THE THREE GRACES

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and 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 her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.- 1 Cor. xiii. 1–13.

NOTES

1. Look up the life of St. Paul.

2. Be prepared to tell what you can of the three Graces in Greek

history.

3. Look up the meanings of the following words and expressions: sounding brass, tinkling cymbal, prophecy, mysteries, profiteth, bestow, envieth, vaunteth, unseemly, iniquity.

EXERCISES

1. Explain the meaning of the first sentence. For what do sounding brass and tinkling cymbal stand?

2. Why would not the gift of prophecy, all knowledge, and faith be of profit even without love?

3. Explain fully the meaning of the third proposition.

4. What are the attributes of love as shown in this chapter?

5. Explain "We know in part."

5. What is the meaning of "when that which is perfect is come"?

7. Explain "We see through a glass, darkly."

8. What power enables one to make this great growth?

9. What are the three Christian Graces?

10. Why is love said to be the greatest of these?

ADDITIONAL READINGS

MORRIS: My Mother's Bible.

GRIMKE: The Bible the Best of Classics.

GAYLEY: Classic Myths, pp. 36-7.

DRUMMOND: Addresses-The Greatest Thing in the World.

FERGUSSON: A Mother's Gift.

BUNYAN: Pilgrim's Progress.

HIGGINSON: Four-Leaf Clovers.

LANIER: Power of Prayer.

A CHILD'S THOUGHT OF GOD

VERY child has wondered at the clouds,

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the sky, and the stars. All these to him are great and wonderful, but to the child, God is even greater. In his dreams the child wonders what God is like. He knows that God can do everything, and is everywhere.

It has remained for this author to give us a beautiful explanation of the tenderness and sweetness of God's love. The author makes her explanation of what God is like easy for us to understand when she compares God's love to a mother's love.

A CHILD'S THOUGHT OF GOD
They say that God lives very high!
But if you look above the pines
You cannot see our God. And why?

And if you dig down in the mines,
You never see him in the gold,
Though from him all that's glory shines.

God is so good, He wears a fold

Of heaven and earth across his face
Like secrets kept, for love, untold.

But still I feel that his embrace

Slides down by thrills through all things made, Through sight and sound of every place.

As if my tender mother laid

On my shut lips her kisses' pressure,

Half waking me at night; and said

"Who kissed you through the dark, dear guesser?" -Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

NOTES

1. Read Paul's discussion of "The Unknown God" in Acts xvii. 22-34. 2. Fold of heaven and earth. A beautiful way of saying that God is all and in all.

3. For love. Because of love.

4. Slides down by thrills. Indicates the sympathetic omnipresence of God. See Note 2.

5. Be prepared to give the meanings of the following: fold of heaven and earth, secrets, embrace, slides down by thrills, tender, pressure, guesser.

EXERCISES

1. What is your answer to the question in the first stanza?

2. Why is God not seen in the gold in the depths of mines?

3. Explain "from him all that's glory shines."

4. What meaning in "He wears a fold of heaven and earth across his face"?

5. Explain the fourth stanza.

6. How does the author finally make us see the child's thought of God?

7. How much interest does the average mother have in the sleeping child?

8. How nearly safe is the sleeping child under its mother's care?

9. In what larger sense is God's care extended to his children?

ADDITIONAL READINGS

FIELDS: The Captain's Daughter.

WHITTIER: The Eternal Goodness.

MRS. BROWNING: The Sleep.
TENNYSON: Crossing the Bar.

BROWNING: The Guardian Angel.
MARKHAM: A Prayer.

"We Thank Thee."

MRS. HEMANS: The Hour of Prayer.
HOLMES: Chambered Nautilus.

TENNYSON: Flower in the Crannied Wall.
LONGFELLOW: The Legend Beautiful.

MY NATIVE LAND

Breathes there the man with soul so dead
Who never to himself hath said,

This is my own — my native land!
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned
As home his footsteps he hath turned

From wandering on a foreign strand?
If such there breathe, go, mark him well!
For him no minstrel raptures swell;
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim,-
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentered all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonored, and unsung.

Sir Walter Scott.