Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/350

344 ing evidence to the world of the divine mission on which He was about to send them.

And here no thought is more welcome to Our soul than that happy unity of faith and wills for which our Redeemer and divine Master prayed in that earnest supplication—a unity which, if useful at all times even for temporal interests, both at home and abroad, is shown by the very divisions and confusions of these days to be more than ever needful. We on Our part, watching the signs of the times, exhorting and taking thought for the future, urged thereto by the example of Christ and the duty of Our apostolic office, have not ceased to pray, and still humbly pray, for the return of Christian nations now divided from Us to the unity of former days. We have more than once of late years given expression to this object of Our desires, and have devoted sedulous care to its realization. The time cannot be far distant when We must appear to render an account of Our stewardship to the Prince of pastors, and how happy, how blessed should We be if We could bring to Him some fruit—some realization of these Our wishes which He has inspired and sustained. In these days Our thoughts turn with love and hope to the English people, observing as We do the frequent and manifest works of divine grace in their midst; how, to some, it is plain, the confusion of religious dissensions which divide them is a cause of deep concern; how others see clearly the need of some sure defence against the inroad of modern errors which only too readily humor the wishes of fallen nature and depraved reason; how the number of those religious and discreet men, who sincerely labor much for reunion with the Catholic Church, is increasing. We can hardly say how strongly these and other signs quicken the charity of Christ in Us, and redoubling Our prayers from Our inmost soul We call down a fuller measure of divine grace, which, poured out on minds so well disposed, may issue in the ardently desired fruit, the fruit, namely, that We may all meet