Trust me, I have not earned your dear rebuke, -
I love, as you would have me, God the most.
Would lose not Him, but you, must one be lost,
Nor with Lot's wife cast back a faithless look,
Unready to forego what I forsook.
This say I, having counted up the cost;
This, though 't be the feeblest of God's host,
The sorriest sheep Christ shepherds with His crook,
Yet, while I love my God the most, I deem
That I can never love you over much:
I love Him more, so let me love you too;
Yea, as I apprehend it, love is such
I cannot love you if I love not Him,
I cannot love Him if I love not you
~Christina Rossetti
