by Pastor Jack Hyles (1926-2001)
THE CORPSE WHO WON A SOUL
On a recent Sunday morning dozens of people flooded the aisles of our church receiving Christ as Saviour, and many were baptized. Most of them were won to Christ by our soul winners. During the invitation a man came forward and related this story:
"I am an undertaker. This past week the body of a twelve-year-old girl was brought into our funeral home. I was going through my usual tasks of embalming the body and preparing it for burial when suddenly the stark realization came before me that life is short.
"I looked at the body of the girl whom I was embalming and fell under conviction. Immediately I dropped to my knees, cried for mercy, and asked God to save my soul. I know I am saved. I know that if I died today I would go to Heaven, and I came to First Baptist this morning to make it public."
There are two things of interest about this story. First, there is a girl whose body probably had won its only soul. There are many people who will win more souls in death than in life, and no doubt many lives have been taken for this purpose.
The second thought that came to my mind was a thought of thanksgiving to God for the testimony of the First Baptist Church. When the undertaker thought of making public his decision, he immediately thought of First Baptist. This is because of our evangelistic emphasis. When a church makes enough noise about soul winning, people associate soul winning with the church.
Many folks came forward that Sunday, but none thrilled me quite as much as this undertaker who was won to Christ by a corpse.
