Peggy's pearls...

testimony - n.

1. A declaration or affirmation of fact or truth, such as that given before a court.

2. A public declaration regarding a religious experience.

"The testimony you have today will not be your testimony of tomorrow. Your testimony is either going to grow and grow until it becomes as the brightness of the sun, or it is going to diminish to nothing, depending on what you do about it." Harold B. Lee

The following are excerpts from the book, Reflections of a Scientist - Henry Eyring.

"I have one caution about scholarship as it relates to the Church, its history, leaders, and doctrines. We need to be continually reminded that however interesting some such topic might be, it has no relevance to religious faith, one way or the other. You can't intellectualize your way to a testimony. There will always be another question beyond the one you have just answered.

People who think they have to be as smart as the Lord, understand everything, and have no contradictions in their minds may have trouble. There are all kinds of contradictions that I don't understand, but I find the same kinds of contradictions in science, and I haven't decided to apostatize from science.

There is a further point that needs emphasis. The gospel is not the people in the Church. The gospel is not even the people who direct it. The gospel is the truth. Some people have pointed to some member of the Church and said, 'Now, Dr. Eyring, that's one of your brethren, and he's not what he ought to be.' My answer is this, 'Well, you ought to see what he'd be like if it weren't for the Church.' We have to keep firmly in mind at all times the two aspects of the Church: its divinely inspired perfect side, and its human side. Perhaps I can say it another way. This Church would be perfect if the Lord had not let people into it.

So I am certain that the gospel, as taught in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is true. It's a better explanation of what I observe in science than any other I know about. There are still lots of things I don't know, but that doesn't bother me. I'm a happy muddler. The gospel simply asks me to find out what's true as best I can and in the meantime to live a good life. That strikes me as the best formula for living there could be."

(Elder Neal A. Maxwell said of his friend, "Though Henry Eyring is, in my opinion, the most distinguished Mormon scientist of this dispensation, Henry's highest expression of scholarship was seen in his capacity to grasp the simplest but most sublime truths about God, man, and the universe!")