Donahoes Magazine, Volume 15, No. 1, January 1886 | Page 4

cast off the care of religion
as alien to them or useless or out of several kinds of religion adopt
indifferently which they please; but they are absolutely bound, in the
worship of the Deity to adopt that use and manner in which God
Himself has shown that He wills to be adored. Therefore among rulers
the name of God must be holy, and it must be reckoned among the first
of their duties to favor religion, protect it, and cover it with the
authority of the laws, and not to institute or decree anything which is
incompatible with its security. They owe this also to the citizens over
whom they rule. For all of us men are born and brought up for a certain

supreme and final good in heaven, beyond this frail and short life, and
to this end all efforts are to be referred. And because upon it depends
the full and perfect happiness of men, therefore, to attain this end which
has been mentioned, is of as much interest as is conceivable to every
individual man. It is necessary then that a civil society, born for the
common advantage, in the guardianship of the prosperity of the
commonwealth, should so advance the interests of the citizens that in
holding up and acquiring that highest and inconvertible good which
they spontaneously seek, it should not only never import anything
disadvantageous, but should give all the opportunities in its power. The
chief of these is that attention should be paid to a holy and inviolate
preservation of religion, by the duties of which man is united to God.
Now which the true religion is may be easily discovered by any one
who will view the matter with a careful and unbiassed judgment; for
there are proofs of great number and splendor, as for example, the truth
of prophecy, the abundance of miracles, the extremely rapid spread of
the faith, even in the midst of its enemies and in spite of the greatest
hindrances, the testimony of the martyrs, and the like, from which it is
evident that that is the only true religion which Jesus Christ instituted
Himself and then entrusted to His Church to defend and to spread.
For the only begotten Son of God set up a society on earth which is
called the Church, and to it He transferred that most glorious and divine
office, which He had received from His Father, to be perpetuated
forever. "As the Father hath sent Me, even so I send you." (John xx. 21.)
"Behold I am with you all days even to the consummation of the world."
(Matt. xxviii. 20.) Therefore as Jesus Christ came into the world, "that
men might have life and have it more abundantly" (John x. 10), so also
the Church has for its aim and end the eternal salvation of souls; and
for this cause it is so constituted as to embrace the whole human race
without any limit or circumscription either of time or place. "Preach ye
the Gospel to every creature." (Mark xvi. 15.) Over this immense
multitude of men God Himself has set rulers with power to govern
them; and He has willed that one should be head of them all, and the
chief and unerring teacher of truth, and to him He has given the keys of
the kingdom of heaven. "To thee will I give the keys of the kingdom of

heaven." (Matt. xvi. 19.) "Feed My lambs, feed My sheep." (John xxi.
16, 17.) "I have prayed for thee that thy faith may not fail." (Luke xxii.
32.) This society, though it be composed of men just as civil society is,
yet because of the end that it has in view, and the means by which it
tends to it, is supernatural and spiritual; and, therefore, is distinguished
from civil society and differs from it; and--a fact of the highest
moment--is a society perfect in its kind and in its rights, possessing in
and by itself, by the will and beneficence of its Founder, all the
appliances that are necessary for its preservation and action. Just as the
end, at which the Church aims, is by far the noblest of ends, so its
power is the most exalted of all powers, and cannot be held to be either
inferior to the civil power or in any way subject to it. In truth Jesus
Christ gave His Apostles unfettered commissions over all sacred things,
with the power of establishing laws properly so-called, and the double
right of judging and punishing which follows from it: "All power has
been given to Me in heaven and on earth; going, therefore, teach all
nations;... teaching them to keep whatsoever I have commanded you."
(Matt. xxviii. 18, 19, 20.) And in another place He