There is much uneasiness and public discussion these days about the lying in both public and private life that seems to be increasingly taken for granted as a necessity. People sometimes feel that the question of whether to lie, equivocate, be silent, or tell the truth in any given situation is a hard choice. Yet that decision is crucial, for it affects not only the individual concerned but the integrity of family and even the stability of society.

Real truth-telling comes out of the deepest love for others. Yet probably few people could put their hands to their hearts and say they have never lied out of expediency. Unfortunately, so-called excusable lies often lead to a lifestyle that has untruth at its very heart.

None of us like to be lied to. Everyone feels belittled when credibility and honesty are sacrificed on the altar of falsehood. It has been interesting to see that one of the most basic complaints about the governments recently overthrown in Eastern Europe has been that they told lies to the people, that a lack of truth had become the prevailing policy.

An English philosopher and writer, Francis Bacon, in his essay "Of Truth" says, "Certainly, it is heaven upon earth, to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in providence, and turn upon the poles of truth." The life and example of Christ Jesus are the epitome of Bacon's words. Because Jesus understood the nature of God as absolute Truth and invariable Love, he could trust his heavenly Father to guide and sustain him. Even when he was under the threat of death, he didn't deviate from the highest standard of right, which has its source and authority in God.

When asked by Pilate if he was the king of the Jews, Jesus explained that his kingdom was not of this world. ^{See John 18:33–37 .} He knew that his kingship was in the spiritual realm of truth—the true knowledge of God, his Father, who is Truth. He said: "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice."

Christ, the true idea of God, which Jesus witnessed to, frees people from slavery to materiality, from the bondage of disease and suffering, sin and death. The Master showed men and women—and that includes his followers today—that the understanding of God as the Father of all liberates people from material, limited modes of thought. It gives them the ability to bring their thinking and actions into alignment with divine Principle, the Truth of being.

By turning to God as supreme Truth for guidance and strength, we begin to realize that there is an undeviating law of good underpinning our lives. As we become more willing to obey this law, our desire and our capacity to live in accord with the highest veracity increase. Catching a glimpse of our true nature in God's likeness, we want to be truthful and good, upright and compassionate, in our dealings with others. Then we strive more earnestly to live up to the Christ ideal Jesus expressed so fully.

The Comforter—"the Spirit of truth" ^{See John 14:16, 17.} that Jesus promised his followers—is finding expression in the Science of Christianity today. Through this new-old understanding of man as God's expression, people find more freedom and courage to make truth-telling central in their thoughts and lives.

Mrs. Eddy understood that the Holy Ghost, or Comforter, has a transforming power that heals sickness and destroys sin. She writes of the divine action in this way: "The Holy Spirit takes of the things of God and showeth them unto the creature; and these things being spiritual, they disturb the carnal and destroy it; they are revolutionary, reformatory, and— now, as aforetime—they cast out evils and heal the sick." ^{Message to The Mother Church for 1901, p. 9.}

The purification and reformation that are required of all Christians are not easily accomplished. They entail a radical change of thought and outlook from a material to a spiritual basis. They demand of us a good deal of soul-searching—a facing up to human frailties—and a willingness to allow Christ to enter our lives and regenerate them.

We each eventually have to grapple with our own sense of what is right and wrong. No one else can do this for us. If we have lived comfortably with lies or half-truths, for example, we gain moral strength by confronting this weakness honestly and correcting it. Remorse and genuine sorrow for wrong make us more alert not to compromise our integrity a second time. The Comforter, divine Science, sustains each step we strive to take honestly. It stands by us as a strong friend and guide and gives us the courage to witness only to Truth.

Christian Science is presenting to this age the universal reality that the man of God's creating has never been pulled away from the pole of Truth, nor from his original perfection in God's likeness. God's spiritual man has never been a liar, nor is he deceived by the lies of the "carnal mind," which would label him a sinner. Evil cannot stand in the presence of Truth.

When we witness to truth faithfully, day by day, we are helping to create the sort of society that finds real pleasure in telling the truth.

Ann Kenrick