The Chaplain was called many times to the side of a seriously wounded soldier, even late at night. One day the fighting had been especially heavy. His time was spent all day and far into weary hours of the night seeking to comfort wounded soldiers and arranging to have the dead removed. His heart went out in deepest sorrow to the many dear boys who had been wounded. He was grieved as he thought of the great number who had died, and he wondered how many knew Christ as Savior.
Finally on this particular day he felt free to try to get a little sleep. Just as he lay down, a soldier, sent by the sergeant, requested him to come immediately. A wounded soldier was dying and wanted to know how he could be saved-how he could be ready to meet God.
The Chaplain hurried to the trench where he had been told the dying soldier was. Kneeling by his side in the trench, the Chaplain heard the dying man say in a very weak voice, "Chaplain, can you help me to die?"
To this he replied, "Soldier, I would be happy to help you die; if I could, I would even be willing to try to carry you on my shoulders into heaven, but I cannot do that. However, I want to tell you of One who can."
"Who is He?" the soldier weakly asked.
The Chaplain told him that this blessed Man was his precious Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, that He had come into the world to seek and to save that which was lost.
A profound silence ensued. The Chaplain thought the soldier had died, when again with a still weaker voice the dying man asked the same question: "How can I meet God; how can I be saved?"
Still kneeling beside the poor soldier, the Chaplain read to him from the Gospel according to John, chapter 3, verse 16, "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."
The dear soldier just lay there with his eyes riveted on the Chaplain's face. It seemed every word was going home to his poor heart. "Chaplain," he said weakly, "please read those words again: 'THAT WHOSOEVER BELIEVETH IN HIM SHOULD NOT PERISH, BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE!' "
As the Chaplain slowly read the words again, the dying soldier interrupted, "Oh Sir, stop! Are those words really there?"
"Yes, soldier," the Chaplain affirmed, "this is God's Book, and they are God's own precious words."
"Please read them again! Do repeat them, please, Chaplain!" pleaded the soldier.
So he read them a third and a fourth time. The soldier folded his hands on his heaving chest. The Chaplain read on and on, but long before he finished, the dying man had closed his eyes.
Suddenly his eyes opened. The terrified expression on the face of the dying soldier had changed into a sweet, peaceful smile. The fear of death had gone. As the Chaplain bent over him he could hear his parched, quivering lips faintly whispering, "Whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish but have everlasting life."
Again his eyes closed and after a short pause suddenly opened. Fixing them on the Chaplain's face he whispered, "That is all I want, Sir," and was gone to be with Christ. "Absent from the body... present with the Lord" (2 Cor. 5:88We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:8)).