CATHOLIC  SOCIALISTS.

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The  Christian  workman  will  therefore  be  hardworking,  submissive ­
  to  his  masters,  sober,  always  satisfied,  and  respectful
towards  all  in  authority  over  him.
This  perfectly  correct  idea  of  Bishop  Ketteler  makes  it
clear  why  demagogues  preach  atheistic  materialism.  The
natural  instinct  of  man  impels  him  to  seek  his  own  happiness,
and  if  the  hope  of  finding  it  in  another  world,  where  justice
reigns,  is  taken  away  from  him,  he  will  seek  it  here.  If  matter
is  all  that  exists,  then,  at  all  cost,  he  must  have  material  and
immediate  enjoyment.  The  working  men  will  say.  We  have
heard  enough  of  your  promised  heavenly  joys.  We  will  cash
no  more  of  these  bills  upon  another  world  ;  it  is  in  this  world,
the  only  real  one,  that  we  wish  to  have  happiness.  Right  is
an  empty  word  ;  might  decides  everything.  We  are  the  most
numerous,  and  if  we  can  come  to  an  understanding  among
ourselves  we  shall  be  the  strongest,  and  thus  we  shall  be  in
the  right  Royalty,  magistracies,  creeds,  armies,  parliaments—
all  these  institutions  were  created  by  our  masters  in  order  to
enslave  and  exploit  us.  Everything  must  be  overthrown,  even
by  fire  and  sword,  if  needful,  in  order  that  we  may  taste  these
pleasures  in  which  capitalists,  enriched  with  our  spoils,  have
too  long  rioted.
On  the  one  hand,  as  we  have  seen,  atheistic  materialism,
by  denying  the  ideal  and  all  abstract  right,  deprives  the  claims
of  the  proletariat  of  all  sound  basis,  and  on  this  account  the
friends  of  the  people  should  reject  it  ;  but  on  the  other  hand,
by  annihilating  all  hope  of  a  future  life,  where  unalloyed  bliss
would  compensate  for  the  fleeting  trials  of  this  world,  it  instigates ­
  the  masses  to  overturn  the  established  social  system,  in
order,  amidst  the  general  ruin,  to  gain  possession  of  wealth
and  the  material  joys  that  wealth  can  provide.  It  is,  therefore,
evident  that  those  who  desire  a  violent  social  revolution  are
interested  in  spreading  atheism,  and  that  those  who  spread
this  doctrine  are  furnishing  the  revolutionary  Socialists  with
arms.
Christianity  preaches  the  common  brotherhood  of  all  men,
the  mutual  love  and  equality  of  all  ;  it  honours  labour,  because
abour  alone  gives  man  a  chance  to  live  ;  it  reinstates  the  poor