Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/491



CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. 485

of certain men, with regard to the power and the efficacy of this kind of Christian Democracy, which at times are â– exaggerated and are not free from error, let no one, how- ever, condemn that zeal which, according to the natural \nd divine law, has this for its object, viz.: to make the \:ondition of those who toil more tolerable; to enable \.hem to obtain, httle by little, those means by which they toay provide for the future; to help them to practise in pubhc and in private the duties which morality and religion inculcate; to aid them to feel that they are not animals but men, not heathens but Christians, and so to enable them to strive more zealously and more eagerly for the one thing which is necessary, viz.: that ultimate good for which we are all born into this world. This is the intention; this is the work of those who wish that the people should be animated by Christian sentiments and should be protected from the contamination of social- ism which threatens them.

We have designedly made mention here of virtue and religion. For, it is the opinion of some, and the error is already very common, that the social question is merely an economic one, whereas in point of fact, it is above all a moral and religious matter, and for that reason must be settled by the principles of morality and according to the dictates of religion. For even though wages are doubled and the hours of labor are shortened and food is cheapened, yet if the working man hearkens to the doctrines that are taught on this subject, as he is prone to do, and is prompted by the examples set before him to throw off respect for God and to enter upon a life of immorahty, his labors and his gain will avail him naught.

Trial and experience have made it abundantly clear that many a workman lives in cramped and miserable quarters, in spite of his shorter hours and larger wages, simply because he has cast aside the restraints of morality and religion. Take away the instinct which Christian virtue has planted and nurtured in men's hearts, take