Ben Veggors was a chaplain at the Veteran’s Hospital not far from his home in a Western town. Having fulfilled his duties one particular day, he made his way across town to his home to have supper with his wife and spend the evening together as they usually did.
Just as they were about to begin their nice, hot meal, the phone rang. It was the hospital calling to ask if he could come back in to see a man who had just been put on the “watch list” as one who may not live until the morning.
Being one who wanted to help men see their need of a Saviour’s blood because of their ruined, hopeless condition before a holy God, he felt he should respond to their request. He left his wife and the nice meal and headed back to the Veteran’s Hospital.
Upon arrival, he made his way to the area where he knew such patients were kept and looked up the man he had been requested to see, whom they felt didn’t have long to live. When he entered the room and made his presence known, there was no response from the man. He lay silently in the bed in a coma.
Ben had seen men like this before and felt pity for him, hoping he had found peace with God and was ready to enter those courts above to be with his Saviour. But not knowing if this was the case, he felt his obligation before God to tell him the way to heaven.
He didn’t know if he could still hear, being in such a state of unresponsiveness, but knowing that one’s hearing is often the last faculty to leave a person, he spoke in the dying man’s ear the words from the Bible that tell the way for lost, hell-deserving sinners to find peace with God.
After feeling he had sufficiently covered the subject, he prayed with the man and got up to leave the room. As he got to the door, he felt something restraining him, and the words came to him, “If that was your son lying there in that state, would you only say that much to him?”
Upon this consideration, Ben turned and went back to speak more to this poor man who was undoubtedly not long for this world. He went over various other scriptures with him and earnestly pleaded with him, as if he could hear him, that he needed to find peace with God without delay because death may be near at hand.
He prayed more fervently for him and then left him, feeling satisfied in his conscience that he had plainly and clearly explained to the man all that was needed for his salvation. Mr. Veggors then went home to supper with his wife.
A couple of days later, as Ben was making his rounds at the hospital, he passed the room where he had spoken to the man that night. As he passed by, he noticed on the chart outside the door that the man had died. He wondered, Had the man been saved? Was he in the presence of the Lord Jesus or was he in the place for those who have refused the offer of mercy and pardon and are waiting for their final judgment day?
As he continued on down the hallway, he heard a woman behind him call to him. He turned to find three women coming up to him with a question. “Are you the man who spoke to our brother in this room the other night?” Ben said that yes, he was. Then they began to tell him their interesting story.
They told him they were all sisters of this man who had died. When they heard their brother was not expected to live, they all felt they should come to try to see him before he died. They further told Ben that they were all Christians and that their brother was the “black sheep of the family.”
They had been praying for him and trying to reason with him for years, but it had all been worthless as far as they could tell. When they got to the hospital and found him unresponsive, they wondered if there was any hope for him, and they sat around talking and praying for their brother that God would be merciful to him.
They were suddenly very surprised to see their brother sit up in the bed and exclaim, “I’m saved!” The sisters could hardly believe their ears and very hopefully inquired of him how that could possibly be. He told them that Ben had come into his room one evening and had told him the way of salvation very clearly, that he had accepted God’s offer to wash away his sins, and now he was on the way to heaven! Then he fell back on the bed and was gone!