Welcome back to another episode of five minutes in church history. On this episode we are continuing our series of looking at some great figures in

church history and five of their sayings and for this weekend next we're going to be

talking about Jay Gressum Machen, that significant theological conservative

heavyweight of the early 20th century and we're going to begin with a quote from Machen while he was serving in

World War I with the YMCA on the Western Front. Up until this time, Machen had been a very serious student. He'd

gone to Johns Hopkins for his undergrad, majored in classics. He then went to study a

little bit at the University of Chicago and international banking and finance,

but he was just putting his toe in the water there.

Wasn't sure what to do, ended up at both Princeton Seminary and Princeton University, getting masters from each,

went to Germany to pursue doctoral studies, went back to Princeton,

to serve as an instructor,

but still not sure what to do with his life and he ends up

volunteering and serving in World War I. He spends much of his time at a YMCA canteen.

This would provide hot chocolate for soldiers,

stamps for them to send letters back home,

cash their checks for them, and send money orders back home,

provide books, and also just care for the machin could speak French fluently,

and so he was brought in to help the wounded get triaged and at time sent out from the Western Front.

He would carry soldiers on stretchers.

He would load them into ambulances.

These were intense times.

The Western Front was an horrific scene of carnage

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