Chapter I: The Genius to Be Loved

II. WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY?
III. THE JUSTICE OF JESUS
IV. LOVE IS JUSTICE
V. LOVE AND FORGIVENESS
VI. THE PRACTICE OF LOVE
VII. LOVE AND JUDGMENT
VIII. THE WISDOM OF THE SIMPLE
IX. THE REVELATIONS OF GRIEF
X. A CONFESSION
XI. A LOVER OF MEN
XII. THE LAW OF COMPASSION
XIII. THE EMPIRE OF LOVE
XIV. THE BUILDERS OF THE EMPIRE

THE GENIUS TO BE LOVED

_WHY THEY LOVED HIM_

_So kindly was His love to us,
(We had not heard of love before),
That all our life grew glorious
When He had halted at our door._

_So meekly did He love us men,
Though blind we were with shameful sin,
He touched our eyes with tears, and then
Led God's tall angels flaming in._

_He dwelt with us a little space,
As mothers do in childhood's years,
And still we can discern His face
Wherever Joy or Love appears._

_He made our virtues all His own,
And lent them grace we could not give,
And now our world seems His alone,
And while we live He seems to live._

_He took our sorrows and our pain,
And hid their torture in His breast,
Till we received them back again
To find on each His grief impressed._

_He clasped our children in His arms,
And showed us where their beauty shone,
He took from us our gray alarms,
And put Death's icy armour on._

_So gentle were His ways with us,
That crippled souls had ceased to sigh,
On them He laid His hands, and thus
They gloried at His passing by._

_Without reproof or word of blame,
As mothers do in childhood's years,
He kissed our lips in spite of shame,
And stayed the passage of our tears._

_So tender was His love to us,
(We had not learned to love before),
That we grew like to Him, and thus
Men sought His grace in us once more._

CONINGSBY WILLIAM DAWSON.