Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/482



476 CHRIST OUR REDEEMER.

the same influence that has once already delivered from destruction a world overwhelmed with far greater evils.

Do away with the obstacles to the spirit of Christianity ; revive and make it strong in the State, and the State will be recreated. The strife between high and low will at once be appeased, and each will observe with mutual respect the rights of the other. If they listen to Christ, the prosperous and the unfortunate will both alike remem- ber their duty; the one will feel that they must keep justice and charity, if they would be saved, the other that they must show temperance and moderation. Do- mestic society will have been solidly established under a salutary fear of the divine commands and prohibitions; and so hkewise in society at large, the precepts of the natural law will prevail, which tells us that it is right to respect lawful authority, and to obey the laws, to do no seditious act, nor contrive anything by unlawful associa- tion. Thus when Christian law exerts its power without being thwarted in any way, naturally and without effort the order of society is maintained as constituted by divine Providence, and prosperity and public safety are secured. The security of the State demands that we should be brought back to Him from whom we ought never to have departed to Him who is the way, the truth, and the life, not as individuals merely, but as human society through all its extent. Christ our Lord must be reinstated as the Ruler of human society. It belongs to Him, as do all its members. All the elements of the commonwealth; legal commands and prohibitions, popular institutions, schools, marriage, home-life, the workshop, and the palace, all must be made to come to that fountain and imbibe the life that comes from Him, No one should fail to see that on this largely depends the civilization of nations, which is so eagerly sought, but which is nourished and augmented not so much by bodily comforts and conveniences, as by what belongs to the soul, viz., commendable lives and the cultivation of virtue.