ou 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
word occurs several times, and always in a leading way. But the thought
of witnessing is the colouring of every page, and the chief colouring.

I said that these two words were twins, born at the same time, of the
same mother. That warm-hearted brooding mother is the word _wooing_.
Originally _wooing_ means bending towards, inclining forward or reaching
out towards another. And the purpose of the reaching out is to get the
other to reach forward towards you. And that purpose puts the warm feel
into the reaching out.

All words were pictures first. Here in this word _wooing_ is a picture,
by one of the old masters, waiting to be restored, with all the dusty
accumulations of the years carefully removed. And here's the picture: a
man standing, with the light of the morning shining in His eyes, body
bending forward, hands reaching out, with an eagerness, an expectancy in
every line of His body, and tender love glowing out of His face, and
sounding in the very tones with which the voice is calling.

This picture is really the water-mark on the paper of John's Gospel.
Hold up the paper of John's Gospel to the light. The best light for the
purpose is found on Mount Calvary. High altitudes have clearer light.
You see more distinctly. Now look. Hold still that you may see all the
outlines more distinctly. There's the form of a Man standing in pleading
attitude, with outstretched hands.