to check the energy of capitalists and
labourers alike. But Christian teaching opened up an unending prospect
before the individual personally, and encouraged him to activity and
diligence by an eternal hope. Nor did such concentration of thought
on a life beyond the grave necessarily divert attention from secular
duties; Christianity did not disparage them, but set them in a new
light, and brought out new motives for taking them seriously....
The acceptance of this higher view of the dignity of human life
as immortal was followed by a fuller recognition of personal
responsibility. Ancient philosophy had seen that man is the master of
material things; but Christianity introduced a new sense of duty in
regard to the manner of using them.... Christian teachers were forced
to protest against any employment of wealth that disregarded the glory
of God and the good of man.'[5] It was the opinion of Knies that
the peculiarly Christian virtues were of profound economic value.
'Temperance, thrift, and industry--that is to say, the sun and rain of
economic activity---were recommended by the Church and inculcated as
Christian virtues; idleness as the mother of theft, gambling as the
occasion of fraud, were forbidden; and gain for its own sake was
classed as a kind of robbery[6].'

[Footnote 1: _Summa cont. Gent._, iii. 131.]

[Footnote 2: _Eth._, iv. 3.]

[Footnote 3: _Summa_, iv. 12, 3.]

[Footnote 4: Cajetan, _Comm._ on II. ii. 118, 1.]

[Footnote 5: _Western Civilisation_, vol. ii. pp. 8-9.]

[Footnote 6: _Politische Oekonomie vom Standpuncte der geschichtlichen
Methode_, p. 116, and see Rambaud, _Histoire_, p. 759; Champagny, _La
Bible et l'Economie politique_; Thomas Aquinas, _Summa_, II. ii.
50, 3; Sertillanges, _Socialisme et Christianisme_, p. 53. It was
nevertheless recognised and insisted on that wealth was not an end in
itself, but merely a means to an end (Aquinas, _Summa_, I. ii. 2, 1).]

The great rule, then, with regard to the user of property was
liberality. Closely allied with the duty of liberality was the duty
of almsgiving--'an act of charity through the medium of money.'[1]
Almsgiving is not itself a part of liberality except in so far as
liberality removes an obstacle to such acts, which may arise from
excessive love of riches, the result of which is that one clings
to them more than one ought[2]. Aquinas divides alms-deeds into two
kinds, spiritual and corporal, the latter alone of which concern us