Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/183



THE RIGHT ORDERING OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. 177

nations miserable} It is not our purpose here to consider how far evil deeds may succeed, or whether some king- doms, while flourishing according to their desires, may nevertheless bear within them the seeds of ruin and misery. This one thing, of which history has innumerable ex- amples, We wish to be understood, that injustice is always punished, and with greater severity the longer it has been continued. We, however, are greatly consoled by the words of the Apostle St. Paul : For all things are yours; and- you are Christ's, and Christ is God^s.^ That is, by the hidden dispensation of divine Providence the course of earthly things is so guided and governed that all things that happen to man turn to the glory of God, and lead to the salvation of the true disciples of Jesus Christ. Of these the mother and sustainer, the leader and guardian, is the Church; which, united to Christ her spouse in inti- mate and unchangeable charity, is also joined to Him in common contest and in common conquest. Hence We are not, and cannot be, anxious for the sake of the Church; but We greatly fear for the salvation of very many who in their pride despise the Church, and by many kinds of error are borne along to their own de- struction. We are anxious for those States which We cannot but see have turned from God, and are sleeping in the midst of danger with dull security and insensi- bihty. "Nothing is equal in power to the Church. . . . How many have opposed the Church and have themselves perished! The Church reaches to the heavens. Such is the Church's greatness: she conquers when attacked; when beset by snares she triumphs; . . . she struggles, and is not overthrown; she fights, and is not overcome." '

Not only is she not conquered, but she preserves entire that reforming power and efficient principle of salvation which she derives unceasingly from God, and which

^ Prov. xiv. 34. ^ 1 Cor. iii. 22, 23.


 * St. John Chrysost.