The Bible is full of statements made by God about His creation. One such statement is found in Isaiah (43:1), "Thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine." The fact that God created man in His image and likeness—as His perfect expression— may well be considered a pattern for our conversation.

Anything and everything we say should affirm the glorious truth of God's perfect, spiritual creation. Certainly nothing we say should ever contradict it.

"Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord" is recorded in the same chapter of Isaiah. A witness in any walk of life must be alert and observant. As God's witnesses, we should report nothing but the truth with respect to any of our experiences. We should witness only to God's creation and to what He has promised. Since, according to Christian Science, God is All, the only creator, infinite good, we truly have nothing but good to relate.

This means that dire predictions, false prognostications, and rampant rumors have no proper part in our speech. Neither should malicious gossip or unkind comments about our fellow men enter our conversation. The Lord has said of man (Isa. 43:7), "I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him." Therefore should we say anything critical or untrue of the sons and daughters that God has made?

Sometimes we are tempted to believe the report of our eyes or ears even when this report seems to contradict what God has said of His perfect reflection. Sickness, discord, and unhappiness may seem rampant and very real. Right at this point the teachings of Christian Science can help us bear correct witness to the truth of God's creation.

Mary Baker Eddy writes (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, pp. 307, 308): "Above error's awful din, blackness, and chaos, the voice of Truth still calls: 'Adam, where art thou? Consciousness, where art thou? Art thou dwelling in the belief that mind is in matter, and that evil is mind, or art thou in the living faith that there is and can be but one God, and keeping His commandment?"

To bear correct witness, we must be conscious of God's government; we must be alert to the spiritual facts and not be swayed by the false appearances presented by the material senses. If we were to say or think that any imperfection really existed at any time, we should be denying the fact that God saw His creation, "and," the Bible tells us, "behold, it was very good" (Gen. 1:31).

We should accept and repeat only the testimony of Spirit. Our Leader tells us (Science and Health, p. 252), "The false evidence of material sense contrasts strikingly with the testimony of Spirit." And, after setting forth the false assertions of material sense, she adds: "Spirit, bearing opposite testimony, saith: I am Spirit. Man, whose senses are spiritual, is my likeness."

At one time I was forced to listen to a long outpouring of details of sickness and discord. All through this tale of woe, I held my thoughts to the truth of this situation. When the other person stopped for breath and sympathy, I asked her if she thought God could possibly say any of the things that she had been repeating about herself. She readily agreed that this was impossible. When I assured her that she should not say or believe anything about herself but that which God knows of man, her thoughts were lifted above the "awful din, blackness, and chaos" of error to the consciousness of the testimony of Spirit.

Christ Jesus is our Way-shower in speech as in everything else. Taking him as our example, we shall base our conversation on his words (John 12:50), "Whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak." If we adopt this as our criterion, everyone will be blessed by what we say.

We may be very sure that if we are saying or believing anything about ourselves that God does not say of man, we are not bearing witness to the truth of our real being. God has never said that man has any aches or pains, that man is unhappy, or that man lacks anything. Neither can we truthfully say such things about ourselves, since we are actually God's perfect, spiritual ideas.

All through the writings of Mrs. Eddy, we are reminded of what God, Spirit, has said and done. In "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," our Leader writes (p. 268), "On what hath not a 'Thus saith the Lord,' I am as silent as the dumb centuries without a living Divina." We too should be silent unless we can witness to that of which we can say, "Thus saith the Lord."