SHIV DÁS was a Hindu doctor, widely famed for his skill. He knew the qualities of all manner of herbs, and the secret of cures for every sort of disease. Men afflicted with divers maladies came to him from great distances, and often returned to their villages rejoicing. Lame men from the effect of Shiv Dás's ointments sometimes threw away their crutches; women carried their sick children to his house as to the shrine of a goddess. Shiv Dás gave not only medicines, but he hung charms round the necks of his patients; he not only rubbed on ointments, but he muttered a number of spells. If he failed in making a cure, he said that the gods were not propitious; if a patient died under his care, he declared that the day had been unlucky. Shiv Dais was a clever doctor, but he was also a great liar; he had real skill, but under it lay a great deal of deceit, as under the sweet mango pulp is hidden the large hard stone. Shiv Dás never felt any remorse or shame for his lying till he met with, and had much talk with a follower of the God of Truth. He saw a man whose character, compared to his own, was as the pure stream to the stagnant pool, a man who would not have told a lie to save his own life. Shiv Dás at first thought this man a fool, but after nearer acquaintance reverenced him as a saint. The Hindu listened as the teacher told of Christ the Great Physician, whose touch was healing, whose words were wisdom, and whose gift is life eternal. Gradually on the Hindu doctor broke the light of Truth. His intelligent mind received it long before he could resolve openly to confess that he believed the Christian's Holy Book, which he only studied in secret. The great difficulty to Shiv Dás was simply this. "If I become a Christian, how much I shall have to give up. I am like a poor potter, or unclean maker of shoes; I have a great deal to lose. Who will come to me for cure when I shall have broken caste, and in the eyes of man incurred defilement. Will any one believe in my skill if I cease to prepare charms, and give only drugs and ointment? Shall I own to patients that my spells were but muttered lies? Does the seller of fruit ever call her own plums sour?" Such thoughts as these for a time distressed Shiv Dás, and kept him back from confessing his faith. He continued cheating others, after he had left off cheating himself. But this struggle with conscience could not go on very long. Shiv Dás saw that the road of falsehood is the path to hell, that light and darkness, fire and water can as well agree together as the religion of the Lord Jesus with the deceit which had brought in the chief part of the doctor's gains. Shiv Dás must choose between earthly loss and disgrace, and the terrible punishment which, after death, awaits the unrepenting deceiver. He must choose between sin and a Saviour. The convert bravely made his choice.