Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/115



CHRISTIAN CONSTITUTION OF STATES. 109

directing all to strive earnestly for the common good ; every civilized community must have a^ru ling authority, and this authority, no less than society itself, nas its source in nature, and has, consequently, God for its author. Hence it follows that all public power must proceed from God. For God alone is the true and supreme Lord of the world. Everything, \vithout exception, must be subject to Him, and must serve Him, so that whosoever holds the right to govern, holds it from one sole and single source, namely, God, the Sovereign Ruler of all. There is no power but from God.

The right to rule is not necessarily, how^ever, bound up with any special mode of government. It may take this or that form, provided only that it be of a nature to insure the general welfare. But whatever be the nature of the government, rulers must ever bear in mind that God is the paramount ruler of the world, and must set Him before themselves as their exemplar and law in the admin- istration of the State. For, in things visible, God has fashioned secondarj'- causes, in which His divine action can in some wise be discerned, leading up to the end to which the course of the world is ever tending. In like manner in civil society, God has always "wdlled that there should be a ruling authority, and that they who are invested with it should reflect the divine power and prov- idence in some m^easure over the human race.

They, therefore, who rule should rule with even-handed justice, not as masters, but rather as fathers, for the rule of God over man is most just, and is tempered always with a father's kindness. Government should, moreover, be administered for the well-being of the citizens because they who govern others possess authority solely for the welfare of the State. Furthermore, the civil power must not be subservient to the advantage of any one individual or of some few persons, inasmuch as it was established

' Rom. xiii. 1.