics as diverse as Bible reading, respect for parents, the use of cosmetics, careers and even AIDS, forming the basis for discussion. Even the one-sidedness of the exchange—we are permitted to read only one letter each from George and Jenny—is offset by the skilful, but apparently uncontrived, way in which Tychicus refers to the various comments made by his young correspondents and the different questions they have raised with him.
The frank and direct approach which Tychicus adopts towards his young friends seems quite natural, also, in what are, after all, private communications made public for our benefit; and it is this very openness of the letter-writer which makes the book such a refreshing and valuable source of personal comment and advice. And always, whether George or Jenny is being praised or criticised, patted on the back or stung into action, there is the feeling of genuine sympathy and of a strong desire to be helpful on the part of their well-meaning and well-informed counsellor.
As might be expected, too, of a book from this particular author, there are many challenging statements and phrases to savour, to note, and to ponder, of which the following are merely typical: (on preaching the Truth to others) “You can never be a worthwhile preacher of an effective gospel unless you go armed and equipped with a Bible which has become part of yourself”; (on choosing the right wife) “When wife and religious duty pull the same way a man assuredly will realise the best that is in him, to the glory of God”; (on the dangers of materialism) “Never was there greater danger than today of the Ahnighty being deposed by lesser deities—the gods of the car, garden, clothes, glamorous holidays, lovely houses, fine eating, business ambition, academic advancement and all that”.
Readers of this excellent little book will be stimulated, goaded, and sometimes even irritated or shamed by it (“after a godly sort”); but, above all, they will be helped to think carefully about their own lives before God. And that, in the final analysis, is what really makes the book worth reading.
Review of “The Early Earth” by John Whitcomb (1972)