In the battle of the Aisne one evening one of the men, wounded by a bursting shell, was lying in a trench. The captain was an avowed infidel. A great debater he had been in his college days, a strong-minded man, a man of strong character, and a man who openly declared his belief that Jesus Christ was an impostor. He went up to the soldier, one of his own men.
“Can I do anything for you, lad?” he asked.
“You might read something about Him,” said the dying man, tugging away at the New Testament in his pocket.
There were the shells all round, there was the roar of battle, and the captain felt dazed. But he could not refuse. He opened the Gospel and began to read. It was a passage in John: “In My Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. If I go to prepare a place for you. I will come again, and receive you unto Myself.” There was a pause. Then he read on: “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give unto you.”
He looked at the man’s face. There was a dying pallor over it, but such a bright smile of peace and joy. The captain turned away. By-and-by, when he turned again and spoke, there was no answer. He saw the soldier lad had gone home. He went to do his part in the fight. Within half an hour he was drawn back to the trench, looking once more upon that face, beautiful in death. He said: “Oh, lad, you have got something that I have not got. I could not go out like that. I wish you would come back and tell me all about it!”
Before long that captain became a simple and true believer and follower of Jesus Christ. All things are real when men are face to face with death and eternity.