Live monkeys in a cage attracted Frances’ attention as she and her father drove along the highway. She asked her father to stop so she could watch the interesting animals. Frances enjoyed the playful creatures as they walked back and forth with their tails curled over their backs. They hung by one hand or by their tails as they swung across the cage, entertaining Frances.
Mr. Brown, their owner, sold sandwiches and pop in the snack shop, attracting customers by having the monkeys in the nearby cage. His three little daughters amused themselves at the roadside near the monkeys. While Mr. Arthur and Frances were stopped to see the monkeys, they gave Sunday school papers to the three girls who were playing there. Mr. Arthur told them of the Saviour who died for sinners so they might go to heaven. The Brown girls showed such an interest in the Bible story that Mr. Arthur often came on Sunday afternoons to tell them and the neighborhood children of Jesus and His love for sinners. Sometimes he would bring a model of the tabernacle which was a picture of God’s house in Old Testament times so they could understand better what a wonderful home God had prepared in heaven for those who trusted in the Saviour.
Sometimes Mr. Arthur’s nephew Andrew would come to tell the Bible story to the children who gathered near the monkey cage. He taught them a verse from the Bible: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Genesis 1:11In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. (Genesis 1:1). Rhoda Brown remembered this verse which she knew was God’s Word, and was therefore the truth, and it kept her from believing some lies which she was later told.
One day Andrew took a picture of the three Brown girls and gave them a copy to keep to remember their roadside Bible story class. When Rhoda grew up she heard that Mr. Arthur had gone to heaven, and she showed us the picture which Andrew had given her. She said that she and her sister Eva had accepted the work of Christ on the cross for their sins, and that they were praying for the salvation of their father. Later their prayers were answered when Mr. Brown accepted the finished work of Christ for his sins, only two weeks before he died. How happy Rhoda and Eva were that their father went to heaven to be with the Lord Jesus Christ in whom he trusted. Rhoda and Eva were thankful that they heard the Bible stories when they were young so they could believe God’s Word “for it is the power of God unto salvation.” Romans 1:1616For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. (Romans 1:16).
God cares about monkeys and about Rhoda and Eva, and He cares about you. “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” Romans 10:99That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (Romans 10:9).
ML-09/28/1986