The Gift of Love

Full Text

1 Though I may speak with bravest fire,
And have the gift to all inspire,
And have not love, my words are vain,
As sounding brass, and hopeless gain.

2 Though I may give all I possess,
And striving so my love profess,
But not be given by love within,
The profit soon turns strangely thin.

3 Come, Spirit, come, our hearts control,
Our spirits long to be made whole.
Let inward love guide every deed;
By this we worship, and are freed.

Author: Hal H. Hopson

Hal H. Hopson (born 22 June 1933) is a full-time composer and church musician residing in Dallas, Texas. He has over 1000 published works, which comprise almost every musical form in church music. With a special interest in congregational song, he continues to make a significant contribution to the new repertoire of hymn tunes and responsorial psalm settings as evidenced by the proliferation of his settings that are included in newly published hymnals and psalm collections. His cantata, God with Us, was one of the few compositions selected by a panel at the Kennedy Space Center, Washington, DC, to be placed in a capsule during the American Bicentennial in 1976. The capsule will be opened at the Tricentennial in 2076 and will be heard aga… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: Though I may speak with bravest fire
Title: The Gift of Love
Author: Hal H. Hopson (1972)
Meter: 8.8.8.8
Copyright: Copyright © 1972 by Hope Publishing Company, Carol Stream, IL 60188. International copyright secured. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Tune

O WALY WALY

O WALY WALY is a traditional English melody associated with the song "O Waly, Waly, gin love be bony," the words of which date back at least to Ramsay's Tea Table Miscellany (1724-1732), and as the setting for a folk ballad about Jamie Douglas. It is also well known in the Appalachian region of the…

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Timeline

Media

The United Methodist Hymnal #408
Worship and Rejoice #397

Instances

Instances (14)TextImageAudioScore
Renew! #155TextImage
Worship in Song: A Friends Hymnal #223
Worship and Rejoice #397TextImageAudioScore
The United Methodist Hymnal #408TextImageAudioScore
Baptist Hymnal 1991 #423TextImage
Celebrating Grace Hymnal #440Image
Christian Worship: a Lutheran hymnal #498Text
African American Heritage Hymnal #522Image
Chalice Hymnal #526Text
The Worshiping Church #593TextImage
Trinity Hymnal #597Text
Presbyterian Hymnal #335TextImage
Voices United: The Hymn and Worship Book of The United Church of Canada #372Text
Sing Joyfully #126TextImage