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diff --git a/18283.txt b/18283.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8d6a8c9 --- /dev/null +++ b/18283.txt @@ -0,0 +1,18277 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Life of Father Hecker, by Walter Elliott + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Life of Father Hecker + +Author: Walter Elliott + +Release Date: April 29, 2006 [EBook #18283] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF FATHER HECKER *** + + + + +Produced by David McClamrock + + + + + +THE LIFE OF FATHER HECKER + +BY +REV. WALTER ELLIOTT +________________________ + +NEW YORK: +THE COLUMBUS PRESS +1891 +________________________ + +Nihil obstat: +AUGUSTINUS F. HEWIT, +_Censor Deputatus._ + +Imprimatur: +M. A. CORRIGAN, +_Archiepiscopus Neo-Ebor._ +________________________ + +AUTHOR'S PREFACE + +THE reader must indulge me with what I cannot help saying, that I +have felt the joy of a son in telling the achievements and +chronicling the virtues of Father Hecker. I loved him with the sacred +fire of holy kinship, and love him still--only the more that lapse of +time has deepened by experience, inner and outer, the sense of truth +and of purity he ever communicated to me in life, and courage and +fidelity to conscience. I feel it to be honor enough and joy enough +for a life-time that I am his first biographer, though but a late +born child and of merit entirely insignificant. The literary work is, +indeed, but of home-made quality, yet it serves to hold together what +is the heaven-made wisdom of a great teacher of men. It will be found +that Father Hecker has three words in this book to my one, though all +my words I tried to make his. His journals, letters, and recorded +sayings are the edifice into which I introduce the reader, and my +words are the hinges and latchets of its doors. I am glad of this, +for it pleases me to dedicate my good will and my poor work to +swinging open the doors of that new House of God that Isaac Hecker +was to me, and that I trust he will be to many. + +WALTER ELLIOTT +________________________ + +CONTENTS +________________________ + +CHAPTER + I.--CHILDHOOD + II.--YOUTH + III.--THE TURNING-POINT + IV.--LED BY THE SPIRIT + V.--AT BROOK FARM + VI.--INNER LIFE WHILE AT BROOK FARM + VII.--STRUGGLES + VIII.--FRUITLANDS + IX.--SELF-QUESTIONINGS + X.--AT HOME AGAIN + XI.--STUDYING AND WRITING + XII.--THE MYSTIC AND THE PHILOSOPHER + XIII.--HIS SEARCH AMONG THE SECTS + XIV.--HIS LIFE AT CONCORD + XV.--AT THE DOOR OF THE CHURCH + XVI.--AT THE DOOR OF THE CHURCH--(Continued) + XVII.--ACROSS THE THRESHOLD + XVIII.--NEW INFLUENCES + XIX.--YEARNINGS AFTER CONTEMPLATION + XX.--FROM NEW YORK TO ST. TROND + XXI.--BROTHER HECKER + XXII.--HOW BROTHER HECKER MADE HIS STUDIES AND WAS ORDAINED PRIEST + XXIII.--A REDEMPTORIST MISSIONARY + XXIV.--SEPARATION FROM THE REDEMPTORISTS + XXV.--BEGINNINGS OF THE PAULIST COMMUNITY + XXVI.--FATHER HECKER'S IDEA OF A RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY + XXVII.--FATHER HECKER'S SPIRITUAL DOCTRINE +XXVIII.--THE PAULIST PARISH AND MISSIONS + XXIX.--FATHER HECKER'S LECTURES + XXX.--THE APOSTOLATE OF THE PRESS + XXXI.--THE VATICAN COUNCIL + XXXII.--THE LONG ILLNESS +XXXIII.--"THE EXPOSITION OF THE CHURCH" + XXXIV.--IN THE SHADOW OF DEATH + XXXV.--CONCLUSION + +APPENDIX +________________________ + + + +INTRODUCTION + +BY MOST REV. JOHN IRELAND, D.D., +_Archbishop of St. Paul._ + +LIFE is action, and so long as there is action there is life. That +life is worth living whose action puts forth noble aspirations and +good deeds. The man's influence for truth and virtue persevering in +activity, his life has not ceased, though earth has clasped his body +in its embrace. It is well that it is so. The years of usefulness +between the cradle and the grave are few. The shortness of a life +restricted to them is sufficient to discourage many from making +strong efforts toward impressing the workings of their souls upon +their fellows. The number to whose minds we have immediate access is +small, and they do not remain. Is the good we might do worth the +labor? We cannot at times refuse a hearing to the question. +Fortunately, it is easily made clear to us that the area over which +influence travels is vastly more extensive than at first sight +appears. The eye will not always discern the undulations of its +spreading waves; but onward it goes, from one soul to another, far +beyond our immediate ranks, and as each soul touched by it becomes a +new motive power, it rolls forward, often with energy a hundred times +intensified, long after the shadows of death have settled around its +point of departure. + +Isaac Thomas Hecker lives to-day, and with added years he will live +more fully than he does to-day. His influence for good remains, and +with a better understanding of his plans and ideals, which is sure to +come, his influence will widen and deepen among laymen and priests of +the Church in America. The writing of his biography is a tribute to +his memory which the love and esteem of his spiritual children could +not refuse; it is, also, a most important service to generations +present and unborn, in whose deeds will be seen the fruits of +inspirations gathered from it. We are thankful that this biography +has been written by one who from closest converse and most intimate +friendship knew Father Hecker so thoroughly. He has given us in his +book what we need to know of Father Hecker. We care very little, +except so far as details may accentuate the great lines of a life and +make them sensible to our obtuse touch, where or when a man was born, +what places he happened to visit, what houses he built, or in what +circumstances of malady or in what surroundings he died. These things +can be said of the ten thousand. We want to know the thoughts and the +resolves of the soul which made him a marked man above his fellows +and which begot strong influences for good and great works, and if +none such can be unfolded then drop the man out of sight, with a +"_Requiescant in pace"_ engraven upon his tombstone. Few deserve a +biography, and to the undeserving none should be given. + +If it be permitted to speak of self, I might say that to Father +Hecker I am indebted for most salutary impressions which, I +sorrowfully confess, have not had in me their due effect; the +remembrance of them, however, is a proof to me of the usefulness of +his life, and its power for good in others. I am glad to have the +opportunity to profess publicly my gratitude to him. He was in the +prime of life and work when I was for the first time brought to +observe him. I was quite young in the ministry, and very naturally I +was casting my eye around in search of ideal men, whose footsteps +were treading the path I could feel I, too, ought to travel. I never +afterwards wholly lost sight of Father Hecker, watching him as well +as I could from a distance of two thousand miles. I am not to-day +without some experience of men and things, won from years and toils, +and I do not alter one tittle my estimate of him, except to make it +higher. To the priests of the future I recommend a serious study of +Father Hecker's life. To them I would have his biography dedicated. +Older men, like myself, are fixed in their ways, and they will not +receive from it so much benefit. + +Father Hecker was the typical American priest; his were the gifts of +mind and heart that go to do great work for God and for souls in +America at the present time. Those