Page:The Gist of Swedenborg.djvu/67

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CHARITY AND FAITH
51

THE ACTIVITY OF CHARITY

CHARITY is an inward affection, moving man to do what is good, and this without recompense. So to act is his life's delight.

The life of charity is to will well and to do well by the neighbor; in all work, and in every employment, acting out of regard to what is just and equitable, good and true. In a word, the life of charity consists in the performance of uses.

Heavenly Doctrine, nn. 106, 124


FAITH THE PARTNER OF CHARITY

NEITHER charity alone nor faith alone can produce good works, any more than a husband alone or a wife alone can have offspring. The truths of faith not only illuminate charity, but qualify it, too; and, moreover, they nourish it. A man, then, who has charity and not truths of faith, is like one walking in a garden in the night-time, snatching fruit from the trees without knowing whether it is of a good or evil use.

True Christian Religion, n. 377