Article August 11, 1934 Issue

The Ninth Commandment and True Witness

A. PERCY SOMERS-COCKS

Christian Science enables us to understand the significance of God's law, and also that of the moral law as given in the Ten Commandments. The ninth commandment, for example, ordinarlity might be taken to mean that we should tell the truth, as witnesses are expected to do in a court of law, and that we should not carry or spread doubtful or untrue tales about others. But Christian Science goes much farther than this, for it makes plain that real obedience to this law implies a strict watch over our thoughts about everyone whom we meet or of whom we may speak or think. Judging, condemning, criticizing another in our thoughts is breaking this law; and when we consider how much of ordinary conversation is taken up with discussing neighbors and friends, besides others, such as public men who may be known through rumor or newspaper reports, it is plain that there is urgent necessity to keep a strict watch over our thinking at all times.

Christian Science shows us, further, that to keep this commandment fully we not only must avoid indulging in unworthy criticism, but must realize the truth about everyone: that each is and always has been God's child, perfect in His sight.

The keeping of this commandment in its entirety, therefore, would have a wonderful effect in healing ourselves and others; for was not this the way our Master healed the sick and the sinning? As Mrs. Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (pp. 476, 477): "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick." To stand as a porter watching our thought is, therefore, supremely important in keeping the ninth commandment, as of course it is with respect to all the others.

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