“You ask, Was I a Christian? Not me!” replied a young Canadian soldier in answer to a query. “I was wild and going to hell. But one night I was wounded and lay in a deserted shell hole, shot through the leg, and unable to move for fifteen hours. I was feeling about in my pocket for something to ease the pain, and all I could find was a little pocket Testament. Someone had given it to me, but I had never read it. I managed to get it out, and thinking it might be my last hour, and that I might never be found, I started to read and to try and forget my pain. I read Matthew 27, and Sir, the reading of that little Book brought such a change in my life. I have read a chapter every day since then. I came to realize what a great sinner I was, but I found Christ as my Saviour, as I read the story of His crucifixion.
“I was picked up by the infantry and carried to a hospital. One night when I could not sleep for pain, the nurse asked me if she could do anything for me. I asked her to read the Bible to me. She said she had never read it in her life, and I told her it was about time she did, if that was so. After she began reading, she said it helped her too.
“Yes, I say my prayers on my knees in the tent now. Another boy has joined me this week; and the language in the tent is getting better. Now I am no longer alone there on the field, for He is with me. It’s different now.
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2 Cor. 5:17.
ML-09/18/1977