Produced by Al Haines The Empire of Love By W. J. DAWSON New York Chicago Toronto Fleming H. Revell Company London and Edinburgh Copyright, 1907, by FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY New York: 158 Fifth Avenue Chicago: 80 Wabash Avenue Toronto: 25 Richmond Street, W. London: 21 Paternoster Square Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street To M. M. D., who, during the last two years of our residence in London, practiced the teachings of this book before I taught them: proving daily in her compassionate toil for others the divine efficacy of simple love to redeem the lives, that were most estranged from virtue, and most lost to hope. Love feels no burden, regards not labours, would willingly do more than it is able, pleads not impossibility, because it feels that it can and may do all things. THOMAS A KEMPIS. CONTENTS 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. I THE GENIUS TO BE LOVED