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A MAN CALLED PETER-THE STORY Of PETER MARSHALL

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A SCOTSMAN WHO FILLED THE  CHAPLAINCY OF THE SENATE OF  THE USA.

We intend to show excepts from the book 'Compellingly told by much loved author Catherine Marshal -this is the story of her first husband Peter Marshall. It is an irresistible account of the love between a dynamic man and his GOD and the tender love between a husband and wife.

The life of Peter Marshall -'the story that had to be told'-recounts the triumph of a young Scottish immigrant who made his way from his homeland to the chaplaincy of the United States Senate.

Catherine's and Peter's life together in the hall's of highest human happiness', as Peter often referred to marriage, is related with love humour and immense wisdom.

'The best stories are those that really happen. None of the novels...written during the last few years touches the heart and appeals to the mind in the way that Catherine Marshall does in telling the story of her husbands life.'

Catherine Marshall was the author of numerous bestselling books, including Christy, Julie. The Helper, Beyond Our Selves and A Closer Walk.

The book A Man Called PETER has sold 2,000,000 copies

Hodder and Stoughton Ltd

338 Euston Road

London NWI 3 BH

1951

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We commence our brief search of the life of a 

 A MAN CALLED PETER

with the Preface of the Book

Since Peter Marshall left us to be at home in our Father's house, I have often dreamed of him. But one dream was different from all the rest. It had the feel of reality about it

I dreamed that I was allowed to visit Peter briefly, to see him in his new setting. I found him working in a rose garden, surrounded by those perfect hybrid tea roses he always wanted to grow

.After a while, he said playfully, "I know perfectly well what you've been doing, Catherine. You're writing a book. Now, now  -no exposes! What you're doing to me shouldn't happen to a dog!"

Then in a more serious vein, "It's all right, Kate. Go ahead and write it. Tell it all, if it will prove to people that a man can love the Lord and not be a sissy..."

So, in the months since then I have written it. reliving and recording parts of the life that Peter and I shared has a joyous task. The presence of Christ has shed glory on even the hard-to-bear parts of it.

I hope that you will enjoy it, and that by the time you have come to the last page [332p], you will know that if God can do so much for a man called Peter, he can do as much for YOU .

C.M

Washington, D.C.

April 29, 1951.

[As we have stated we shall be revealing extracts of the publication and have decided to generally restrict our recording to just three of the 20 chapters in the book which is of 332 pages.]

Before we commence our journey of the life of a Man called Peter we wish to explain that it was a recent screening of the Fact-based drama

A MAN CALLED PETER

on FILM4

which prompted  this mission into the life of a Man of God.  The distinguished actor portraying Peter Marshal is Richard Todd of The Dambusters and The Longest Day and many other fine patriotic films since the Second World War. He was himself fighting at Pegasus Bridge a vital objective on D Day June 6-1944.

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Chapter One

ABOVE TIME AND CIRCUMSTANCE

For ye shall go out with joy...and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. Isaiah 55:12-13

The morning was bleak and cold. A damp penetrating wind ruffled the steel-grey waters of the Potomac, chased bits of paper and debris down the broad roped- off expanse of Pennsylvania Avenue, and whistled around the dome of the Capital.

Everywhere Washington wore an air of expectancy. The hillocks of lumber, which had been piled for weeks along the Avenue, had finally been fashioned into grandstand and bleachers.  Every street corner was garnished with a navy blue of District policemen. The gray lampposts were decorated with small American flags and pictures of Truman and Barkley. Red, white, and blue bunting was everywhere.  In a few hours, forty thousand marchers and more than forty floats would form a column seven miles long in honour of the

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

It was Inauguration Day , January 20, 1949.

Before the stately Capital building with it's wide-spreading wings, I sat with 120,000 other people on crudely  built benches watching the dignitaries taking their places on the special platform before us.

Radio, television, and motion -picture technicians scurried up and down their newly built platforms, adjusting and testing equipment. At twelve noon, the eyes and ears of most Americans would be centered on this scene.

I knew that in the old Senate Chamber, with it's plum-coloured leather seats and green-carpeted aisles, Peter Marshall, the Senate Chaplain, called by many a reporter the

"Conscience of the Senate"

was at that moment praying. His simple, sincere, down- to - earth prayers had been having an increasing profound effect on the Senators. But it was an intimate thing - not the kind of thing a man talks about readily.

I could picture the scene, as I had often seen it -the sudden hush, the way the men reverently dropped their heads as Peter prayed:

'God of our fathers in Whom we trust and by Whose guidance and grace this nation was born, bless the Senators of these United States at this important time in our history and give all things needful to the faithful discharge of their responsibilities.

