CATHOLIC SOCIALISTS. 
125 
The Christian workman will therefore be hardworking, sub 
missive 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 insti 
gates 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