Baptism by Fire — Hyman Appelman

Baptism with the Holy Ghost and Fire

John the Baptist, in speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, his second cousin, as you well know, among many other things, said, He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. I quote it to you from the last phrase of Matthew, the third chapter, the eleventh verse.

It took me a long time to understand the symbolism of fire as connected with the Holy Spirit. It seemed to me that water and wind were sufficient. Why fire? At last the Lord gave me an insight into this wondrous truth.

Water and wind will compromise, but tests prove that fire will not compromise. I believe that is the reason the Holy Spirit uses the word fire in connection with himself. He just will not compromise. The Holy Spirit is indubitably the greatest need of the Christian.

He's the greatest need of the child of God, next to the need of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. The foremost need of the unsaved person is to know the blessed Redeemer in the free pardon of his or her sins.

The Holy Spirit's Work of Grace

It is only, however, the Holy Spirit who can perform that work of grace in the hearts of the unbelievers. It is only through the impact, the impression, the inspiration of the Comforter that men come to call Christ Redeemer and Lord.

Without fear of being considered dull in repetition, I say again that the greatest choices, deepest need of ourselves, that is, of every child of God, particularly of those of us whom God has honored by calling us to himself in what is termed full-time service, is the Holy Ghost.

The Holy Spirit will straighten out our lives, will lead us in the paths of righteousness, will give us an understanding of the blessed word, will make us mighty unto the pulling down of the strongholds of sin, will give us the wisdom that we need for the guidance of our own lives, and the instruction, and perhaps the guidance, at least a little, of the lives of others.

Let us then consider what the Holy Spirit will do for the Church and always for revival. You say, why do you keep on saying revival? Because, my friends, you'll agree with me, desperately is revival needed.

The Holy Spirit Burns Out Worldliness and Idleness

First, I am certain the Holy Spirit will burn out some things that need destroying. The Bible teaches that Christians must love Jesus Christ and the things of the Kingdom more than father, mother, kids, and kin.

Do not let anyone keep you, if you are a Christian, away from your Church and your duties for Christ. Many Church members prefer their ease, the service in the house of the Lord. They are not passionately in love with the blessed Son of God.

The Holy Spirit will not only burn out worldliness, and I use it in the narrowest sense of the word, but also idleness. The majority of our Church members seldom do very much, always as little as they possibly can to serve their consciences, to advance the interests of the Lord Christ, His cause, His Kingdom.

They leave it to the preacher, to the deacons, the Sunday school officers and teachers, to anybody, and everybody except themselves. Oh, how we need the burning out of idleness. Again, you will agree with me that this is beyond the ability of any preacher, of any pastor, evangelist, any other religious leader, and can only be worked out in the soul of a Christian by the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit Burns Out Unbrotherliness

The Holy Spirit will burn out unbrotherliness, lack of love. In the average fair-sized Church, people come to Church in groups. They sit in cliques, young people gathered with young people of their choice.

Men occupy their time with a man whom they know, admire, or love, or perhaps can be helped by them in business. Women have little potteries. It would take a coal chisel, a bar of TNT, to get into one of these little assemblies.

My Bible teaches that this is what the heathens do. Jesus said, if we love them which love us, we have no reward. Once we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we will seek out the people whom we do not know.

We will love in the Lord those who are not particularly lovable or even in love with us. The Church ought to be the warmest place in the world for brotherly love. Fire warms things up. Fire is the symbol of the Holy Spirit.

Consequently, the Holy Spirit will warm up some things in our Churches that need warming up. First, He will warm up our personal piety. There will be our devotion to the Son of God. I have not much use for the person who is good because he is afraid to be bad.

I want to be good myself and have other people to be good because we love to be good. We have people who read the Bible because they think that by doing so, they build up merit with God. They do not pursue its wonderful pages because of a devotion to it in an effort to know more about salvation or because they delight in studying the things of God.

They read occasionally the Bible because of a conviction that amounts almost to a superstition, a sort of rabbit's poop proposition that by reading the Bible, they will ensure good luck for themselves.

Many people bring a tithe into the Church because they expect the Lord to put an extra amount of bread, butter, jam, bacon or such on their tables. That is a heathenish. We offer tithe because we love God, because we want to say thanks to Him for all of His mercies to us.

