Talk vs. Work

"I would not trouble myself to set your opinions all right
from this moment, henceforth, and for ever.
... I do not think it is worth any man's labour;

but if I could stir up a single soul,
instead of talking about the meaning even of the greatest things,
to go and do the smallest duty,

I should say that is the kind of duty for which Christ spent Himself.

If you read His life wisely you will see that His constant effort is
to turn a man's thought back to himself,
and make him do a thing,

and not talk about it. "

-- George MacDonald, Faith: the Proof of the Unseen, Sermon, June 1882

From the same sermon:

"I assert that faith is simply the greatest work that man can do. Taking it in its simplest, original development, it is the highest effort of the whole human intellect, imagination, will, in the highest direction. Never does the human nature put forth itself in such power, with such effort, with such energy as to have faith in God. I say it is the highest, and sometimes the most difficult, work that a man can do."

"What is your first thought in the morning? Is it 'God is life'? or is it 'How am I to order my day's work?' Is it 'God is very rich and I am His child and He will see to me'? or is it 'How on earth shall I get through this that lies before me?' Are you afraid? Are the cares of this world troublesome to you? (If yes) Well, you have not got on much. "

".. You have been very careful reading your Bible and going to church, and this thing and that thing that you think belongs to religion; but have you been doing the thing Christ told you?"

"God grant us all faith enough to carry on from point to point till the faith shall vanish into light, and we have never to think about faith more, nor to think about Church more, nor the Bible more, nor prayer more, but our whole being shall be a delighted consciousness of the presence of God and His Christ."