Love The Greatest Of All Gifts
Yet I can still show you a way beyond all comparison the best.
Though I speak in the “tongues” of men, or even of angels, yet have not Love, I have become mere echoing brass, or a clanging cymbal! Even though I have the gift of preaching, and fathom all hidden truths and all the depths of knowledge; even though I have such faith as might move mountains, yet have not Love, I am nothing! Even though I dole my substance to the poor, even though I sacrifice my body, that I may boast, yet have not Love, it avails me nothing! Love is long-suffering, and kind; Love is never envious, never boastful, never conceited, never behaves unbecomingly; Love is never self-seeking, never provoked, never reckons up her wrongs; Love never rejoices at evil, but rejoices in the triumph of Truth; Love bears with all things, ever trustful, ever hopeful, ever patient. Love never fails. But, whether it be the gift of preaching, it will be done with; whether it be the gift of “tongues,” it will cease; whether it be knowledge, it, too, will be done with. For our knowledge is incomplete, and our preaching is incomplete, but, when the Perfect has come, that which is incomplete will be done with. When I was a child, I talked as a child, I felt as a child, I reasoned as a child; now that I am a man, I have done with childish ways. As yet we see, in a mirror, dimly, but then—face to face! As yet my knowledge is incomplete, but then I shall know in full, as I have been fully known. Meanwhile Faith, Hope, and Love endure—these three, but the greatest of these is Love.
—Paul to the Corinthians.
One does not “fall into love “—love is an ascension to God-like living.
A Creed
There is a destiny that makes us brothers:
None goes his way alone:
All that we send into the lives of others
Comes back into our own.
—Edwin Markham.