Cited in Practical Christianity Jul – Sep 1971 p16 published by the Officers’ Christian Union (now the Armed Forces’ Christian Union)
My parents were Christians, and I was christened at birth and confirmed at about fifteen; but I never really understood what constituted a real Christian, with the result that mistakenly I thought it all depended on me and my own efforts. Later my faith in the Bible was badly shaken, due chiefly to Darwin’s Theory of Evolution and Lyell’s Geological Time Scale.
In 1914 I was commissioned and served in France. In 1916 a grenade exploded 12 inches from my face. My head was not touched but my right hand was blown off. The Lord Jesus once said that it was better to lose your right hand than that you yourself should be cast into hell. I had lost my right hand, but I had been spared to come to faith in Christ later and so to be saved.
In 1923, whilst stationed on Salisbury Plain, my mother came down to stay and at tea one day she explained to me the way of salvation, telling me that the only way to be forgiven was to trust Christ, “Who takes away the sin of the world” and who can make us righteous.
Suddenly it all ‘clicked’, my spiritual eyes were opened; everything fell into place, and I saw it all clearly. I trusted Chris as my Saviour and God, and accepted His gifts of forgiveness and salvation, which He had procured when He died on the cross for me. But I still retained the right to run my own life.
Sometime later my uncle showed me that Darwin’s Theory of Evolution was nothing more than a theory; it had never been proved and was unlikely ever to be proved as it was not borne out by the facts, was against reason and common sense as well as against the Bible. My belief in the Bible was gradually restored, and with that my belief in Chris as truly God. But I still wanted to run my own life.
Then came WW2 and I went to France and Belgium. My life was saved once again in the evacuation from Dunkirk. There followed the command of a battalion, in which I had several narrow escapes. I now gave Christ command of my life.
Serious septicaemia broke out on one occasion when I went into a coma and my feet became gangrenous. But though the surgeon urged immediate amputation of both feet my wife asked him to wait until next morning. She prayed and to everyone’s astonishment recovery began, even though I remained in a coma for ten days. So, I can say, “Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not all His benefits.”
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