Mamma, kiss me!

(J.R. Miller)

That was a touching story which Mr. Gladstone gave in Parliament, when announcing the death of the Princess Alice. Her little boy was ill with diphtheria, and the mother had been cautioned not to inhale the poisoned breath. The child was tossing in the delirium of fever. The Princess stood beside him and laid her hand on his brow to caress him. The touch cooled the fevered brain, and brought back the wandering soul from its wild delirium. He nestled a moment in his mother's lap; then, throwing his arms around her neck, he whispered, "Mamma, kiss me." Mother-love was stronger than all the injunctions of physicians — and she pressed her lips to the child's. The result was her death.
 
You say that she was foolish. Yet where is the mother who would not have done the same? Love stops at no peril, at no sacrifice. There was great peril in Christ's own mission to this world. In His marvelous love for us, He put his lips to the poison of our sin — and died in our place!

"Christ loved the church, and gave Himself up for her!" Ephesians 5:25

"I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep!" John 10:11