scale, from something valuable and precious in itself, on to something
that _satisfies you_ regarding the matter in hand. You are not only
satisfied but pleased, content. And so there is the same trusting and
risking, the same leaning your whole weight upon the thing. Deep down
at its root, _believe_ is a close kinsman to _love_. They both spring
out of the same warm creative womb.

When we dig a bit into that word _believe_ in the usage of common life
it means three distinct things, each leading straight into the
other,--knowledge, belief, trust. That is, _facts_, facts _accepted_,
facts _trusted_ in regard to something that takes hold of your life. You
hear something. You believe it's true. But there must be the third
thing, risking something valuable. There's no belief in the
heart-meaning without this thing of _risking_. The trust that risks is
the life blood of faith. The rest is only the bony skeleton with tendons
and sinews and flesh. There's no life without the blood. There's no
belief without trust.

And the word _witness_ is the same pure-gold sort of nugget, assaying
full weight. John's native word and our own are just the same in
meaning. Their meaning is _to tell what you know_. We shall be running
across this word again, and digging a bit deeper into it. But this is
the thing that stands out in it. You tell something that you yourself
know. There's personal knowledge. There's a telling some one else this
thing you know. And yet more, there's the purpose in the telling, that
others may know what you know, and get all the good that comes with
knowing it.

The _witnessing_ is that others may _believe_. It is a striking thing in
John that the _thought_ of witness is more common than the _word_. The