Personally, I should be ashamed to give a tithe only. The tithe is my rent. It is my debt. The tithe is the law. It is only what I give over and above the tithe that expresses my love, that comes out of my deep heartfelt affection for and devotion to the Triune God.

Family Religion and Loyalty to the Church

The Holy Spirit will warm up family religion, which will warm up our loyalty to the Church. It will create and keep the family altar. And where a Christian home is established and Church duties are fulfilled, you will always find, even now in these bad, sad, mad, dread days, a decrease in juvenile delinquency.

Go to Church. Support a program that exalts a crucified, resurrected, second coming Son of God. Do not be a paper member. Do not be a one-timer. Let your light shine in every service of your congregation.

Be present at every prayer meeting. Take up every responsibility that devolves upon you. Do not let somebody else have to carry double because you have dropped your cross. The Holy Spirit will certainly generate within your heart a warm affection for the Church of your choice.

The Holy Spirit Empowers Preaching, Prayer, and Witness

The Holy Spirit will not only burn out things that need burning out, warm up other things that need warming up, but He will also empower those activities that need empowering. How desperately our preaching needs power.

We need empowering also in our praying. Prayer is supposed to change things. Prayer is supposed to accomplish miracles. We many times pray, pray and pray, and still nothing happens. We pray all the time, seemingly.

We have special seasons of prayer. We agonize with God in long, insistent sessions of prayer. Why are the results so meager? I am afraid that we are not praying in the power and demonstration of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit will put power into our witness-bearing and our personal soul-winning. There has never been as much visiting, telephoning, inviting, advertising, religious broadcasting as there is now.

Yet the crowds are comparatively small, considering the great expenses and efforts put forth. The soul-winning results are so meager that it is heart-rending. A business spending as much money and as much energy as we do in our churches, bringing forth as little results, would long ago have sold it up and quit even trying to carry on.

What is wrong? Who is at fault? What is the responsibility for this paucity? Why are there no more victories? One of the chief reasons is that much of our effort is not done in the name of the Lord, in the will of the Lord, for the glory of the Lord.

We are so enthusiastic about our churches, about our Sunday schools, about our various other organizations, that we forget that our Jesus said, And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.

The Lord has not promised to honor anything except His own precious Word. It is only as we go sowing the seed of the Gospel that we have a right to expect Gospel results. This is one reason for this almost universal failure.

Spirit-Empowered Evangelism

However, there is another reason, even deeper, which is the absence of the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will direct us as to what words to use, what message to deliver, what testimony to bring.

The Holy Spirit will take out of our hearts every other desire, except that of glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ in the salvation of precious souls. The Holy Spirit will lead us to the people to whom we speak.

I do not have too much confidence in this general, universal approaching of everybody, and indiscriminately asking, Many a person has been driven out of our services because of this declaratory, tactless effort.

The Holy Spirit does not make mistakes. It is only when we go in our wisdom, in our own strength, that we are obnoxious to those whom we approach. From one end of this country to the other, in all kinds of churches, there are men, women, young people, even children, doing heroic work for the Lord in bringing souls to an acceptance and acknowledgement of the Savior as their personal Redeemer.

The same can be true of every one of us. The Lord intends for all of us to be victorious, fruitful witnesses. He has the power to make us effective. That power is available to enforce every one of us.

It is our fault if we are not bathed in it, baptized in it, if it is not flooding our very souls. Not only will the Holy Spirit burn out some things that need destroying, warm up some other things that need thawing out, empower some other things that need the afflictions of heaven, but He will also attract and make attractive our kept activities in Him.

Oh, we need to give the Holy Spirit a chance by permitting Him much more freedom in our services. Let something happen in the church. Let the fire fall. Let the power begin to flow. Let us abandon every dependence upon the flesh and acknowledge our utter dependence upon the Holy Spirit.

Let us seek our prayer closets. Let us come together in prayer groups. Let us prostrate ourselves before God in earnest supplication. Let us tarry then until the flood tides of heaven come coursing across our souls.

The Holy Spirit will do the rest in an infinitely greater, infinitely better, and an infinitely more effective, more powerful, more fruitful way than we can ever do it ourselves. So we come back to the words of John the Baptist, speaking about the Lord Jesus Christ.

He will baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. That is what we need, my friends, in the narrow, true, New Testament, acceptable by all fundamental Christians and believers, the coming of the Holy Spirit, the baptism with the Holy Ghost.

