CATHOLIC  SOCIALISTS.

II9
another  heaven”  that  the  ideal  He  announced  was  to  be  realized.
“  My  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world,”  Christ  used  to  say.  The
element  of  truth  in  the  assertion  is  that  the  Gospel,  like  the
prophets  of  the  Old  Testament,  is  full  of  a  spirit  of  brotherhood
and  equality.  The  “  glad  tidings  (cvayycA.iov)  of  the  kingdom  ”
is  announced  to  the  poor.  In  the  “  kingdom  ”  the  first  shall
be  last.  “  Blessed  be  they  which  do  hunger  and  thirst  after
righteousness,  for  they  shall  be  filled.”  What  profound  words,
overflowing  with  that  tender  love  for  the  afflicted  which  has
been  called  charity  !
Whatever  the  enemies  of  Christianity  may  say,  it  is  beyond
question  from  the  gospel  that  the  movement  for  the  emancipation ­
  of  the  lower  classes  has  come,  which,  after  having  little  by
little  abolished  slavery  and  serfage,  proclaimed  equality  first  by
the  American  and  then  by  the  French  Revolution.  All  that
is  done  to  elevate  the  lowly  and  to  lighten  the  burden  of  the
poor  is  conformable  to  the  teachings  of  Christ;  and  thus
Socialism,  in  its  general  tendency,  and  in  so  far  as  it  only
aspires,  according  to  the  St.  Simonian  formula,  “  to  ameliorate
the  moral,  intellectual,  and  material  condition  of  the  greatest
number,”  proceeds  evidently  from  Christian  inspiration.  No
more  can  it  be  denied  that  those  words  in  which  Christ  preached
charity,  brotherly  love,  and  indifference  to  the  world,  when
interpreted  by  absolute  idealism  and  excessive  asceticism,  have
resulted  naturally  in  communism;  a  communism  not  merely
such  as  was  practised  in  Jerusalem  by  the  immediate  followers
of  Christ,  but  such  as  may  still  be  seen  under  our  very  eyes  in
the  thousands  of  convents  that  fill  with  increasing  numbers  both
town  and  country.  The  Church  has  never  condemned  that
social  régime  from  which  private  property  is  banished,  and
even  the  idea  of  mine  and  thine  proscribed  as  an  outrage  on
brotherhood.  On  the  contrary,  even  its  most  politic  doctors,
such  as  Bossuet,  have  seen  therein  the  ideal  of  the  Christian
life.  No  doubt  they  were  only  thinking  of  a  communism
voluntarily  practised.  But  if  such  be  the  ideal,  is  not  the  wish
to  make  it  adopted  by  all  reasonable?  At  all  events,  it  is
certain  that  if  those  who  attack  the  actual  organization  of  our
society  wish  to  seek  arms  in  the  writings  of  the  Christian  Fathers,