qualities, assuredly, were not +lacking in him which are the necessary elements of character of the +good priest and the great man in any time and place. Those are the +subsoil of priestly culture, and with the absence of them no one will +succeed in America any more than elsewhere. But suffice they do not. +There must be added, over and above, the practical intelligence and +the pliability of will to understand one's surroundings, the ground +upon which he is to deploy his forces, and to adapt himself to +circumstances and opportunities as Providence appoints. I do not +expect that my words, as I am here writing, will receive universal +approval, and I am not at all sure that their expression would have +been countenanced by the priest whose memory brings them to my lips. +I write as I think, and the responsibility must be all my own. It is +as clear to me as noon-day light that countries and peoples have each +their peculiar needs and aspirations as they have their peculiar +environments, and that, if we would enter into souls and control +them, we must deal with them according to their conditions. The ideal +line of conduct for the priest in Assyria will be out of all measure +in Mexico or Minnesota, and I doubt not that one doing fairly well in +Minnesota would by similar methods set things sadly astray in +Leinster or Bavaria. The Saviour prescribed timeliness in pastoral +caring. The master of a house, He said, "bringeth forth out of his +treasury new things and old," as there is demand for one kind or the +other. The apostles of nations, from Paul before the Areopagus to +Patrick upon the summit of Tara, followed no different principle. + +The circumstances of Catholics have been peculiar in the United +States, and we have unavoidably suffered on this account. Catholics +in largest numbers were Europeans, and so were their priests, many of +whom--by no means all--remained in heart and mind and mode of action +as alien to America as if they had never been removed from the +Shannon, the Loire, or the Rhine. No one need remind me that +immigration has brought us inestimable blessings, or that without it +the Church in America would be of small stature. The remembrance of a +precious fact is not put aside, if I recall an accidental evil +attaching to it. Priests foreign in disposition and work were not +fitted to make favorable impressions upon the non-Catholic American +population, and the American-born children of Catholic immigrants +were likely to escape their action. And, lest I be misunderstood, I +assert all this is as true of priests coming from Ireland as from any +other foreign country. Even priests of American ancestry, ministering +to immigrants, not unfrequently fell into the lines of those around +them, and did but little to make the Church in America throb with +American life. Not so Isaac Thomas Hecker. Whether consciously or +unconsciously I do not know, and it matters not, he looked on America +as the fairest conquest for divine truth, and he girded himself with +arms shaped and tempered to the American pattern. I think that it may +be said that the American current, so plain for the last quarter of a +century in the flow of Catholic affairs, is, largely at least, to be +traced back to Father Hecker and his early co-workers. It used to be +said of them in reproach that they were the "Yankee" Catholic Church; +the reproach was their praise. + +Father Hecker understood and loved the country and its institutions. +He saw nothing in them to be deprecated or changed; he had no longing +for the flesh-pots and bread-stuffs of empires and monarchies. His +favorite topic in book and lecture was, that the Constitution of the +United States requires, as its necessary basis, the truths of +Catholic teaching regarding man's natural state, as opposed to the +errors of Luther and Calvin. The republic, he taught, presupposes the +Church's doctrine, and the Church ought to love a polity which is the +offspring of her own spirit. He understood and loved the people of +America. He recognized in them splendid natural qualities. Was he not +right? Not minimizing in the least the dreadful evil of the absence +of the supernatural, I am not afraid to give as my belief that there +is among Americans as high an appreciation and as lively a +realization of natural truth and goodness as has been seen in any +people, and it seems as if Almighty God, intending a great age and a +great people, has put here in America a singular development of +nature's powers and gifts, both in man and out of man--with the +further will, I have the faith, of crowning all with the glory of the +supernatural. Father Hecker perceived this, and his mission was to +hold in his hands the natural, which Americans extolled and cherished +and trusted in, and by properly directing its legitimate tendencies +and growth to lead it to the term of its own instincts and +aspirations--Catholic truth and Catholic grace. Protestantism is no +longer more than a name, a memory. The American has fallen back upon +himself, scorning the negations and the doctrinal cruelties of +Protestantism as utterly contrary to himself, as utterly unnatural; +and now comes the opportunity of the Catholic Church to show that she +is from the God who created nature, by opening before this people her +treasures, amid which the soul revels in rational liberty and +intelligence, and enjoys the gratification of its best and purest +moral instincts. These convictions are the keynote of Father Hecker's +controversial discourses and writings, notably of two books, +_Aspirations of Nature_ and _Questions of the Soul._ He assumed that +the American people are naturally Catholic, and he labored with this +proposition constantly before his mind. It is the assumption upon +which all must labor who sincerely desire to make America Catholic. + +He laid stress on the natural and social virtues. The American people +hold these in highest esteem. They are the virtues that are most +apparent, and are seemingly the most needed for the building up and +the preservation of an earthly commonwealth. Truthfulness, honesty in +business dealings, loyalty to law and social order, temperance, +respect for the rights of others, and the like virtues are prescribed +by reason before the voice of revelation is heard, and the absence of +specifically supernatural virtues has led the non-Catholic to place +paramount importance upon them. It will be a difficult task to +persuade the American that a church which will not enforce those +primary virtues can enforce others which she herself declares to be +higher and more arduous, and as he has implicit confidence in the +destiny of his country to produce a high order of social existence, +his first test of a religion will be its powers in this direction. +This is according to Catholic teaching. Christ came not to destroy, +but to perfect what was in man, and the graces and truths of +revelation lead most securely to the elevation of the life that is, +no less than to the gaining of the life to come. It is a fact, +however, that in other times and other countries the Church has been +impeded in her social work, and certain things or customs of those +times and countries, transplanted upon American soil and allowed to +grow here under a Catholic name, will do her no honor among +Americans. The human mind, among the best of us, inclines to narrow +limitations, and certain Catholics, aware of the comparatively +greater importance of the supernatural, partially overlook the +natural. + +Then, too, casuists have incidentally done us harm. They will quote +as our rule of social conduct in America what may have been tolerated +in France or Germany during the seventeenth century, and their +hair-splitting distinctions in the realm of abstract right and wrong +are taken by some of us as practical decisions, without due reference +to local circumstances. The American people pay slight attention to +the abstract; they look only to the concrete in morals, and we must +keep account of their manner of judging things. The Church is +nowadays called upon to emphasize her power in the natural order. God +forbid that I entertain, as some may be tempted to suspect me of +doing, the slightest notion that vigilance may be turned off one +single moment from the guard of the supernatural. For the sake of the +supernatural I speak. And natural virtues, practised in the proper +frame of mind and heart, become supernatural. Each century calls for +its type of Christian perfection. At one time it was martyrdom; at +another it was the humility of the cloister. To-day we need the +Christian gentleman and the Christian citizen. An honest ballot and +social decorum among Catholics will do more for God's glory and the +salvation of souls than midnight flagellations or Compostellan +pilgrimages. + +On a line with his principles, as I have so far delineated them, +Father Hecker believed that if he would succeed in his work for +souls, he should use in it all the natural energy that God had given +him, and he acted up to his belief I once heard a good old priest, +who said his beads well and made a desert around his pulpit by +miserable preaching, criticise Father Hecker, who, he imagined, put +too much reliance in man, and not enough in God. Father Hecker's +piety, his assiduity in prayer, his personal habits of self-denial, +repel the aspersion that he failed in reliance upon God. But my old +priest--and he has in the church to-day, both in America and Europe, +tens of thousands of counterparts--was more than half willing to see +in all outputtings of human energy a lack of confidence in God. We +sometimes rely far more upon God than God desires us to do, and there +are occasions when a novena is the refuge of laziness or cowardice. +God has endowed us with natural talents, and not one of them shall +be, with His permission, enshrouded in a napkin. He will not work a +miracle, or supply grace, to make up for our deficiencies. We must +work as if all depended on us, and pray as if all depended on God. + +God never proposed to do by His direct action all that might be done +in and through the Church. He invites human co-operation, and +abandons to it a wide field. The ages of most active human industry +in religious enterprises were the ages of most remarkable spiritual +conquests. The tendency to overlook this fact shows itself among us. +Newman writes that where the sun shines bright in the warm climate of +the south, the natives of the place know little of safeguards against +cold and wet. They have their cold days, but only now and then, and +they do not deem it worth their while to provide against them: the +science of calefaction is reserved for the north. And so, +Protestants, depending on human means solely, are led to make the +most of them; their sole resource is to use what they have; they are +the anxious cultivators of a rugged soil. Catholics, on the contrary, +feel that God will protect the Church, and, as Newman adds, "we +sometimes forget that we shall please Him best, and get most from +Him, when, according to the fable, we put our shoulder to the wheel, +when we use what we have by nature to the utmost, at the same time +that we look out for what is beyond nature in the confidence of faith +and hope." Lately a witty French writer pictures to us the pious +friends of the leading Catholic layman of France, De Mun, kneeling in +spiritual retreat when their presence is required in front of the +enemy. The Catholic of the nineteenth century all over the world is +too quiet, too easily resigned to "the will of God," attributing to +God the effects of his own timidity and indolence. Father Hecker +rolled up his sleeves and "pitched in" with desperate resolve. He +fought as for very life. Meet him anywhere or at any time, he was at +work or he was planning to work. He was ever looking around to see +what might be done. He did with a rush the hard labor of a missionary +and of a pastor, and he went beyond it into untrodden pathways. He +hated routine. He minded not what others had been doing, seeking only +what he himself might do. His efforts for the diffusion of Catholic +literature, THE CATHOLIC WORLD, his several books, the Catholic +tracts, tell his zeal and energy. A Catholic daily paper was a +favorite design to which he gave no small measure of time and labor. +He anticipated by many years the battlings of our temperance +apostles. The Paulist pulpit opened death-dealing batteries upon the +saloon when the saloon-keeper was the hero in state and church. The +Catholic University of America found in him one of its warmest +advocates. His zeal was as broad as St. Paul's, and whoever did good +was his friend and received his support. The walls of his parish, or +his order, did not circumscribe for him God's Church. His choice of a +patron saint--St. Paul--reveals the fire burning within his soul. He +would not, he could not be idle. On his sick-bed, where he lay the +greater part of his latter years, he was not inactive. He wrote +valuable articles and books, and when unable to write, he dictated. + +He was enthusiastic in his work, as all are who put their whole soul +into what they are doing. Such people have no time to count the dark +linings of the silvery clouds; they realize that God and man together +do not fail. Enthusiasm begets enthusiasm. It fits a man to be a +leader; it secures a following. A bishop who was present at the +Second Plenary Council of Baltimore has told me that when Father +Hecker appeared before the assembled prelates and theologians in +advocacy of Catholic literature as a missionary force, the picture +was inspiring, and that the hearers, receiving a Pentecostal fire +within their bosoms, felt as if America were to be at once converted. +So would it have been if there had been in America a sufficient +number of Heckers. He had his critics. Who ever tries to do something +outside routine lines against whom hands are not raised and whose +motives and acts are not misconstrued? A venerable clergyman one day +thought he had scored a great point against Father Hecker by jocosely +suggesting to him as the motto of his new order the word "Paulatim." +The same one, no doubt, would have made a like suggestion to the +Apostle of the Gentiles. Advocates of "Paulatim" methods have too +often left the wheels of Christ's chariot fast in the mire. We +rejoice, for its sake, that enthusiasts sometimes appear on the +scene. The missions of the early Paulists, into which went Father +Hecker's entire heart, aroused the country. To-day, after a lapse of +thirty or thirty-five years, they are remembered as events wherever +they were preached. + +His was the profound conviction that, in the present age at any rate, +the order of the day should be individual action--every man doing his +full duty, and waiting for no one else to prompt him. This, I take +it, was largely the meaning of Father Hecker's oft-repeated teaching +on the work of the Holy Ghost in souls. There have been epochs in +history