By that I mean the filling of our lives with the fullness of the Holy Spirit. God, make it true in every one of us, in Jesus' dear name.

Hyman Appelman's Testimony Begins

How do you do? Mind coming with us? We want you to meet a man who was well trained in logical thinking, who was skilled at separating truth from falsehood and at using either one. When he came face to face with unmistakable truth, he found it irresistible, even though following it cost him a great deal.

Despite the cost, his heart and mind and life were unshackled. From Chicago Crossroads of America, the Pacific Garden Mission presents Unshackled, the unique dramatic series telling the true stories of some very real people.

For 121 years, the old lighthouse has offered the gospel, which gives new life to the men and women of Chicago's streets. Now, through Unshackled, it reaches straight to you right where you are with the same wonderful offer of new life.

People of many lands and cultures are hearing these programs. Their response demonstrates that the deepest needs of mankind are everywhere the same and that geography has little to do with spiritual problems, nor does race or gender or age have any bearing on what those who come to the old lighthouse receive there.

Food, clothing, a clean place to sleep, medical and dental care are provided without charge. And when physical needs are met, they are given counseling for their deepest inner needs and are told of the one who can heal their hurts and set them free from the bondage of their fears and doubts.

Like the man whose story we're about to tell, they too are unshackled. Today we are retelling the story of Dr. Hyman Appelman, another true story from the classic files of Unshackled, the program that makes you face yourself and think.

During midsummer 1967, radio listeners and television viewers in the Chicago area had within a week at least half a dozen different opportunities to come to know the face, the voice, and personality of the man whose story we have to tell.

Hosts of talk shows and interviewers, almost without exception, included him in their programs. And although he had no connection with the entertainment world nor with government, he attracted considerable attention.

An interviewer could sum up at least a few of the reasons by listing what appeared to be contradictions.

Nothing in this world is just what it appears to be. This is certainly true of my guest. To give you an idea, he's a lawyer who hasn't argued a case in many years. Although he had achieved success in his profession, he left it and became a career non-commissioned officer in the United States Army.

Correct me if I'm wrong, Dr. Appelman. All true so far. Okay, then let's go on with the list. You could speak German, Russian, Yiddish, Polish, Greek, and of course Hebrew. At the age of 13, you were brought up in an Orthodox Jewish home and left it to become a Gentile.

No, not true.

But I thought you said... I was born a Jew and I am still a Jew, a completed, fulfilled Jew.

I'm not sure I really understand what that means.

It means that I am not a Gentile, no more than the Apostle Paul or the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, that took some explaining. And one interviewer said afterward, I've never heard anything like it in my life.

But we will ask Dr. Appelman to do the explaining right now as we bring you his true story on Unshackled. I am Hyman Appelman, born early in the century in the city of Moglief, which lies north of the great city of Kiev on the Dnieper River in what used to be called White Russia.

My father was a successful builder. Although there was no persecution of Jews and we had no pogroms in our city, my father read the signs of the time and decided that his family would have a more secure future in the United States.

He made the move first and sent for us a year and a half after he had established himself. I was the oldest of three boys, so he wrote me a letter designating me as the man of the family. As a young boy of 13, I found myself beginning in a new country and in a strange city of Chicago.

But after many years, I did persevere and finally was licensed to practice law in 1921. After completion of public school, I went on to Northwestern University and then for my legal training to DePaul.

I went into practice with a man who was both a good partner and a good friend.

Listen, Hyman, you should go to Rockford with your father so you can help him straighten out the problem with his customer.

That's fine to say, Irwin, but there are clients here in Chicago with pressing problems.

What kind of a lawyer is it that lets clients rush him? There's always a continuance, a delay. Your father needs the money those people owe him.

I'd like to go with him, of course, but...

Look at it this way. He's not only your father, he's also a client, one of our very first. Go with him, Hyman. He needs you.

Orthodox Jewish Practice and the Search for Truth

It is not easy for an Orthodox Jew to travel in a Gentile world and to keep himself clean of defilement. I can remember how, during our stay in the nearby city of Rockford, my father made every effort to remain clean in spite of the dangers of contamination that were all around us in our hotel.

For example, I found him in the little bathroom, standing at the washbasin, drinking water from his cupped hands, although an apparently clean glass was provided. Meals presented an especially difficult problem.

He solved it as best he could by going out and coming back with his supplies in a small paper bag. Here's our lunch. But there's a coffee shop downstairs. I thought... Coffee shop? I would sooner drink from the glasses they give us than eat in their coffee shop.

