The convert is known by his fruits. Conduct, conversation, and
character, are the infallible tests of a personality transformed within.
In a large iron factory one of the worst men in the place was
converted. He had been a man of terrible temper, and could
scarcely speak without swearing and blaspheming against God.
After his conversion his comrades waited for his temper to break
out as before, and to hear him give utterance to a string of
oaths. But nothing of the sort occurred. So they prepared a trap
for him, which they felt sure would cause his downfall. They
heated a long bar of iron and tempered it so that it would look
as tho it were cold. Then they laid it on the floor when he was
absent, and waited for him to come in and pick it up. Presently
he returned, and, stooping over, grasped the hot iron with both
hands. His comrades now expected an explosion, for there was a
badly blistered strip of flesh on each hand. But the man simply
turned round and said quietly, “Men, I didn’t think you would do
that.”
At these words, so different from what they expected, tears
ran down the cheeks of those strong men; a revival broke out
then and there, and many of those ironworkers found salvation,
because that man had not lost his temper, but had shown the
reality of his transformation.
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