A new heart, a new character

Excerpt from "A new heart, a new character" By Richard Wurmbrand - Founder of the Voice of the Martyrs

A Communist officer, beating a Christian prisoner with a rubber truncheon, put his stick aside and asked, "What is it about you? How is it that your face is shining? You have something like a halo around your head. How can you look at me so lovingly? I would never love a man who jailed and beat me. How is it that you can obey the foolish commandment of your Christ to love your enemy?" The Christian answered, "I am not obeying a commandment. It is not that I love you only because Jesus orders me to. Jesus has given me a new heart and a new character. If I wanted to hate you, I would not longer be able to do so. A nightingale cannot sound like a crow, because it is a nightingale and not a crow. So a Christian can only love." That rubber trunchoen has remained put aside forever.