Holy Spirit, Gracious Guest

Holy Spirit, Gracious Guest

Text based on 1 Corinthians 13, written by Christopher Wordsworth (1807-1885)

Sung to GUILDFORD CATHEDRAL, composed by Grayston Ives (1948-?)

1 Corinthians 12:31 Now eagerly desire the greater gifts. And yet I will show you the most excellent way.

V. 1 Holy Spirit, gracious guest,

Hear and grant our heart's request

For that gift supreme and best:

Holy heav'nly love.

1 Corinthians 13:1, 2 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 

V. 2 Faith that mountains could remove,

Tongues of earth or heaven above,

Knowledge, all things, empty prove

If I have no love.

1 Corinthians 13:3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 

V. 3 Though I as a martyr bleed,

Give my goods the poor to feed,

All is vain if love I need:

Therefore give me love.

Song of Solomon 8:6 Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave.

It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame.

1 Corinthians 13:4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 

V. 4 Love is kind and suffers long,

Love is pure and thinks no wrong,

Love than death itself more strong:

Therefore give us love.

1 Corinthians 13:8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 

V. 5 Prophecy will fade away,

Melting in the light of day;

Love will ever with us stay:

Therefore give us love.

1 Corinthians 13:13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

V. 5 Faith and hope and love we see

Joining hand in hand agree--

But the greatest of the three,

And the best is love.