John Selwyn, who became the Bishop of the South Pacific, was renowned for his boxing skill in his university days. On a certain occasion he had to utter grave words of rebuke and warning to a professed convert. The man removed from savagery only by a generation or two, struck the Bishop a violent blow on the face with his clenched fist.

All Selwyn did in return was to fold his arms and look into his face. With his powerful arm and massive fist he could have easily knocked him down, but instead he waited calmly for another blow. It was too much for his assailant; he was ashamed and fled into the jungle.

Years afterward the Bishop came home seriously ill. One day the man who had struck him came to his successor to confess Christ in baptism. Convinced of the genuineness of his conversion, he was asked what new name he desired to take as a Christian. “Call me John Selwyn,” he replied, “for it was he who taught me what Jesus Christ is like.”