We pray especially today for our President, and also for him who will preside over this chamber.

Give to them good health for the physical strains of their office, good judgment for the decisions they must make, wisdom beyond their own, and clear understanding for the problems of this difficult hour.

We thank Thee for their humble reliance upon Thee. May they go often to the throne of grace as we commend them both to Thy loving care and Thy guiding hand.

 Through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN.

Soon I spied Peter marching, hat in hand, with the Senators, into the seats provided for them to the left of the Inaugural stand.  he was between Senator Lucas and Senator Vandenberg. The expression on his face suggested he was particularly pleased about something.

From where I was sitting, I could see Peter and the Senators well enough to guess that much quiet camaraderie was going on in that section of the stand.

Peter had been Chaplain of the Senate for two years. he had not sought the job, nor wanted it at first.  In the beginning he had found it hard to believe that the Senators regarded his opening prayer as more than a necessary gesture.

Time and closer acquaintance between him and the men had changed that. The Senators were men of the world, not easily impressed with preachers. Yet Peter had earned their respect and the deep affection of the members on both sides of the aisle.

Elected by a Republican majority in 1947, he had been unanimously re-elected by the Democrats on December 31, 1948. On that day, Peter had telephoned me from the church office to tell me the news.  There was exultation in his voice.

"I'm glad, Catherine. At least it shows I convinced them that I have no politics."

The affection the Senators felt for their chaplain was reflected in the way Senator Arthur Vandenberg, who presided as president pro tempore of the Senate in the absence of the vice-[president, always called Peter "Dominie," the Dutch word for "Parson."

" To know Peter is to love him,"

Senator Vandenberg said.

"My chaplain is my intimate and priceless friend."

In deed many an astute observer on Capital Hill felt Senator Vandenberg's unobtrusive spiritual partnership with Peter Marshall had under-girded the increasing stature of his statesmanship, as he rose to become the architect of the

UNITED NATIONS

-and of America's first bipartisan foreign policy in many years.

On that Inauguration Day, the vista of an ever-growing and deepening ministry among all those men opened out before Peter.  long ago he had been

"tapped on the shoulder" by "the Chief"

-as he loved to call his lord.

Twenty-two years before he had landed at Ellis Island - an immigrant boy. God sent him into strange places to preach His message

It seemed to Peter that the old Senate Chamber was almost the strangest of all. Yet , there in the highest legislative hall in the nation, the Risen Christ and the wisdom of Almighty God were surely needed.  It thrilled Peter to have the chance to be Christ's representative in that PLACE.

The uncertain Washington sun broke through the heavy clouds as Harry S. Truman took the office as president of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

His left hand was resting on two bibles, a Gutenberg Bible and the White House Bible. His outstretched fingers covered passages from the Sermon on the Mount and the Ten Commandments as he intoned the solemn words:

"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of the President of the United States, and will defend the Constitution...."

The sky umbrella of planes was already forming for the Inaugural parade as I made my way through the crush of people to our parked car. It was quite a while before my husband joined me. his rugged face was beaming.

"Guess what, Catherine ,"

he said as he opened the car door. the joy of a small boy was in his voice.

"What? What's happened?"

"Senator Vandenberg called me 'Peter' today!"

It was a small thing. But it represented the outstretched hand of friendship -the open door to a man's heart.

A long and dramatic train of events had led Peter Marshall to that memorable day. The story has about it the feel of a Biblical saga; yet, it is a story of a modern man, a warmly human man.

As I write I see a procession of vivid mental pictures: A boy walking through a Scottish lane lined with rhododendron trying to hear God's call; a ship ploughing through the cold waters of the North Atlantic; a blast furnace in New Jersey; a boy on a train going south to Birmingham.  There are traces of wistfulness in the story, and a procession of the haunted hearts of men and women. There is much laughter -and sometimes a sob.

The story begins some thirty years ago in a grimy industrial city in Scotland.

[We shall touch on the first steps to his ministry at a later stage]

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Soon to Follow

Excerpt from

 Chapter Nine

Washington - Opportunity Unlimited.

1937...

Peter's reputation as a "thrilling evangelical preacher" soon resulted in long lines of people waiting outside New York Avenue Church [Abraham Lincoln's Church] on a Sunday morning. Often four abreast, they were patient and cheerful about the wait. They hoped to be able to get into the sanctuary and find a seat. loud-speakers had to be installed in the Lincoln Chapel and the downstairs lecture room to handle the overflow crowds. When these rooms were filled, there was nothing left to do but turn would-be worshipers away.

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PART 2

MARCH/07