Welcome back to another episode of Five Minutes in Church History.

In 1955, the movie that everyone was talking about was a man called Peter.

It told the story of Peter Marshall, and it was based on the best-selling book of the same title,

and the book was written by his wife

Catherine Marshall in 1951.

It stayed on the non-fiction bestseller list for three years

and then came the movie.

It was actually Catherine Marshall's second book. The first book was a book of sermons that she edited, 12 sermons of her husbands and 13 prayers and it was published in 1949 and it was a bestseller.

Catherine Marshall would go on to write more books.

She wrote the novel Christie in 1967 and it also would be made into a movie but back to a man called Peter.

The book in the movie recalls the life of Peter Marshall.

He was born in Scotland in 1992. As a boy he would read the Bible for his blind grandmother and at 14 years of age he tried to join the British Navy.

His life's ambition was to go to sea. But the Navy would not let him in. He was just a

little too young. So he took a job and started studying mechanical engineering. He tried

again numerous times to join the Navy but was never successful.

And at the age of 23, he felt called to enter the ministry and specifically to go minister in America.

After a brief time in New Jersey, he was in Birmingham, Alabama at Old First Presbyterian Church.

He was taken under care of the Presbyterian, he went to Columbia Seminary, then in Decatur, Georgia.

Once he graduated, he took his first church in Covington, Georgia and then accepted a call

at Westminster Presbyterian Church and Atlanta.

It was said of Peter's ministry

that he came into the church in a state of almost closing.

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