HH 475 - The Value of the Action

HH 475

Everyone can know that willing and not doing,
when there is opportunity,
is not willing;
also that loving and not doing good,
when there is opportunity,
is not loving,
but mere thought that one wills and loves;
and this is thought separate,
which vanishes and is dissipated.
Love and will constitute
the soul itself of a deed or work,
and give form to its body
in the honest and just things that the person does.
This is the sole source of a person's spiritual body,
or the body of his spirit;
that is, it is formed solely out of the things
that the person does from his love or will.
In a word, all things of person and his spirit
are contained in his deeds or works.