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Though in every tongue of men and of angels I spoke, and had not love, I should be as brass which soundeth, or a cymbal which giveth voice. And though there were in me prophecy, and I knew all mysteries, and all knowledge, and though there were in me all faith, as that I could remove the mountain,9 and love were not in me, I should be nothing. And if all I have I make to feed the poor, and I deliver my body to burn, and love be not in me, I profit nothing.
9 Mountains.-WALTON'S edit.
XX. 13:4
LOVE is patient and benign; love envieth not; love is not tumultuous, nor inflated; it acteth not with unseemliness, nor seeketh its own; it is not angry, nor thoughtful of evil; it rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth. It endureth every thing, believeth every thing; it hopeth all, endureth all. Love never falleth;1 for prophecies shall be abolished, and tongues be silent, and knowledge be abolished: for it is a little of much that we know, and a little of much we prophesy; but when the perfection shall have come, then shall be abolished that which is little. When I was a child, as a child I spake, and as a child I thought, and as a child I reasoned; but when I had become a man I abolished these things of childhood. But now as in a mirror we see in a figure;2 but then- the face before the face. Now I know a little of much; but then shall I know even as I am known. For these are the three that remain, faith and hope and love; but the greatest of these is love.
1 Lo nophel.
2 Or, parable.
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