ENCYCLICAL LETTER OF POPE LEO XIH. 149
rules the course of history in accordance with His pur- poses in creating the race of man. We are told that it was cast as a reproach on the Christians of the early ages of the Church, that the greater number of them had to live by begging or by labor. Yet, destitute as they were of wealth and influence, they ended by winning over to their side the favor of the rich and the good will of the powerful. They showed themselves industrious, laborious, and peaceful, men of justice, and, above all, men of brotherly love. In the presence of such a life and such an example prejudice disappeared, the tongue of malevolence was silenced, and the lying traditions of ancient superstition yielded little by little to Christian truth.
64. At this moment the condition of the working popu- lation is the question of the hour ; and nothing can be of higher interest to all classes of the State than that it should be rightly and reasonably decided. But it will be easy for Christian working-men to decide it right if they form Associations, choose wise guides, and follow the same path which with so much advantage to them- selves and the commonwealth was trod by their fathers before them. Prejudice, it is true, is mighty, and so is the love of money ; but if the sense of what is just and right be not destroyed by depravity of heart, their fellow-citizens are sure to be won over to a kindly feeling toward men whom they see to be so industrious and so modest, who so unmistakably prefer honesty to lucre, and the sacredness of duty to all other considerations.
65. And another great advantage would result from the state of things We are describing : there would be so much more hope and possibility of recalling to a sense of their duty those working-men who have either given up their faith altogether, or whose lives are at variance with its precepts. These men, in most cases, feel that
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