costliness ; and then it came to express the feeling arising from the sight of want and suffering. And this is the com- mon meanmg still attached to the English word, which ren- ders it unsuitable as the substitute of the comprehensive word love. Many have been led to think that almsgiving covers a multitude of sins, because charity is said to have that effect ; and that kindness to the poor and the sick is the sum of all religion, because Paul exalts charity above faith and hope. It is not of charity, but of love, of which the Bible thus speaks.
Superiority of Love to all other gifts.
1. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become (as) sound- ing brass, or a tinkhng cymbal.
The gift of tongues, on which the Corinthians so much valued themselves, is mentioned first, because it was the prom- inent subject in this whole discussion. The tongues of raen are the languages which men speak. As this is the obvious meaning of the expression, it serves to prove that the gift of tongues was the gift of speaking foreign languages. The tongues of angels are the languages which angels use. A mode of expression equivalent to 'aU languages human or divine.' Paul means to say, that the gift of tongues in its highest conceivable extent without love is nothing. Without love I am, become^ i. e. the mere want of love has reduced me, notwithstanding the gift m question, to a level with sounding brass ; not a musical instrument made of brass, which has some dignity about it, but to a piece of clattering brass which makes a senseless noise ; or, at least, to a tinkling cymbal^ the lowest and least expressive of all musical instruments. Tink- li7ig (dXaXa^ov), properly clanging^ expressive of the loud shrill noise made by the cymbal. These instruments were of two kinds, one small, worn on the thumb and middle finger, answering, it is thought, to the modern castanets ; the other large, broad plates, like our common cymbals. Joseph. Ant. v. 12. 3. Both kinds are perhaps referred to in Ps. 150, 5, where the Septuagint distinguishes them as the sweet-toned and the loud. The latter is the kind here specified. The illustration was probably adopted from the shrill, discordant noise made by the speakers with their tongues, each endeav- ouring to drown the voice of all the others, as seems from