by Pastor Jack Hyles (1926-2001)
I WON BOTH HER HUSBANDS
About five years ago I won one of her husbands. A few days ago I won the other one. Oh, you are asking for an explanation? Here it is:
On my regular Friday afternoon soul-winning visitation, Friday, January 27, 1961, it was my privilege to win a Catholic man to Jesus Christ. His wife was already a Christian and had prayed for him for years. The next Sunday he came forward in the services and was baptized.
About a year later it was found that he had cancer and could not live long. He lingered about a year and was in and out of the hospital during this period. Finally, he was sent home to die, but the strangest thing happened. He would not go to the bedroom; neither would he use a hospital bed. He wanted to die on the sofa in the living room. Here he stayed for weeks. This was the same sofa on which he had been saved. This was the place where he wanted to die.
One morning I was summoned to the house, and in a few hours he died in my arms. Our right hands were clasped just as they had been two years before at the same place. Both of us were on the sofa just as we had been two years before.
It has been several years now since that event. Recently his wife fell in love again; but once again, she had fallen in love with a Catholic. Upon our first meeting, it was my privilege to win him to the Lord Jesus Christ. He, too, was baptized the following Sunday, and is very faithful to attend all the services of our church, even the Wednesday evening services.
It became my privilege to unite this middle-aged couple in marriage. As I walked back to the study after the ceremony, I rejoiced as I thought that "I had won both her husbands." Both of them had been Catholics, and each became a faithful member of First Baptist upon his salvation.
The aforementioned couple are faithful and active members of the First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana. Not only do they attend regularly the Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday evening services, but they are very loyal and generous Christians.
