1
O perfect love! It suffers long, forbearing;
Tender and kind, it leads the soul to sing;
Free from all jealous thought and boastful feeling,
May I this love divine to others bring.
Tender and kind, it leads the soul to sing;
Free from all jealous thought and boastful feeling,
May I this love divine to others bring.
2
O, selfless love! ’Tis never unbecoming;
Purest affection “seeks not its own things;”
Never provoked, not counting evil doing;
Let this love echo forth from my heart’s strings.
Purest affection “seeks not its own things;”
Never provoked, not counting evil doing;
Let this love echo forth from my heart’s strings.
3
O noble love! In righteousness rejoicing,
A love that cheers whenever truth is king;
It covers all things, and believes it all things,
It hopes all things, and will endure all things.
A love that cheers whenever truth is king;
It covers all things, and believes it all things,
It hopes all things, and will endure all things.
4
O lasting love! It fades not, ne’er abating;
Timeless and strong, prevails o’er everything;
When knowledge fails, and gifts are unavailing;
May I be found in its eternal spring.
Timeless and strong, prevails o’er everything;
When knowledge fails, and gifts are unavailing;
May I be found in its eternal spring.