Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/395



THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH. 389

of my brethren. Then am I honored when due honor is given to even^ one." ^

In what has been said We have faithfully described the exemplar and form of the Church as divinely consti- tuted. We have treated at length of its unity: We have explained sufficiently its nature, and pointed out the way in which the divine Founder of the Church willed that it should be preserved. There is no reason to doubt that all those, who by di\dne grace and mercy have had the happi- ness to have been born, as it were, in the bosom of the Catholic Church, and to have lived in it, will listen to Our apostolic voice: My sheep hear My voice,'^ and that they will derive from Our words fuller instruction and a more perfect disposition to keep united with their respective ] astors, and through them with the Supreme Pastor, so that they may remain more securely within the one fold, and may derive therefrom a greater abundance of salutary fruit. But We, who, notwithstanding Our un- fitness for this great dignity and office, govern by virtue of the authority conferred on Us by Jesus Christ, as We look on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, ^ feel Our heart fired by His charity. What Christ has said of Himself We may truly repeat of Ourselves: Other sheep I have that are not of this fold: them also I must bring and they shall hear My voice.* Let a ll those, therefore, who detest the widespread irreligion of our times, and acknowledge and confess Jesus Christ to be the Son of God and the Saviour of the human race, but who have wandered away from the Spouse, listen to_ Our vo ice. Let them not refuse to obey Our paternal charity. Those who_ackno\vIeLl^e Christ must acknowledge Him wholly^ ^and entirely. "The Head and the bofly are Christ wholly and entirely^ The Head is the only-begotten Son of God, the body is His Church; the bridegroom and the

- S. Gregorius M. Epistolanim, lib viii., ep. xxx., ad Eulogium. ^ John X. 27. s Heb. xii. 2.
 * John X. 16.