Anything we order will be trade. What did you buy us for lunch? Here, here. Six hard-boiled eggs, still in their shells. And six oranges, plenty for both of us. I suppose that's true. Look at this egg.

It comes to us in God's original package. Now, crack it, as I do. You see? Nothing that the hand of man can do will make the contents unclean. And an orange, too. You can throw away the rind and what is inside has not been touched.

That's true, of course. Rather than risk defilement, I would gladly live for months on hard-boiled eggs and oranges. What about you, son? Yes, you're right, of course. Some people work hard for money, some for fame, and some just for the love of the game.

As a lawyer, I found that the greatest of all was the love of the game itself. I enjoyed making money, but it was the work itself that drove me. I loved matching wits with others. I enjoyed the game of trying to find the needle of truth in a haystack of lies, evasions, and confusion.

I learned to throw the glaring light of analysis on a statement, a testimony, a situation, and to study it so carefully that in time the truth would usually become apparent. While I was not above some small falsehood in the interest of personal progress, I placed great importance on truth as something to be mined out of the depths of confusion.

Breakdown and the Journey to Denver

All that winter I had been driving myself harder and harder, going without sleep, trying to keep up with the social life with my fiancé and my business. In the fall of 1924, I had a nervous breakdown.

And after several weeks, I returned to my regular schedule. My doctor, partner, and family were quite concerned. I don't know what we have to do to get him to slow down. His life is at stake.

I've already lost one son. I don't want to lose another one.

The doctor feels that he needs an extended period where he has no stress or schedules to meet.

A vacation would be helpful. Well, we'll have to insist that he leaves right away.

I'll take care of his clients with upcoming cases. Mr. Appelman, I'll talk with him about it.

I was living under almost constant tension. I was building my practice, furthering my career. At the same time, I was engaged to marry a fine young woman. Her parents and mine were friends, and the combination of an active social life and an intense attention to my profession brought about almost complete exhaustion.

My partner finally insisted that I do something about it. Come in.

You want to see me? Yes, Hyman. Listen, I have no possible use for a dead partner. Who is dead? You will be if you don't get some rest. All right.

So I'll move my bedtime to 10 o 'clock. I don't believe you.

I'm a liar, Owen. When it comes to a thing like this, yes. You're not lying to me, but to yourself. What are you suggesting?

Take a vacation. A complete rest. Who would leave me alone long enough for a rest? Not here in Chicago.

Go away. So far away that people can't possibly expect you to come back or listen to their problems. Go a thousand miles. A thousand miles?

You're talking about Denver. Why do you pick Denver? I have an uncle in Denver. He's a patient in his Hebrew sanitarium, tuberculosis. I haven't seen him in a long time. That's it. I'll go to Denver and visit Sam.

My trip would change my life and adversely affect my relationship with my partner, my family, and my fiancé. I made a few stops to visit relatives and friends before proceeding to Denver. I had an unusual encounter with a few men while visiting friends in Kansas City, Missouri.

A reporter who had listened to me in a debate over some insignificant matters later challenged me to read the New Testament. And as I examined the Bible in my hotel room, I learned that the Old Testament was also included in the Gentile Bible.

The next morning I was invited to attend a church service by a man who promised that I wouldn't have to introduce myself to anyone. I went to my first church service. Later I continued on to Denver where I stayed in the YMCA.

Isaiah's Prophecy and the Call to Receive Christ

The things that I had read in the Bible and heard during the church service began to fill my mind so that I couldn't find rest nor find satisfaction. And within three months I'd lost 62 pounds. I was in worse shape than ever.

And finally when things were bad enough to really frighten me, I went downstairs to the lobby of the YMCA to see if someone could direct me. To a local doctor. The only office open at that time was the employment office where I spoke with a secretary.

Well, Mr. Appelman, if you think you need to see a good doctor... I do, sir. I need a good one. I'm willing to pay for the best one in town. And if I don't see him pretty soon, he may not be able to do a thing with me.

Well, I know someone who can help you. And who is that? Dr. Davis. Dr. James C. Davis. He's a nerve specialist? Dr. Davis? No, hardly. No, he's more of a soul specialist. I... I don't understand. Oh, I'm sorry.

My little joke. You see, Dr. Davis is a doctor of divinity. He's pastor of the church across the street. And just what does he have to do with my health? Well, nothing really. But almost every good doctor in town belongs to his church.

