Love and Charity

Verse 1

Let Pharisees of high esteem Their faith and zeal declare: All their religion is a dream, If love be wanting there.

Verse 2

Love suffers long with patient eye, Nor is provok'd in haste; She lets the present inj'ry die, And long forgets the past.

Verse 3

Malice and rage, those fires of hell, She quenches with her tongue; Hopes and believes and thinks no ill, Tho' she endure the wrong.

Verse 4

She ne'er desires nor seeks to know The scandals of the time; Nor looks with pride on those below, Nor envies those that climb.

Verse 5

She lays her own advantage by, To seek her neighbor's good; So God's own Son came down to die, And save us by his blood.

Verse 6

Love is the grace that keeps her pow'r In all the realms above; There faith and hope are known no more, But saints forever love.