where the Church, sacrificing her outposts and the ranks of +her skirmishers to the preservation of her central and vital +fortresses, put the brakes, through necessity, from the nature of the +warfare waged against her, upon individual activity, and moved her +soldiers in serried masses; and then it was the part and the glory of +each one to move with the column. The need of repression has passed +away. The authority of the Church and of her Supreme Head is beyond +danger of being denied or obscured, and each Christian soldier may +take to the field, obeying the breathings of the Spirit of truth and +piety within him, feeling that what he may do he should do. There is +work for individual priests, and for individual laymen, and so soon +as it is discovered let it be done. The responsibility is upon each +one; the indifference of others is no excuse. Said Father Hecker one +day to a friend: "There is too much waiting upon the action of +others. The layman waits for the priest, the priest for the bishop, +and the bishop for the pope, while the Holy Ghost sends down to all +the reproof that He is prompting each one, and no one moves for Him." +Father Hecker was original in his ideas, as well as in his methods; +there was no routine in him, mental or practical. + +I cannot but allude, whether I understand or not the true intent of +it, to what appears to have been a leading fact in his life: his +leaving an old-established religious community for the purpose of +instituting that of the Paulists. I will speak so far of this as I +have formed an estimate of it. To me, this fact seems to have been a +Providential circumstance in keeping with all else in his life. I +myself have at this moment such thoughts as I imagine must have been +running through his mind during that memorable sojourn in Rome, which +resulted in freeing him from his old allegiance. The work of +evangelizing America demands new methods. It is time to draw forth +from our treasury the "new things" of the Gospel; we have been long +enough offering "old things." Those new methods call for +newly-equipped men. The parochial clergy will readily confess that +they cannot of themselves do all that God now demands from His Church +in this country. They are too heavily burdened with the ordinary +duties of the ministry: instructing those already within the fold, +administering the sacraments, building temples, schools, and +asylums--duties which must be attended to and which leave slight +leisure for special studies or special labors. Father Hecker +organized the Paulist community, and did in his way a great work for +the conversion of the country. He made no mistake when he planned for +a body of priests, more disciplined than usually are the parochial +clergy, and more supple in the character of their institute than the +existing religious orders. + +We shall always distinguish Isaac Thomas Hecker as the ornament, the +flower of our American priesthood--the type that we wish to see +reproduced among us in widest proportions. Ameliorations may be +sought for in details, and the more of them the better for religion; +but the great lines of Father Hecker's personality we should guard +with jealous love in the formation of the future priestly characters +of America. + +________________________ + +THE LIFE OF FATHER HECKER +________________________ + + + + +CHAPTER I + +CHILDHOOD + +TOWARDS the close of the eighteenth century a German clockmaker named +Engel Freund, accompanied by his wife and children, left his native +town of Elberfeld, in Rhenish Prussia, to seek a new home in America. +There is a family tradition to the effect that his forefathers were +French, and that they came into Germany on account of some internal +commotion in their own country. The name makes it more probable that +they were Alsatians who quietly moved across the Rhine, either when +their province was first ceded to France, or perhaps later, at the +time of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in 1685. When Engel +Freund quitted Germany the disturbing influences of the French +Revolution may have had a considerable share in determining his +departure. He landed at New York in 1797 and established himself in +Hester Street, between Christie and Forsyth. + +His wife, born Ann Elizabeth Schneider, in 1764, was a native of +Frankenburg, Hesse Cassel. She became the mother of a son and several +daughters, who attained maturity and settled in New York. As his +girls grew into womanhood and married, Engel Freund, who was a +thrifty and successful tradesman in his prime, dowered each of them +with a house in his own neighborhood, seeking thus to perpetuate in +the new the kindly patriarchal customs of the old land. + +To the New-Yorker of to-day, or, indeed, to any reputable and +industrious immigrant, the notion of settling a family in Hester +Street could not seem other than grotesque. It is now the filthy and +swarming centre of a very low population. The Jewish pedlar _par +eminence_ lives there and thereabouts. Signs painted in the +characters of his race, not of his accidental nationality, abound on +every side. Here a synagogue occupies the story above a shop; there +Masonic symbols are exhibited between the windows in a similar +location. Jewish faces of the least prepossessing type look askance +into eyes which they recognize as both unfamiliar and observant. +Women, unkempt and slouchy, or else arrayed in dubious finery, brush +against one. At intervals fast growing greater the remains of an +extinct domesticity and privacy still show themselves in the shape of +old-fashioned brick or wooden houses with Dutch gables or Queen Anne +fronts, but for the most part tall tenement-houses, their lower +stories uniformly given up to some small traffic, claim exclusive +right of possession. The sidewalks are crowded with the stalls of a +yet more petty trade; the neighborhood is full of unpleasant sights, +unwholesome odors, and revolting sounds. + +But the Hester Street of seventy years ago and more was another +matter. When a canal flowed through Canal Street, and tall trees +growing on either side of it sheltered the solid and roomy houses of +retired merchants and professional men, Hester Street was a long way +up town. Seven years before the subject of the present biography was +born, that elegantly proportioned structure, the City Hall, which had +then been nine years a-building, was finished in material much less +expensive than had been intended when it was begun. Marble was very +dear, reasoned the thrifty and far-sighted City Fathers of the day, +and as the population of New York were never likely to settle to any +extent above Chambers Street, the rear of the hall would be seen so +seldom that this economy would not be noticeable. What is now +Fourteenth Street was then a place given over to market-gardens. +Rutgers Street, Rutgers Place, Henry Street, were fashionable +localities, and the adjacent quarter, now so malodorous and +disreputable, was eminently respectable. Freund's daughters, as they +left the parental roof for modest houses of his gift close by, no +doubt had reason to consider themselves abundantly fortunate in their +surroundings. + +One of these daughters, Caroline Sophia Susanna Henrietta Wilhelmina, +born in Elberfeld on the 2d of March, 1796, was still a babe in arms +at the time of the family emigration. She was a tall, fair, handsome +girl, not long past her fifteenth birthday when she became a wife. +Her husband, John Hecker, was nearly twice