Thanks be to God, the day has arrived when a science has been founded entirely consecrated to the study of the social question. Far from recoiling before it, the church has valiantly advanced to the charge. Undoubtedly she has a hundred other works on hand, and is obliged to choose the hour when she commences the task; the hour has sounded in this same house, where you listen to me with so much patience; every Monday a modest council is held, which also wishes to take the name of Jésus-Ouvrier. From all parts of Paris come representatives of the religious orders, and for that they joyfully sacrifice every occupation; they occupy themselves with the labor question and the workman. These meetings last two, three, and even four hours. They seek to study the principles which govern this question; the history of the efforts that have been made until the present day in favor of the workman; the obstacles which oppose the solution of this grand problem; and, finally, the remedies which can be brought to bear upon these accumulated evils. This is what is done by these priests, these religious, these Catholics; they will review one after the other the workman, the workingman’s family, the workingman’s association. This is the plan of the book whose materials they are gathering; these are the three parts of a species of theology of labor which they are preparing in concert. In twenty other places in Paris are held twenty other assemblies, not less Catholic, animated by the same spirit, pursuing the same end; and we can now say that the principle of Catholic social economy is erected.
I will now conclude, and throw a last glance over the space we have traversed together. I commenced with the cross, and will finish with it.
In one of our romances of chivalry, it is related that the wood of the cross borne in front of the Christian army in a battle against the Saracens suddenly assumed gigantic and miraculous proportions; it touched the sky, and was more luminous than the sun. The infidels, seized with terror, broke and fled, and the Christians counted another victory. The cross of the Circles of Workingmen is small, very small, and will not probably be the subject of such a prodigy; nevertheless, I hope that its gentle light will end by assuring the victory; and the victory that we desire is that the workman may be thrown in the arms of Jesus Christ.
[THE TEMPLE.]
“Know you not that your members are the temple of the Holy Ghost?”—1 Cor. vi. 19.
Come, I have found a temple where to dwell:
Sealed up and watched by spirits day and night;
Behind the veil there is a crystal well;
The glorious cedar pillars sparkle bright,
All gemmed with big and glistening drops of dew
That work their way from out yon hidden flood
By mystic virtue through the fragrant wood,
Making it shed a faint, unearthly smell;
And from beneath the curtain that doth lie
In rich and glossy folds of various hue,
Soft showers of pearly light run streamingly
Over the checkered floor and pavement blue.
Oh! that our eyes might see that fount of grace!
But none hath entered yet his own heart’s holy place.
—Faber.