io6 
THE SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY. 
Dr. Schæffle, former Minister of Finance in Austria, and author 
of Socialismus und Capitalismus ; Herr Adolf Samter, banker at 
Königsberg ; and Professor von Scheel.* But in order to 
influence the masses, as the Catholic Socialists have done, the 
assistance of the clergy was needed ; and it was to gain this 
assistance that the founders of the movement, Herren Stöcker 
and Todt, directed all their efforts. According to them, the 
duty of ecclesiastics, and even of the Protestant Church as a 
body, was to take part in discussions on the social question. 
This question, they said, embraces the whole of humanity. The 
Social Democracy rests on materialism and propagates atheism, 
while Liberalism and so-called Positive Science, by endeavour 
ing to eradicate the religious sentiment, supply it with weapons. 
Who is to defend this precious treasure, if not the pastor? 
Christ came to bring the “ glad tidings ” to the poor ; His 
disciples and apostles ought to do likewise. They ought to 
search out the causes of the ills of the lower classes, in order to 
find the remedy. Political Economy can alone throw light 
upon these difficult questions, and it must accordingly be 
sedulously studied. The clergy ought unceasingly to remind 
the State and the upper classes of the duty imposed upon them 
by the law of the Gospel in respect of their destitute brethren. 
The passion for accumulating riches is becoming more and 
more the characteristic of our age. This “Mammonism” is 
the enemy of Christianity, and must be unwearyingly com 
bated. 
The people are turning away from the Church, because it 
offers them only barren abstract formulas. Let her descend to 
the sphere of reality, let her speak to the people of what 
occupies their thoughts, and she will regain her influence. Why 
should the workman hearken to the atheist demagogue who 
brings to him a cheerless doctrine, hostile to righteousness, 
rather than to the priest who offers him the Gospel ? But in 
order to counteract the demagogic agitators, the clergy must 
have some knowledge of the questions they discuss and the 
arguments they invoke. They ought, therefore, to follow the 
* See Herr von Scheel’s excellent book, Unsere sociale politische 
Parteien (“Our Social Political Parties”).