IT WAS after sundown in the African jungle and Tom Lee, riding homeward, noticed that Mac, his terrier dog, was not following him. Turning back, he whistled, but the only response was a faint whine and whimpering that seemed to come from underground somewhere. Getting off his pony he started to force his way through the thick underbrush. Soon he realized he could easily lose his bearings and not find his way back in the gathering darkness, so he decided to go on home and come back at daybreak. He did return in the morning, but could neither find nor hear anything of his dog.
What happened was that poor little Mac had come face to face with a big leopard. In his flight he fell into one of those great pits covered with branches and leaves, such as the natives dig sometimes to trap leopards. The big cat must have leaped after him, but she too pitched headlong into the covered pit along with the dog. Furious at being imprisoned, the leopard bounded up and down, clawing at the dirt wall while the terrified terrier crouched in one corner. Finding escape was impossible, the leopard huddled in the opposite corner, snarling at Mac as though she were terrified at him.
Then Mac, hearing his master’s whistles, also must have made puny leaps in his eagerness to escape, but realizing as the night wore on that it was of no avail, he curled up exhausted in his corner. In the morning, he must have heard his master’s whistle again. Again he must have yapped and whined and leaped up and down trying to get out, but in vain. Outside, Lee did not hear him, and thinking a leopard had got the dog, he went away.
For a day and a night the two strange prisoners kept to their own respective sides of the pit. The leopard’s half was trodden smooth by her great cushioned tread, while Mac’s half was dotted all over with the imprints of his little feet. Then as morning dawned, there was a great stir and excitement overhead. A troop of monkeys somehow had spied the leopard down the hole, and their excitement knew no bounds. Other monkeys gathered to chatter and mock at their great spotted enemy below, as she glared and snarled up at them. Then as the monkeys clustered around the hole, suddenly the roof gave way and one of their number pitched headlong down into the pit. The leopard snarled furiously, and the terrified monkey fled, pressing himself against the side of the wall where Mac was.
Meanwhile overhead the excitement increased, and birds of every size and hue gathered to scream and mock at the hated leopard.
As the hours passed by, thirst and hunger began to tell on the three inmates of the pit. But strange to say, the leopard never attacked either of her fellow prisoners; she was content to lie huddled in her corner. This dreadful state of things went on day after day; each became too feeble to strike at each other, even had they wished, and they were little more than skin and bones.
One morning, two men drew rein on the jungle’s path nearby. “What’s all that row?” exclaimed Tom Lee. “Hear those screaming birds and chattering monkeys? I hear it every time I pass. It was just about here that I lost my dog.”
The older man swung around in his saddle. “We’d better investigate,” he said. So the two left their ponies, and guided by the birds, they found the pit. Peering down, what a sight met their eyes! Directly below, the three animals sat side by side looking up at them, the leopard big-eyed and fearless, the monkey with both hands outstretched, while little Mac, all drooping, still managed to sum up just enough energy to wag his tail. The trodden floor of the pit, the clawed and broken walls, told their own story of the long and bier struggle which had taken place.
“The best thing to do is to get the leopard out first,” said the older man.
They were not long in finding a fallen tree, and having trimmed off the branches they lowered it into the pit. The wild cat watched suspiciously; but then seeing the way of escape, she cautiously mounted the tree. Slowly she came on till she gained the brink, where both men stood back watching, their revolvers drawn. The monkey scrambled up behind her. A minute later both disappeared into the forest. Then Lee lowered himself into the pit to save his dog.
Little Mac was all right in a few days, though he lost every hair on his body. However, his new coat ban to grow again, more beautiful and softer than before.
As I read this story, dear boys and girls, I could not help thinking of another pit into which we had fallen, along with all of Adam’s race — the miry pit of sin and death and judgment. We were all in that pit, born in sin, and shapen in iniquity, we are told in Psalm 51 — and there was no way of escape. Our own efforts to escape only prove futile.
But there was One who came from above, in love and compassion, to save us poor sinners from perishing in our sins; and that was Jesus, the Son of God. He is the only Saviour. “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4:1212Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12). He came down to where we were; He went down, down into those deep waters of death and judgment, bore the awful wrath of a sin-hating God against our sins, answered to God for every sin and stain, washed them all away in His precious blood; then rose the mighty Victor over death and the grave, and opened the way for all who trust in Him to be saved.
When those two men put that tree down into the pit as a way of escape, it reminds us of the cross on which the Lord Jesus died. Peter tells us “who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree.” I Pet. 2: 24. The cross on which Jesus died is God’s way of escape — the only way for sinners to be saved from perishing. Dear reader, are you in the pit still, or have you been delivered out of it by Jesus? Have you come to the cross and seen Him there dying for you? If not, trust Him now as your Saviour.
Adapted from C. M. Batten.
ML-08/14/1966