least of these?
And yet He loved His kind, the sick at heart, the poor,
The impotent of will, those who from wrong forbore,
Those without arms to strike, the lost of Israel.
Of these He made His kingdom--as it pleased Him well--
Kingdom without a king. His thought was to bring back
Earth to its earlier way, ere Man had left the track,
And stay his rage to slay. "Take ye no thought," said He,
"Of what the day may bring. Be as the lilies be.
"They toil not, nor do spin, and yet are clothed withal.
"Choose ye the lowest place. Be guileless of all gall.
"If one shall smite you, smile. If one shall rob, give more.
"The first shall be the last, and each soul hold its store.
"Only the eyes that weep--only the poor in spirit--
"Only the pure in heart God's kingdom shall inherit."
On this fair base of love Thy Son built up His creed,
Thinking to save the world. And Man, who owned no need
Of any saving, slew Him.

THE LORD GOD

It was the Jews that slew
In huge ingratitude Him who Himself was Jew.
O perfidi Judaei! Yet His creed prevailed.
Thou hast thyself borne witness. If Shem's virtue failed,
Japhet hath found us sons who swear all by His name.
Nay, thou hast testified the Christian faith finds fame
In every western land. It hath inherited
All that was once called Rome. The Orient bows its head
Perturbed by the white vision of a purer day.
Ham's heritage accepts new salves for its decay,
And there are worlds reborn beyond the ocean's verge
Where men are not as men, mad foam on the salt surge,
But live even as He taught them in love's noblest mood,
Under the law of Jesus.

SATAN

Where, O glorious God?
In what land of the heathen--and I know them all,
From China to Peru, from Hind to Senegal,
And onward through the isles of the great Southern main.
Where is this miracle? Nay, nay, the search were vain.

THE LORD GOD

It is the angels' hearsay.

SATAN

A romance, Lord. Hear
The word of one Thy wanderer, sphere and hemisphere,
For ever on Thy Earth, who shepherding Thy seas
No less than Thy green valleys hath nor rest nor peace,
But he must learn the way of all who in them dwell;
To whom there is no secret, naught untold, no hell
Where any sin may hide but he hath wormed it out
From silence to confession till his ears grew hot;
Who kno