How can the poor ape get out? Well, it would be easier to tell you how he got in. He was born in the cage behind good strong bars. His mother ape had been a wild wanderer in a southern jungle years ago, but this tittle fellow was horn in captivity. That’s how he got in.
Does he like it? He seems to, yes. The visitors are very interesting, and they throw him bananas sometimes.
The keeper is kind to him and he sleeps in peace, and his thoughts never go very high. He’s only an ape, after all.
A child born in captivity is different, You, my reader, have been born in a place of captivity to sin and Satan. You like the service of sin well enough, perhaps, and think it is fun, but you have a conscience inside, which reminds you that you must meet God about every one of those sins.
But how can the ape get out? He cannot. He is still there, and the bars are as strong as ever. Death will someday end his captivity; but if you are unsaved death will not set you free. If you die in your sins you will go into a lost eternity, but our story would not be worth telling if it ended there. But it doesn’t, and we have a glorious message to tell you of the Saviour who can set you free.
The Son of God took the captive sinner’s place. The Lord Jesus Christ suffered under the judgment of sin, suffered and died, and rose again, that we might be free in Him beyond the power of sin and death. The bars of sin are broken for you, if you claim that risen Saviour as your own. You may, by accepting Him now, be set free forever, but remember His solemn warning to those who believe not.
ML 12/17/1950