Sole Witness

SOLE WITNESS

A fine lad entered the Army. He faced a real test the first night he went to be in the barracks. He had formed the commendable habit of placing his Bible on his bed at home and kneeling down to read a chapter while having his daily prayer time before retiring.

Surrounded by scores of rough men in the one great company room, many of them cursing and jesting loudly, he thought it might be wiser to go to bed and then read his Bible where nobody would notice it. But he told himself, "I am a Christian, and I ought to give these fellows a testimony. I won’t strike my colors; I’ll do just as I did at home!" So the courageous youngster undressed, got into his sleeping garments, and spread his Bible on his cot. He kneeled down and started to read, and in two minutes the barracks got as quiet as a church. He felt like a goldfish in a glass bowl. After a while, the talk began again, and nothing was said about his odd behavior.

But the next night when he again opened his Bible and knelt to read, eight other boys dug out their Bibles and did the same. And within a month, every man in that outfit would have fought for that boy. They brought their troubles and their questions to him to be settled, and he influenced more men for Christ in that one barracks than half a dozen chaplains could have moved in a year of Sundays.

(Source: From Miracles at Morning Cheer, by Harry Rimmer. From a sermon by Bill Butsko, "Fishers of Men" 1/22/2009)