Text of the meditation
A person cannot cling to anything unless they believe in it; belief always precedes action, and therefore a person's deeds and life are the fruits of their belief. Whoever believes in all those things that are good will love them, and live in them; whoever believes in those things that are impure and selfish will love them, and cling to them.
The tree is known by its fruits. A person's beliefs about God, Jesus and the Bible are one thing; their life, as bound up in their actions, is another. A person's theological belief is therefore of no consequence, but the thoughts they harbour, their attitude of mind toward others, and their actions, these, and these only, determine and demonstrate whether the belief of their heart is fixed in the false or the true.
There are only two beliefs that vitally affect the life, and they are belief in good and belief in evil.
James Allen (1864–1912), Book of Meditations for Every Day in the Year (1913) – public-domain text, gently modernised.
The original 1913 text is in the public domain.