her age, having been born +in Wetzlar, Prussia, May 7, 1782. He was the son of another John +Hecker, a brewer by trade, who married the daughter of a Colonel +Schmidt. Both parents were natives of Wetzlar. Their son learned the +business of a machinist and brass-founder, and emigrated to America +in 1800. He was married to Caroline Freund in the Old Dutch Church in +the Swamp, July 21, 1811. He died in New York, in the house of his +eldest son, July 10, 1860. + +Events proved John Hecker to have been equally fortunate and +sagacious in his choice of a wife. At the time of their marriage he +was thrifty and well-to-do. At one period he owned a flourishing +brass-foundry in Hester Street, and during his early married life his +prosperity was uninterrupted. But before many years had passed his +business declined, and from one cause and another he never succeeded +in re-establishing it. This misfortune, occurring while even the +eldest of the sons was still a lad, might easily have proved +irreparable in more senses than one. But the very fact that the +ordinary gates to learning were so soon closed against these children +caused the natural tendency they had toward knowledge to impel them +all the more strongly in that shorter road to practical wisdom which +leads through labor and experience. The Hecker brothers were all hard +at work while still mere children, and before John, the eldest, had +attained to legal manhood, they had fixed the solid foundations of an +enduring prosperity, and all need of further exertion on the part of +their parents was over for ever. + +Isaac Thomas Hecker, the third son and youngest child of this couple, +was born in New York at a house in Christie Street, between Grand and +Hester, December 18, 1819, when his mother was not yet twenty-four. +He survived her by twelve years only, she dying at the residence of +her eldest son's widow in 1876, in the full possession of faculties +which must have been of no common order. From her, and through her +from Engel Freund, who was what is called "a character," Father +Hecker seems to have derived many of his life-long peculiarities. "I +never knew a son so like his mother," writes to us one who had an +intimate acquaintance with both of them for more than forty years. +She adds: + +"Mrs. Hecker was a woman of great energy of character and strong +religious nature. Her son, Father Hecker, inherited both of these +traits, and there was the warmest sympathy between them. He was her +youngest son, her baby, she called him, but with all her tender love +she had a holy veneration for his character as priest. + +"She deeply sympathized with him through the trials and anxieties +that were his in his search after truth, and when his heart found +rest, and the aspirations of his soul were answered in the Holy +Catholic Church, her noble heart accepted for him what she could not +see for herself. She said to a lady who spoke to her on the subject +and who could not be reconciled to the conversion of a daughter: 'No, +I would not change the faith of my sons. They have found peace and +joy in the Catholic Church, and I would not by a word change their +faith, if I could.'" + +"She had a very earnest temperament, and what she did she did with +all her heart. The last years of her life she was a great invalid, +but from her sick room she did wonders. Family ties were kept warm, +and no one whom she had loved and known was forgotten. The poor were +ever welcome, and came to her in crowds, never leaving without help +and consolation. She had a very cheerful spirit, and a bright, +pleasant, and even witty word for every one. + +"But the strongest trait in her character was her deeply religious +nature. With the Catholic faith it would have found expression in the +religious life, as she sometimes said herself. The faith she had made +her most earnest and devout, according to her light." + +Mrs. Georgiana Bruce Kirby, who spent a month at the house in +Rutgers Street just after Isaac finally returned from Brook Farm, +when Mrs. Hecker was in the prime of middle life, speaks of her as "a +lovely and dignified character, full of 'humanities.' She was fair, +tall, erect, a very superior example of the German house-mother. Hers +was the controlling spirit in the house, and her wise and generous +influence was felt far beyond it. She was a life-long Methodist, and +took me with her to a 'Love Feast,' which I had never witnessed +before." + +To the good sense, good temper, and strong religious nature of +Caroline Hecker her children owed, and always cordially acknowledged, +a heavy, and in one respect an almost undivided, debt of gratitude. +Neither Engel Freund nor John Hecker professed any religious faith. +The latter was never in the habit of attending any place of worship. +Both were Lutheran so far as their antecedents could make them so, +but neither seems to have practically known much beyond the flat +negation, or at best the simple disregard, of Christianity to which +Protestantism leads more or less quickly according as the logical +faculty is more or less developed in those whose minds have been fed +upon it. However, there was nothing aggressive in the attitude of +either toward religious observance. The grandfather especially seems +to have been a "gentle sceptic," an agnostic in the germ, affirming +nothing beyond the natural, probably because all substantial ground +for supernatural affirmations seemed to him to be cut away by the +fundamental training imparted to him. He was a kindly, virtuous, +warm-hearted man, with a life of his own which made him incurious and +thoughtful, and singularly devoid of prejudices. When his daughter +Caroline elected to desert the Reformed Dutch Church in which the +family had a pew, and to attach herself to another sect, he had only +a jocular word of surprise to say concerning her odd fancy for "those +noisy Methodists." He had a true German fondness for old ways and +settled customs, and to the end of his days spoke only his own +vernacular. + +"Why don't you talk English?" somebody once asked him toward the +close of his life. + +"I don't know how," he answered. "I never had time to learn." + +"Why, how long have you been here?" + +"About forty years." + +"Forty years! And isn't that time enough to learn English in?" + +"What can one learn in forty years?" said the old man, with an +unanswerable twinkle. + +Between him and the youngest of his Hecker grandchildren there +existed a singular sympathy and affection. The two were very much +together, and the little fellow was allowed to potter about the +workshop and encouraged to study the ins and outs of all that went on +there, as well as entertained with kindly talk that may at first have +been a trifle above his years. But he was a precocious child, shrewd, +observant, and thoughtful. It was in the old watchmaker's shop that +the boy, not yet a dozen years old, and already hard at work helping +to earn his own living, conceived the plan of making a clock with his +own hands and presenting it to the church attended by the family, +which was situated in Forsyth Street between Walker and Hester. The +clock was finished in due time and set up in the church, where it +ticked faithfully until the edifice was torn down, some forty years +later. Then it was returned to its maker in accordance with a promise +made by the pastor when the gift was accepted. In 1872 the opening +number of the third volume of _The Young Catholic_ contained a good +engraving of it, accompanied by a