A Christian blacksmith who had suffered a great deal of affliction was challenged by an unbeliever to account for this. His answer is illustrated by his vocation.
He said: "I don't know that I can account for these things to your satisfaction, but I think I can to my own.
"I am a blacksmith. I often take a piece of iron and put it into the fire and bring it to a white heat. Then I put it on the anvil and strike it once or twice to see if it will 'take temper.' If I think it will, I plunge it into the water, and suddenly change the temperature.
"Then I put it into the fire again, and again I put it in the water. This I repeat several times. Then I put it on the anvil and hammer it, and bend it, and rasp and file it, and make some useful article which will do service for twenty-five years. If, however, when I first strike it on the anvil, I think it will not take temper, I throw it into the scrap-heap and sell it at a penny a pound.
"I believe my God and Father has been testing me to see if I will 'take temper." He has put me into the fire and into the water. I have tried to bear it as patiently as I could, and my daily prayer has been, `Lord, put me into the fire if You will! Put me into the water if You think I need it. Do anything You please, O Lord, only don't throw me into the scrap-heap!'”
"Some through the water, some through the flood;
Some through the fire,—but all through the blood.
Some through deep sorrow, but God gives a song,
In the night season, and all the day long.”