TRUTH . . . HAS A RING TO IT

A preacher came to England from abroad and was about to embark upon a tour of local churches. The moment I met this man my warning bells began to ring. There was something unclean about him. I could produce no evidence of past misdemeanours and was talked down by my peers. In fact I was criticised severely for saying that I could not trust the man. 'What evidence did I have?'. It subsequently turned out that he seduced several women while their husbands were at work. After that one prominent leader said, 'We must ask Maurice what he feels in future'. But as it turned out they usually didn't; that would have been too subjective.

Long ago a book by Canon J.B. Phillips made a deep impression on me. It was called 'The Ring of Truth' and that phrase has stayed with me ever since. Sometimes when listening to a narrative we sense, 'That doesn't ring true'. The uncertain feeling can fly in the face of the evidence and tell us that something is wrong.

Alternatively a most unlikely story can have a strange sense of authenticity which goes beyond reason. I get it when reading the four conflicting gospel accounts. In the western world we have tended to base our conclusions on logic and scientific evidence alone and have ignored our feelings. In doing so we have lost a great deal.

Consider the New Testament term 'sound doctrine'. On face value that has a heavy forbidding sense about it, but such is far from the truth. How about 'sound' as in healthy? Sound in wind and limb makes a good racehorse. An apple can be sound and very health-imparting too. Now we are beginning to focus. Nothing to cause harm or dis-ease, teaching that is life-giving, containing no words to corrupt us or curtail our joy. In the same way a bell can have a 'sound' or uncracked ring to it. How something 'rings our bell' can be the test for survival in certain circumstances.

We relegate the ring of truth - or untruth - at our peril. It is perhaps best exemplified by the woman who says that she does not like being left alone in the house with a certain man. Often the response from her partner will be that she should stop being silly. However she may be picking up bad vibes, an uncertain sound, a flaw in the ring that is not easily explained.

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