_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._