The Greatest of All

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 15, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 42.

The Greatest of All

(1 Corinthians 13, American Standard Revised Version)

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, BUT HAVE NOT LOVE, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of Prophecy, And know all Mysteries and all Knowledge; And if I have all Faith, so as to remove Mountains, BUT HAVE NOT LOVE, I am nothing. And if I bestow all my Goods to feed the poor, And if I give my Body, to be Burned, BUT HAVE NOT LOVE, It profiteth me nothing.

LOVE suffereth long, and is kind: LOVE envieth not; LOVE vaunteth not itself, Is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, Seeketh not its own, Is not provoked, Taketh not account of evil; Rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, But rejoiceth with the Truth; Beareth all things, Believeth all things, Hopeth all things, Endureth all things.

LOVE NEVER FAILETH: But whether there be Prophecies, they shall be done away; Whether there be Tongues, they shall cease; Whether there be Knowledge, it shall be done away. For we know in part, And we prophesy in part: But when that which is Perfect is come, That which is in Part shall be done away.

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child: Now that I am become a man, I have put away childish things.

For now we see in a mirror darkly; But then face to face: Now I know in part; But then shall I know fully even as also I was fully known.

But now abideth FAITH, HOPE, LOVE, These three; And the greatest of these is LOVE.