Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/45

A criterion for the sciences, for the affections, and for human actions being fixed on the one hand, and on the other political authority being established for society, and domestic authority for the family, it was necessary to establish another authority placed above all human standards, as the infallible exponent of all dogmas, the august depository of all criterions, which should be at the same time sacred and sanctifying; the word of God incarnate in the world, the light of God reflected in all directions, the divine charity inflaming all souls; an authority which would accumulate the infinite treasures of heavenly favors in the highest and most hidden tabernacle, in order to spread them over the world; which would be a place of refuge for sinful men, the refreshment of wearied souls, a source of living waters for the thirsty, bread of eternal life for the hungry, a light to the ignorant, and a guide to the wanderer; an authority which would admonish and instruct the powerful and protect and cherish the poor; an authority so elevated as to command all, and based upon a rock too firm to be moved by the stormy waves of life's restless ocean; an authority which, being founded on God, could not be subjected to the fluctuations incident to all human events, and which would be ever ancient and ever new, duration and progress, and under the especial protection of God.