Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/476



470 CHRIST OUR REDEEMER.

ferred upon her all effectual aids for human salvation, He ordained with the utmost emphasis on the other that men should be subject to her as to Himself, and zealously follow her guidance in every department of life: He that heareth you, heareth Me; and he that despiseth you, despiseth Me} So the law of Christ is always to be sought from the Church, and therefore as Christ is for man the way, so hkewise the Church is the way. He in Himself and by His proper nature, she by His commission and by a share in His power. On this account those who would strive for salvation apart from the Church, wander from the way and are struggling in vain.

The case of governments is much the same as that of the individual ; they also must run into fatal issues, if they depart from the way. The Creator and Redeemer of human nature, the Son of God, is King and Lord of the world, and holds absolute sovereignty over men, both as individuals and as members of society. He hath given to Him power and honor and dominion, and all peoples, tribes, and languages shall serve Him.^ Yet am I established King by Him. . . . I will give Thee the nations for Thine inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Thy possession.^ Therefore, the law of Christ ought to hold sway in human society, and in communities so far as to be the teacher and guide of pubhc no less than private life. This being divinely appointed and provided, no one may resist with impunity, and it fares ill with any commonwealth in which Christian institutions are not allowed their proper place. Let Jesus be excluded, and human reason is left without its greatest protection and illumination; the very notion is easily lost of the end for which God created human society, to wit: that by help of their civil union the citizens should attain their natural good, but neverthe- less in a way not to conflict with that highest and most perfect and enduring good which is above nature. Their

^ Luke X. 16. ^ Dan. vii. 14.

^Ps. ii. 6, 8.