Religion
Hymn I.133: Love and charity
From Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Book I (1707)
Let Pharisees of high esteem
Their faith and zeal declare,
All their religion is a dream,
If love be wanting there.
Love suffers long with patient eye,
Nor is provoked in haste;
She lets the present injury die,
And long forgets the past.
Malice and rage, those fires of hell,
She quenches with her tongue;
Hopes and believes, and thinks no ill,
Though she endure the wrong.
She nor desires nor seeks to know
The scandals of the time;
Nor looks with pride on those below,
Nor envies those that climb.
She lays her own advantage by
To seek her neighbor's good;
So God's own Son came down to die,
And bought our lives with blood.
Love is the grace that keeps her power
In all the realms above;
There faith and hope are known no more,
But saints for ever love.
Cite this poem
MLA
Watts, Isaac. “Hymn I.133: Love and charity.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/watts/488/.
Chicago
Watts, Isaac. “Hymn I.133: Love and charity.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/watts/488/.
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