A blacksmith, about eight years after he had accepted Christ as his Saviour, was approached by an intelligent unbeliever with the question:
“Why is it you have so much trouble? I have been watching you. Since you joined the church and began to ‘walk square,’ and seem to love everybody, you have had twice as many trials and accidents as you had before. I thought that when a man gave himself to God his troubles were over. Isn’t that what the parsons tell us?”
With a thoughtful, but glowing face, the blacksmith replied:
“Do you see this piece of iron? It is for the springs of a carriage. I have been ‘tempering’ it for some time. To do this I heat it red-hot, and then plunge it into a tub of ice-cold water. This I do many times.
“If I find it taking ‘temper,’ I heat and hammer it unmercifully. In getting the right piece of iron I found several that were too brittle. So I threw them in the scrap pile. Those scraps are worth about a cent a pound; this carriage spring is very valuable.”
He paused, and his listener nodded. The blacksmith continued:
“God saves us for something more than to have a good time—that’s the way I see it. We have the good time all right, for God’s smile means heaven. But He wants us for service, just as I want this piece of iron. And He has put the ‘temper’ of Christ in us by testing us with trial. Ever since I saw this I have been saying to Him, ‘Test me in any way Thou dost choose, Lord; only don’t throw me in the scrap pile.’”