Article April 28, 1923 Issue

Responsibility of Testimony

ALFRED HANNAH SMITH

IT has often been observed that Christian Scientists are a peculiar people! This is due, in part, to their logical attempt to apply the Scriptures to the practical affairs of life, but chiefly to the more remarkable fact that nearly all of them have personally experienced the benefits and blessings they proclaim. For this reason they have gone up and down the world speaking as those "having authority." This vivid sense of knowledge at first hand has been the most convincing testimony offered the world since our Savior walked the hills of Galilee. Human intelligence has patiently followed many theories and doctrines submitted for the benefit of humanity; but, like the pagan poet in his search for truth, it has gone out by the door through which it entered. It is only when the message reaches the vital need of mankind that the truth receives adequate attention. Herein, then, is the burden of testimony,—that it be sincere and adaptable, and that it set forth a practicable and attainable ideal.

Testimony, to be of value, must obtain credence. A moving tale of escape from calamity, or of healing from sickness, is of little value unless the hearer believes in the sincerity of the narrator. But there is a blessed necessity that what is true for one man is true for all men; so, when a man knows how the needs of another are justly met, he naturally desires to come in and "sup with him." There is, therefore, a constant demand that those who testify to the truth and the works of Christian Science shall demonstrate their knowledge in abundant goodness, since "by their fruits ye shall know them."

Right testimony is based on individual experience. In the very first paragraph of the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy declares, "Regardless of what another may say or think on this subject, I speak from experience." We are not to understand that she has no respect for the views of other thinkers, nor that she is unaware of their import; few thinkers of our age have shown so wide and so intimate an acquaintance with the achievements of the greatest thinkers of all time as she. Rather does Mrs. Eddy mean that her discovery is the result of experience, and not the mere culling of opinions from every wayside-maker-of-books. It is this close relation of testimony to Truth that makes it vital and enduring.

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