Dr. Davis should be able to suggest the right man for what ails you. Well, I was getting desperate. I walked across the street, found my way to the pastor's study, and introduced myself. We talked for a few minutes.

He asked some questions about my home and my health, and then he said something that just about ended the interview. Uh, Mr. Appelman, if you don't mind my saying so, I think you haven't yet recognized the real nature of your problem.

I'm nervous, and I'm tired. Doesn't it sound as though I need a nerve specialist? Well, not to me. And after a good many years of pastoral counseling, I think I know a little bit about what makes people tick.

And just what do you think you know about me? You don't need medical care, Mr. Appelman. You need Jesus Christ. What did you say? I say that you need to receive Jesus Christ as your own personal messiah.

Dr. Davis, I meant you. Don't try to force Jesus down my throat. Wait, wait, wait a moment, please. Wait. Let me show you something. Who do you think most Jews believe was their greatest prophet? Well, I suppose Moses and Isaiah.

Would you read from Isaiah's writings in the 53rd chapter, beginning with verse 3? He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from him.

He was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions.

He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. For we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Good, good, Dr. Appleman. And let me continue reading the rest of that chapter. If you are honestly seeking the truth, as most good lawyers do, you'll see that your own prophet Isaiah, writing more than 700 years before the coming of the Messiah, can only be referring to Jesus Christ.

Dr. Davis read and explained for hours. I asked questions, and he answered from the Bible. Our visit began at three in the afternoon, and midnight was approaching when we really got down to the point of decision.

You see, Hyman, the writings very clearly state that Messiah, who came once as a servant, Jesus, will come again as a mighty conqueror, taking vengeance on the nations and restoring Israel. You really believe that?

I do. God's Word says it. But I have always thought you Gentiles hated the Jews. Hyman, I can't speak for the Gentiles. That word means heathen or even barbarian. I ceased to be a heathen when I received Christ as my Savior.

Jesus said, No man cometh to the Father but by me. And when he said it, he was speaking of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In Christ, I'm a Jew by adoption. Spiritually, I am in the covenant God made with Abraham.

This is all very new, and yet it all falls into place. It's like a long cross-examination of a witness where you come back to the same subject matter but from a new angle to see if the story holds up.

The testimony of the witnesses who know him and wrote about him, all of it holds together. I agree. Of course, I'm just a preacher, not a lawyer. And I am a lawyer and a man who can distinguish between the truth and a lie.

To me, all of this is clearly and unmistakably the truth. Fine. So, what are you going to do about it? What should I do? Are you going to admire the truth as an abstract thing? Or are you going to receive the truth?

Receive it? The truth, with a capital T. In this case, the truth is a person. Jesus said in the book of John, chapter 14, verse 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me.

And if I receive Jesus as my Messiah, think of the people who will be hurt. My fiancé, my parents, my partner. Pastor, my father almost bankrupted himself to help me. It will break my parents' heart and bring them to their graves.

I don't think I can do it. Yet, you agree that God's word urges you to receive him? Yes, I do. Would a good God punish you or your family because you've done the right thing? You're not leaving me any way out.

Only one way, Hyman. Jesus? Yes. The righteous judge of all will grant you your appeal. Pray to God from your heart, Hyman. I've never done that in my life. I wouldn't know how to begin. Kneel with me, and I'll pray for you.

Dr. Davis prayed in anguish for my soul with tears streaming down his cheeks. I also began to cry as I thought of the sacrifice of Jesus and my parents. It was well after midnight when my last objection melted and I received Christ as my personal Messiah.

The following Sunday, wanting to make it as visibly public as I could, I was baptized in the church. Then I wired my family to tell them what had happened. In a moment, you'll learn what happened as a result of Hyman Appelman's decision.

Listener Testimonies and Program Appeal

We'd like to share excerpts of letters from listeners like the man who writes from Guyana, South America. Through Unshackled, we became Christians, and now we're serving the Lord, attending church regularly.

I send love and greetings to you in Jesus' name. And this woman from High Point, North Carolina writes, Jesus is showing and teaching me so much through Unshackled. I love your stories, and I pray that you will always be there when I turn my radio on.

This 17-year-old from South Texas writes, I am a Christian, but sometimes it's hard not to go with the world. And every time I need advice as to what to do, a story comes on that helps me with my problem.