sketch descriptive of its career. +Although Father Hecker did not write the little story, it is so true +both to fact and to sentiment that we make an extract from it. The +clock hung in the Paulist sacristy for about ten years. Then, for +some reason, it was taken to the country house of Mr. George Hecker, +where it was accidentally destroyed by fire: + +"There were points of resemblance in my own and my boy maker's +nature. In him, regularity, order, and obedience were fixed +principles; and with us both, Time represented Eternity. As the days +of his young manhood came his pursuits and tastes in life changed. +Deep thought took possession of his mind, and with it a tender love +for souls and a heart-hungriness for a further knowledge of what man +was given a soul for, and the way in which he was to save it. As +these thoughts were maturing in his mind I often noticed his troubled +look. One Sunday in particular, he lingered behind the congregation +and stood before me, with a new expression in his keen gray eye; and +amid the silence of the deserted aisles he thus apostrophized me: +'Farewell, old friend! fashioned by these hands, thou representest +Truth, the eternal. What man is ever seeking, through me thou hast +found. Here I stand, not man's but God's noblest work, as yet not +having repaid my Maker with one act of duty or of service. Thou hast +faithfully performed thy mission; henceforth I labor to perform +mine.' With a grave and sad look my boy maker, now a young man, left +me. I felt then that we had looked our last upon each other in this +place; but little did either of us dream of where, when, and how we +would meet again. For thirty-five years I labored on unchanged, +though I must own to having had some ailments now and then. About +this period of my existence I overheard straggling remarks, as the +worshippers passed out of the church, which led me to conclude that +some change was contemplated, and my suspicions were confirmed by the +rector proposing from the pulpit the erection of a new church edifice +in another part of the city, to be fashioned after a more modern +style of architecture. . . . In accordance with the promise made my +boy maker, I was to go back to him. My heart bounded at the prospect. +Never in all those years had I seen him. . . . + +"In a short time I learned that the author of my existence, after +many hard struggles and trials, had at last found truth and light, +peace and rest, in the bosom of the Holy Catholic Church. He had +returned, when he found me, from the Plenary Council of 1867. He is +now a priest, and the head of a religious community. Need I assure +those who have been interested in my history that I also have found a +home in the same community, where I am consecrated to its use? I am +no longer alone now; I am busy from morning until night, helping to +regulate the movements of the community. There is not an hour in the +day when I do not see my boy maker. We have established sympathies in +common; I call him to prayers, to his meals, to his matins, and to +his rest. Many a time, when he finds me alone, he gives me some +spiritual reading, or says aloud some prayers. Every time I strike, +he breathes an aspiration of love and thanksgiving. In short, we have +found our glorious mission in our new birth. We are both apostles: I +represent Time; he preaches of Eternity." + +There can be little doubt, however, that the chief formative +influence in the Hecker household was that which came directly +through the mother. Young as she was when an unduly heavy share of +the domestic burdens fell to her portion, she took it up with courage +and bore it with dignity and fidelity. What aid her father could give +her was doubtless not lacking, but we may well suppose that, as age +crept on Engel Freund, his business began to slip away from him into +younger hands. He was probably no longer in a position to endow +daughters or to undertake the education of grandchildren. What is +certain is that Caroline Hecker's boys, after very brief school-days, +were put at once to hard work. What decided their choice of an +occupation is not so sure, but in all probability they consulted with +their mother and then took the common-sense view that as there is a +never-failing market for food staples, even poverty, if mated with +diligence and sagacity, may find there a fair field for successful +enterprise. John, the eldest, upon whom the mother soon began to rely +as her right hand, went to learn his trade as a baker with a Mr. +Schwab, whose shop was on the corner of Hester and Eldridge Streets. +George, who was some three or four years younger, as the only girl, +Elizabeth, came between them, presently followed his brother to the +same business. + +As for Isaac, whom hard necessity, or, more probably, a mistaken +thrift, likewise forced away from school when not much more than ten +years old, his earliest ventures bear a curious symbolic likeness to +his latest. He earned his first wages in the service of a religious +periodical, the Methodist publication still known as _Zion's Herald,_ +whose office was situated in Crosby Street near Broadway. From there +he went to learn a trade in the type foundry in Great Thames Street. +But as it was already apparent that the family road to prosperity was +identical with that chosen by his elder brothers, we find him working +away beside them in the bake-house by the time he was eleven. They +had already established the bakery in Rutgers Street, between Monroe +and Cherry, where the family lived for so many years. They had +another shop in Pearl Street, to which Isaac used to carry bread +every morning. + +This was a part of his life to which he was fond of recurring in his +last years. "Thanks be to God!" he said on the first day of 1886, +"how hard we used to work preparing for New Year's Day! Three weeks +in advance we began to bake New Year's cakes--flour, water, sugar, +butter, and caraway seeds. We never could make enough. How I used to +work carrying the bread around in my baker's cart! How often I got +stuck in the gutters and in the snow! Sometimes some good soul, +seeing me unable to get along, would give me a lift. I began to work +when I was ten and a half years old, and I have been at it ever +since." + +And again, a few days later, as a poor woman carrying a heavy basket +passed him in the street, he said to the companion of his walk: "I +have had the blood spurt out of my arm carrying bread when I was a +baker. A lady asked me once for a hundred dollars to help her send +her only son to college. I answered her that my mother had four +children and got along without begging, and that I would not exchange +one year of those I spent working for several at college." + +Less than a month before his death he fell into conversation with a +newsboy on the corner near the Paulist church in Fifty-ninth Street. +"It interested me very much," he said afterwards. "I found out that +he is one of five little brothers, and their mother is a widow. She +is trying to bring them up, poor thing! It reminds me of my own +mother." + +It is plain that there could not have been much room for formal study +in a life of hard physical labor, so soon begun and so unremittingly +continued during the years usually given up to school work. An +ordinary boy, placed in such circumstances, would doubtless have +grown up ignorant and unformed. But while none of the Hecker boys was +quite of the ordinary stamp, Isaac was distinctly _sui generis_ and +individual. He