Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/347

Rh classes for the promotion of purity of morals and for sustaining the honor due to womanhood. For, alas, in regard to the Christian virtue of continence pernicious views are subtly creeping in, as though it were believed that a man was not so strictly bound by the precept as a woman. Moreover, reflecting men are deeply concerned at the spread of rationalism and materialism, and We Ourselves have often lifted up Our voice to denounce these evils, which weaken and paralyze not religion only, but the very springs of thought and action. The highest credit is due to those who fearlessly and unceasingly proclaim the rights of God and of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the laws and teachings given by Him for the establishment of the divine kingdom here upon earth; in the which teachings alone strength, wisdom and safety are to be found. The various and abundant manifestations of care for the aged, for orphans, for incurables, for the destitute, the refuges, reformatories, and other forms of charity, all which the Church as a tender mother inaugurated and from the earliest times has ever inculcated as a special duty, are evidences of the spirit which animates you. Nor can We omit to mention specially the strict public observance of Sunday and the general spirit of respect for the Holy Scriptures. Every one knows the power and resources of the British nation and the civilizing influence which, with the spread of liberty, accompanies its commercial prosperity even to the most remote regions. But, worthy and noble in themselves as are all these varied manifestations of activity, Our soul is raised to the origin of all power and the perennial source of all good things, to God our Heavenly Father, most beneficent. For the labors of man, whether public or private, will not attain to their full efficacy without appeal to God in prayer and without the divine blessing. For happy is that people whose God is the Lord. For the mind of the