Spring and fountain

Meaning

The spring in Part IV: the spiritual comparison · unit 46 is inward and divine hearing of God's Word, from which living faith arises and flows. The passage then follows faith into love: obedience, prayer and thanksgiving toward God, and beneficent works toward the neighbour. This ordered source-image is not a reference to literal water or to the mercurial fountain. The English preserves 'as from a spring', marking the comparison. Faith's purity is related to pure Word and hearing, while active love supplies the outward consequence. The image therefore links origin with ethical expression rather than describing an isolated private feeling.