has said of himself that he could remember no period +of his life when he had not the consciousness of having been sent +into the world for some especial purpose. What it was he knew not, +but expectation and desire for the withheld knowledge kept him +pondering and self-withdrawn. Once in his childhood he was given over +for death with a bad attack of confluent small-pox, and his mother +came to his bedside to tell him so. "No, mother," he answered her, "I +shall not die now. God has a work for me to do in the world, and I +shall live to do it." + +Such instruction as Isaac obtained before beginning to earn his own +bread was given him in Ward School No. 7. A Dr. Kirby was then its +principal, and the time was just previous to the introduction of the +present system. The schools were not entirely free, a small payment +being required from the parents for each pupil, to supplement the +grant of public funds. No doubt the boy, who had an ardent thirst for +knowledge, regretted his removal from his desk more deeply than he +was at the time willing to express. Still, it may be questioned +whether he ever had any natural aptitude for close, continuous +book-work, at least on ordinary and prescribed lines. He was "always +studying," indeed, as he sometimes said in speaking of his early +life, but the thoughts of other men, whether written or spoken, do +not seem to have been greatly valued by him, except as keys which +might help him to unlock those mysteries of God and man, and their +mutual relations, which tormented him from the first. He was to the +last an indefatigable reader, but yet it would be true to say that he +was never either a student or a scholar in the ordinary sense. It is +a curious question as to how a thorough education might have modified +Father Hecker. It is possible--nay, as the reader may be inclined to +believe with us as the story of his inner life goes on, it is even +probable--that the more he was taught by God the less he was able to +receive from men. + +It is certain, however, that he seriously regretted and soon set +himself to rectify the deficiencies of his early training. This was +one of the reasons which took him to Brook Farm. In the first entry +of the earliest of his diaries which has been preserved he thus +speaks of his hidden longing after knowledge. He was twenty-three +when these sentences were written, and he had been at Brook Farm for +several months: + +"If I cast a glance upon a few years of my past life, it appears to +me mysteriously incomprehensible that I should be where I am now. I +confess sincerely that, although I have never labored for it, still, +something in me always dreamed of it. Once, when I was lying on the +floor, my mother said to my brother John, without anything previously +being spoken on the subject, and suddenly, in a kind of unconscious +speech, 'John, let Isaac go to college and study.' These words went +through me like liquid fire. He made some evasive answer and there it +ended. Although to study has always been the secret desire of my +heart from my youth, I never felt inclined to open my mind to any one +on the subject. And now I find, after a long time, that I have been +led here as strangely as possible." + +His childhood seems to have been a serious one. In recurring to it in +later life, as he often did, he never spoke of any games or sports in +which he had shared, nor, in fact, of any amusements before the time +when he began to attend lectures and the theatre. It was the +childhood of what we call in America a self-made man--one in which +the plastic human material is rudely dealt with by circumstances. His +mother taught him his prayers, the schoolmistress his letters, +necessity his daily round of duties, and for the rest he was left +very much to himself and to that interior Master of whose stress and +constraint upon him he grew more intimately conscious as he grew in +years. The force of this inward pressure showed itself in many ways. +Outwardly it made his manner undemonstrative, and fixed an intangible +yet very real barrier between him and his kindred, even when the +affection that existed was extremely close and tender. From infancy +he exhibited that repugnance to touching or being touched by any one +which marked him to the end. Even his mother refrained from embracing +him, knowing this singular aversion. She would stroke his face, +instead, when she was pleased with him, and say, "That is my kiss for +you, my son." + +The mutual respect for each other's personalities shown in this +closest of human relations was characteristic of the entire family, +as will be seen later, when the nature of the business connections +between Isaac and his brothers has to be considered. Far from +weakening the natural ties, or impairing their proper influence, it +seems to have strengthened and perfected them. Asked once towards the +close of his life how it was that he had never used tobacco in any +form, he answered: "Mother forbade it, and that was enough for George +and me. I was never ruled in any way but by her affection. That was +sufficient." The parallel fact that he never in his life drank a drop +of liquor at a bar or at any public place was probably due to a +similar injunction. The children were brought up, too, with +exceedingly strict ideas about lying and stealing, and all petty +vices. Throughout the family there prevailed an extreme severity on +such faults. "I have never forgotten," said Father Hecker, "the +furious anger of an aunt of mine and the violent beating she gave one +of my cousins for stealing a cent from her drawer. That training has +had a great and lasting effect upon my character." + +In such antecedents and surroundings it is easy to see the source of +that abiding confidence in human nature, and that love for the +natural virtues which marked Father Hecker's whole career. They had +kept his own youth pure. He had been baptized in infancy, however, as +the children of orthodox Protestants more commonly were at that +period than at present, and in all probability validly, so that one +could never positively say that nature in him had ever been unaided +by grace in any particular instance. It is the conviction of those +who knew him best that he had never been guilty of deliberate mortal +sin. One of these writes: + +"During all the intimate hours I spent with him, speaking of his past +life he _ever once said that he had been a sinner_ in a sense to +convey the idea of mortal sin. And on the other hand he said much to +the contrary; so much as to leave no manner of doubt on my mind that +he had kept his baptismal innocence. He was deeply attached to an +edifying and religious mother; he was at hard work before the dawn of +sensual passion, and his recreation, even as a boy, was in talking +and reading about deep social and philosophical questions, and +listening to others on the same themes. He expressly told me that he +had never used drink in excess, and that he had never sinned against +purity, never was profane, never told a lie; and he certainly never +was dishonest. + +"The influence of his mother was of the most powerful kind. He told +me that the severest punishment she ever inflicted on him was once or +twice (once only, I am pretty sure) to tell him that she was angry +with him; and this so distressed him that he was utterly miserable, +sat down on the floor completely overcome, and so remained till she +after a time relented and restored him to favor. Such a relationship +is quite instructive