Wesley Corpus

'To show that the loss of these will not be regretted when the Church has advanced from a state of infancy to manhood ' (alas the day! Were the Apostles but infants to us), 'he illustrates the case by an elegant similitude,--"When I was a child, I spake as a child; . . . but when I became a man, I put away childish things." His next remark, concerning the defects of human knowledge, is only an occasional answer to an objection. And the last verse shows that the superior duration of charity refers to the present life only,--"Now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity." That is, you may perhaps object, Faith and hope will likewise remain in the Church, when prophecy, tongues, and knowledge are ceased: they will so; but still charity is the greatest, because of its excellent qualities.' (Page 107.) 'The last verse shows'! Is not this begging the question How forced is all this! The plain natural meaning of the passage is, Love (the absolute necessity and the nature of which is shown in the foregoing verses) has another commendation--it 'never faileth,' it accompanies and adorns us to eternity. 'But whether there be prophecies, they shall fail,' when all things are fulfilled and God is all in all. 'Whether there be tongues, they shall cease': one language shall prevail among all the inhabitants of heaven, while the low, imperfect languages of earth are forgotten. The 'knowledge,' likewise, we now so eagerly pursue shall then 'vanish away.' As starlight is lost in that of the midday sun, so our present knowledge in the light of eternity. 'For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.' We have here but short, narrow, imperfect conceptions, even of the things round about us, and much more of the deep things of God; and even the prophecies which men deliver from God are far from taking in the whole of future events. 'But when that which is perfect is come,' at death and in the last day, 'that which is in part shall be done away.' Both that low, imperfect, glimmering light, which is all the knowledge we can now attain to; and these slow and unsatisfactory methods of attaining, as well as of imparting it to others.