Friday, May 04, 2012

On Soulwinning...

In Gipsy Smith's book The Beauty of Jesus, Gipsy Smith told about Peter Apples, a man (during the Civil War) who went into the enemy's territory. Peter Apples did not know much about being a good soldier. He just knew that when his superior officer said, "Charge!" he was supposed to go. And he was the kind of man who never came back until he made contact with the enemy. 

One day his officer said, "Charge!" Peter Apples charged. But they came under such severe fire that the superior officer asked them to retreat, to come back. Peter Apples didn't hear that, so he kept going. He went across "No-Man's Land" and finally into the enemy's territory. He went down in a ditch where the enemy soldiers were lined up one behind the other, took hold of the first one in the ditch, grabbed him by the nape of the neck, drug him out and started back toward home with him.

The enemy soldiers took aim and started to shoot, but since their own soldier was being dragged behind Peter Apples, they couldn't fire. About the time they thought they had a shot, their own soldier would get in the way again. Peter Apples continued to travel with the soldier. Finally he dragged him across "No-Man's Land" and back into his own territory and dropped him at the feet of his superior officer.

The officer looked at him, took a deep breath, and said, "Where in the world did you get him?" He answered, "I got him over there in the ditch. There's plenty of them over there, and all of you could have had one if you had wanted one."