Witnessing

The story is told of a soldier who lay dying and the preacher who came to attend to him. “Can I help you in any way?” the young preacher asked.

“I’m cold,” snapped the dying man. In silence the minister took off his overcoat and spread it over him.

The dying man glared at him awhile. “My neck is hurting,” he snarled in pain, and off came the minister’s suit coat to serve as a pillow.

A few more moments of glaring and then the voice came in a softer tone: “I’d sure like a cigarette.” The preacher found a cigarette, lit it, and put it in the soldier’s mouth.

Finally the soldier said to the compassionate preacher, “Mister, if you’ve got anything in that Bible that makes you act like this, read it to me.”

David Jeremiah, Signs of Life, p. 161