Love alone is imperishable.
Love alone is the savior of the human race, and whenever we fail to act from motives of love, we are disloyal to the light within us.
Again says St. Paul:
"If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.
"And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
"And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing.
"LOVE NEVER FAILETH.
"But whether there be prophecies they shall be done away; whether there be tongues they shall cease; whether there be knowledge it shall be done away. For we know in part and we prophecy in part, but when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away."
It must be remembered that in the days of St. Paul the high priests and the prophets were accounted the wisest and most exalted persons in the community.
The ability to prophecy presupposed a special favor of the God of the Jews. St. Paul's exposition of the changed viewpoint that comes to one who has entered into cosmic consciousness, was therefore aptly illustrated by his open avowal that there was a far greater power—a more exalted state of consciousness, than that of the gift of prophecy and of "knowing all mysteries;" that state of one in which love was the ruler, and in order that they might the more fully comprehend the simplicity, and yet the perfection, of this state of consciousness, he made clear the fact that no one truly who became "a new creature", as he characterized this change, ever exalted himself, or made high claims; or became exclusive, or "superior," or "holy," in the sense the latter word had been used.