As I have loved you. Oh! more than love,—
Language can breathe, and thought conceive no more;
It is not “as thyself”—this mounts above
All human feeling, bids us higher soar,
Gaze on the cross, and feel the love a Saviour bore!
And can we ever rudely tear aside
The band Messiah twined around His own?
Envy, resentment, petulance, or pride,
Erase the mark by which His flock are known?
Hath Christ ne’er loved us, to us no mercy shown?