Monkey Overboard! [Tract]

About This Product

A true story which memorably illustrates the consequences of neglecting God's offer of salvation. Alternate title: "The Monkey's Mistake"

Full Text of Monkey Overboard!

During World War II, my uncle was in the Army and was put on a U. S. Navy ship in the Pacific Ocean. The ship stopped at a tropical island and the sailors went ashore. While there, they found a monkey which they brought back to the ship as a pet and as a source of entertainment. Monkeys can be very entertaining. Soon the ship, and the monkey, left the island.

No doubt the monkey enjoyed having the run of the ship, but one day the monkey fell overboard, into the great Pacific Ocean.

Quickly, one of the sailors threw a life-preserver (sometimes called a “life ring”) to the monkey. It landed near the monkey, and all the monkey had to do was to grab hold of the life preserver, so that the sailors could pull the monkey back to the ship, using the rope attached to the life preserver. But the monkey ignored the life preserver and continued to thrash in the water as the ship moved away, and as the sailors watched while the monkey drowned. Why?

Well, because the ship was under orders to keep up with its wartime convoy, no captain was going to stop his ship to save a monkey. But the biggest problem was that the monkey did not have the sense — the wisdom — to grab hold of the life preserver. It did not know what a life preserver was or how it could be used to save him. And so he drowned.

You and I know what life preservers are; and so I assume that if you or I were in the monkey’s situation, you or I would make every effort to grab hold of the life preserver and would hold on to it until we were safe on the ship.

But, so many people are so much like this monkey. They swing carelessly through life, unaware of the real danger surrounding them. And when they become aware that they are in difficulty, they still do not realize how serious their danger is — that God’s judgment for sin awaits them; and so they ignore the help which is so available to them. Although the monkey surely did not like being in the ocean, he probably still did not realize that he was doomed to drown. But drown he did, regardless of what may have been in his monkey-mind.

Maybe you are like that monkey. You are surrounded by sin and you are in the real danger of God’s eternal judgment; and yet you have failed to recognize that God has seen your need and has sent a Savior into this world just for you — just to meet your need. If you didn’t need a savior, God would not have sent His Son to die on the cross for you. That poor monkey only needed to recognize the life preserver and to grab on to it. All that a sinner needs to do is to recognize that the Lord Jesus Christ is ready to save him (or her) and to trust Him — the One who has conquered death — the One who died to pay for our sins and who rose again.

You may remember the monkey with pity, but be careful that your end is not like his — don’t make the monkey’s deadly mistake! By faith, lay hold of the Lord Jesus Christ right now!

“And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many” (Hebrews 9:27-28).

“Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: And by Him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses” (Acts 13:38-39).

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).