Love and charity. <br /> <br />1 Cor. 13:2-7, 13. <br /> <br />Let Pharisees of high esteem <br />Their faith and zeal declare, <br />All their religion is a dream, <br />If love be wanting there. <br /> <br />Love suffers long with patient eye, <br />Nor is provoked in haste; <br />She lets the present injury die, <br />And long forgets the past. <br /> <br />[Malice and rage, those fires of hell, <br />She quenches with her tongue; <br />Hopes and believes, and thinks no ill, <br />Though she endure the wrong.] <br /> <br />[She nor desires nor seeks to know <br />The scandals of the time; <br />Nor looks with pride on those below, <br />Nor envies those that climb.] <br /> <br />She lays her own advantage by <br />To seek her neighbor's good; <br />So God's own Son came down to die, <br />And bought our lives with blood. <br /> <br />Love is the grace that keeps her power <br />In all the realms above; <br />There faith and hope are known no more, <br />But saints for ever love.<br /><br />Isaac Watts<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/hymn-133/
