Delivered, Staggered, Fell.

James Miller, from Hoghton, near Chorley, was awarded the Victoria Cross in 1916. Dispatches read:

For most conspicuous bravery. His battalion was consolidating a position after its capture by assault. Private Miller was ordered to take an important message under heavy shell and rifle fire and to bring back a reply at all costs. He was compelled to cross the open, and on leaving the trench was shot almost immediately in the back, the bullet coming out through his abdomen. In spite of this, with heroic courage and self-sacrifice, he compressed with his hand the gaping wound in his abdomen, delivered his message, staggered back with the answer, and fell at the feet of the officer to whom he delivered it. He gave his life with a supreme devotion to duty.

His VC is displayed at the King’s Own Royal Regiment’s Museum, Lancaster. Although his message may have been crucial at that time, it now matters not. Would that we messengers of Christ were as noble and valiant with our gospel message as he with his. Though its delivery proves costly for some, the rewards are even more magnificent than the greatest and most illustrious decoration in the British Empire.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Romans 1:16, ESV