Faith, Hope, and Charity

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Faith, hope, and charity, these three

Author: James Montgomery
Tune: HOGARTH
Published in 31 hymnals

Representative Text

Faith, Hope, and Charity,--these three,
Yet is the greatest Charity!
Father of lights, those gifts impart
To mine and every human heart:--

Faith, that in prayer can never fail,
Hope, that o'er doubting must prevail,
And Charity, whose name above
Is God's own name, for "God is love."

The morning star is lost in light,
Faith vanishes at perfect sight;
The rainbow passes with the storm,
And Hope with sorrow's fading form:--

But Charity, serene, sublime,
Beyond the range of death and time,
Like the blue sky's all-bounding space,
Holds heaven and earth in its embrace.

Sacred Poems and Hymns

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Author: James Montgomery

James Montgomery (b. Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, 1771; d. Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, 1854), the son of Moravian parents who died on a West Indies mission field while he was in boarding school, Montgomery inherited a strong religious bent, a passion for missions, and an independent mind. He was editor of the Sheffield Iris (1796-1827), a newspaper that sometimes espoused radical causes. Montgomery was imprisoned briefly when he printed a song that celebrated the fall of the Bastille and again when he described a riot in Sheffield that reflected unfavorably on a military commander. He also protested against slavery, the lot of boy chimney sweeps, and lotteries. Associated with Christians of various persuasions, Montgomery supported missio… Go to person page >

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First Line:	Faith, hope, and charity, these three
Title:	Faith, Hope, and Charity
Author:	James Montgomery
Meter:	8.8.8.8
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

1 Corinthians 13:13
(hymns)

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Notes

Faith, hope, and charity, these three. J. Montgomery. [Faith, Hope, and Charity.] In the Montgomery Manuscript this hymn is dated "Jan. 27, 1834." It was printed in his Original Hymns, 1853, No. 164, in 4 stanzas of 4 lines, and entitled "The Christian Graces.” It is given in a few hymn-books in Great Britain and America: as Dr. Martineau's Hymns of Praise and Prayer, 1873; the New York Hymns & Songs of Praise, 1874, and others.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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