A woman from Maryland confides, I am struggling with a drug and alcohol problem and am beginning to realize because of your broadcast that I do need Jesus to help me overcome my addictions. Your program, Unshackled, has made an impact on my recovery because I've heard storylines that sound exactly like what I'm going through.

If Unshackled has made a difference in your life, please write and tell us. The address, Pacific Garden Mission, Chicago, Illinois, 60605. Our email address is unshackled at pgm .org. And please include your address.

The Cost of Appelman's Decision

A decision such as mine is bound to result in repercussions, and they came very quickly. The first was in the form of a telegram in reply to my own. It read simply, Hyman, you are still sick. Come home.

I received at least a dozen telegrams during that week. A few days later, my fiancee began her trip to see me, and it was a long trip in those days. She would try to rescue me from what had happened. She was very concerned, very sincere.

My dear, we all love you very much. No one is angry with you. We're trying very hard to understand, but what you are doing is simply out of the question. And why is that? It presents too many problems for too many people.

It just isn't practical.

It may not be practical, but to me it seems right and true and necessary.

And just about impossible. Well, what do you suggest? I suggest that you forget all this nonsense. Then we'll be married, and you can come home to Chicago with me.

We'll make it a honeymoon. That's very beautiful, as you are. Well, then. My dear, I can't do it.

You mean you can't marry me?

I can't forget this nonsense, as you call it. Nothing I say or do will change the truth. Jesus is my partner. He has come once. He will come again. My engagement ended that day, and I was left alone in that new city.

Leaving Law for Evangelistic Ministry

And there began the new life that was to take the place of the old one. In the months that followed, I left my profession because I wasn't licensed in Colorado. I dissolved my partnership and had sharp discussions with my family.

I took jobs doing manual labor and gave my testimony as often as I could in the evening and on Sundays. One day, I received an alarming telegram from home. Irwin! Where's my mama? Hyman, when did you get back?

What are you talking about? I got a telegram saying that my mother was dying. Is she dead? Are they at the cemetery?

Hyman, it's not true. Your mother's in Detroit, visiting friends.

I went to my father's office, and we had a terrible argument. I asked him why he would do this. We almost fought physically. He cried and begged me to stay home. We both cried. Finally, in anger, he said that he wouldn't give me a crumb if I was starving.

When I left, I decided to travel east to Philadelphia. I took a job as a freight clerk in Camden, New Jersey, but during this time, things did not go well for me physically or spiritually. My family had made it clear that they wanted nothing more to do with me, and I was depressed and disheartened.

I stopped going to church and reading my Bible and praying. I decided that there was only one more thing for me to do, end my life. I resigned my job and boarded a train for Chicago, where I figured I would swim as far out into Lake Michigan as I could, throw up my hands, and drown.

Later, during a layover in Pittsburgh, I was walking around and saw an army recruiting poster in front of the post office. I studied the poster for a minute while I thought, You are only 23 years old, Appleman.

You have plenty of time for suicide. Why not enlist in the Army? Maybe something will happen so that you will forget about home and stop being depressed. So on the impulse of the moment, I enlisted and laid a course for my life for years ahead.

Training for Ministry and Evangelistic Service

But it was while I was a staff sergeant in the Old Army Medical Corps that I met the woman who was to become my wife and was led into the work that God had planned for me as an evangelist. While stationed at Lawton, Oklahoma, and at the time of my marriage, I was asked to help with pastoral work of a little church newly formed, and leaders of a nearby church asked me to consider being ordained as a minister.

I wept as I thought of how unworthy I was.

After all, Hyman, you can better serve the people if you have the full authority that goes with ordination.

That's all very well, but I'm a professional soldier.

Not only. You're also a lawyer, a university graduate, and a man with a keen mind.

But that doesn't make me a minister. What more do you want? Education. I didn't go into law as a jack-legged lawyer. I don't want to go into the ministry except as a man who is educated, trained for the work.

If the law deserves the best education I could get when I was 20, the Lord deserves even better today. Let's talk about schooling, and then think about the ministry. Hyman Appelman, unwilling to give to the Lord's work anything but his best, used the 70 days of accrued army leave in an experiment to determine if he still could do the work of a student.

And then when the work went well, he bought out of the army a privilege permitted back in those days, and plunged full time into the work of becoming trained for his new career as pastor, teacher, preacher, and evangelist.