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Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal · No. 589 · Words: Christopher Wordsworth
Holy Spirit, Gracious Guest
Create PowerPoint slides from this hymn →A petition to the Holy Spirit, grounded in 1 Corinthians 13, asking above all for the gift of love — showing faith, tongues, knowledge, and even martyrdom as empty without it. Written by Christopher Wordsworth and published in 'The Holy Year' (1862).
Verse 1
Holy Spirit, gracious guest,
Hear and grant our heart's request
For that gift supreme and best:
Holy heav'nly love.
Verse 2
Faith that mountains could remove,
Tongues of earth or heaven above,
Knowledge, all things, empty prove
If I have no love.
Verse 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.
Verse 4
Love is kind and suffers long,
Love is pure and thinks no wrong,
Love than death it self more strong:
Therefore give us love.
Verse 5
Prophecy will fade away,
Melting in the light of day;
Love will ever with us stay:
Therefore give us love.
Verse 6
Faith and hope and love we see
Joining hand in hand agree-
But the greatest of the three,
And the best is love.
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