in reference to the original innocence of his +life." + +________________________ + + + + +CHAPTER II + +YOUTH + +It has been said already, in speaking of Father Hecker's childhood, +that he had been consciously under the influence of supernatural +impressions from a very early period. It seems probable, therefore, +that at least during the few years which preceded his juvenile plunge +into politics he must have been devout and prayerful, though +doubtless in his own spontaneous way. Such were his mother's +characteristics, and we find her son writing to her, when his +aspirations after the perfect life had led him to the threshold of +the church, that she, of all persons, ought most to sympathize with +him, for he is about doing that which will aid him to be what she has +always desired to see him. But his devotions probably bore small +resemblance to those of the ordinary religiously minded boy, either +Catholic or Protestant. He has said that often at night, when lying +on the shavings before the oven in the bake-house, he would start up, +roused in spite of himself by some great thought, and run out upon +the wharves to look at the East River in the moonlight, or wander +about under the spell of some resistless aspiration. What does God +desire from me? How shall I attain unto Him? What is it He has sent +me into the world to do? These were the ceaseless questions of a +heart that rested, meanwhile, in an unshaken confidence that time +would bring the answer. + +But these were early days, days when the influence of his mother, +never wholly shaken off, was still dominant and pervasive in all that +concerned him. There came a period, however, beginning in all +likelihood about his fourteenth, and lasting until his twentieth year +or thereabouts, in which he certainly lost hold on all distinctively +Christian doctrines. With such a mind as his, and such a training, +this was almost inevitable. His intellect, while it hungered +incessantly after supernatural truth, kept nevertheless a persistent +hold upon the verities of the natural order, and could not rest until +it had synthetized them into a coherent whole. That was his life-long +characteristic. During the years of painful ill health which preceded +his death, he often said that he was unlike the Celt, who takes to +the supernatural as if by instinct. "But I am a Saxon and cling to +the earthy" he would say; "I want an explicit and satisfactory reason +why any innocent pleasure should not be enjoyed." He attributed this +to his racial peculiarities. Others may differ with him and credit it +to his nature, taken in its human and rational integrity. +Furthermore, he was always singularly independent and self-poised. He +could not endure being hindered of anything that was his, except by +an authority which had legitimated to his intelligence its right to +command. He could obey that readily and entirely, as his life from +infancy clearly witnesses; but he never knew a merely arbitrary +master. + +Such a nature, fed on the mingled truth and error characteristic of +orthodox Protestantism, was certain to reject it sooner or later, +impelled by hunger for the whole Divine gift of which that teaching +contains fragments only. The soul of Isaac Hecker was one athirst for +God from the first dawn of its conscious being. Upon Him, its Creator +and Source, it never lost hold, and never ceased to cry out for Him +with longing and aspiration, even during that bitter and protracted +period of his youth when his mind, entangled in the maze of +philosophic subjectivism, seemed in danger of rejecting theism +altogether. But the underpinning of his faith, so far as that +professed to be Christian and to come by hearing--to have an +intellectual basis, that is--began to slip away almost as soon as he +left his mother's knee. It is possible that very little stress was +ever laid upon distinctively Christian doctrines in her teaching. To +adore God the Creator, to listen to His voice in conscience, to live +honestly and purely as in His sight--the heritage she transmitted to +him probably contained little more than this. Like most others reared +in heresy who afterwards attain to the true knowledge of the +Incarnation, he had to seek for it with almost as great travail of +mind as if he had been born a pagan. It cannot be too strongly +insisted on, however, that his struggles were merely intellectual, +and, when they began to take a definite turn, shaped themselves into +the natural result of a metaphysic as repugnant to common sense as it +is to Christian philosophy. To this fact, so important in certain of +its bearings, we have ample testimony in the private diaries kept +before his conversion, from which we shall make extracts later on. +They find a later confirmation in some most interesting memoranda, +jotted down, after conversation with him at intervals during the last +years of his life, by one whom he admitted to an unusually close +intimacy. He was always singularly reserved concerning matters purely +personal; his confidences, when they touched his own soul, seldom +seemed entirely voluntary, and were quickly checked. Occasionally +they were taken by surprise, as when the course of talk insensibly +turned toward internal ways; and again they were deliberately angled +for with a hook so well concealed that it secured a prize before he +was aware. From these notes we shall here make a few quotations +bearing on the point made above--i.e., that his difficulties prior to +his entrance into the church were neither moral nor spiritual, but +intellectual. Of him, if of any man, it was always true that his +heart was naturally Christian. The first of these extracts, bearing +as it does on a topic constantly in his thoughts, affords a good +enough example of what was meant in saying that his confidences were +sometimes taken by surprise: + +"There are some for whom the predominant influence is the external +one, authority, example, precept, and the like. Others in whose lives +the interior action of the Holy Spirit predominates. In my case, from +my childhood God influenced me by an interior light and by the +interior touch of His Holy Spirit." + +At another time he said: + +"While I was a youth, and in early manhood, I was preserved from +certain sins and certain occasions of sin, in a way that was peculiar +and remarkable. I was also at the same time, and, indeed, all the +time, conscious that God was preserving me innocent with a view to +some future providence. Mind, all this was long before I came into +the church." + +And again: + +"Many a time before my conversion God gave me grace to weep over +those words: 'And all those who love His coming.' I did not believe +in His coming, but I loved it honestly and longed to believe it. I +had learned much of the Bible from my mother and had read it often +and much myself." + +This consciously supernatural character of his inner life from the +first, should be kept closely united in the reader's mind with that +other idea of his adhesion to "guileless nature" which was such a +favorite theme with Father Hecker. No one could be more emphatic than +he in asserting the necessity of the supernatural for the attainment +of man's destiny. How could it be otherwise, when he considered that +destiny to be the elevation of man above all good merely human, and +by means far beyond the compass of his natural powers? Still, this +was undoubtedly a conclusion of his riper years, a result arrived at +after a certain intense if not very prolonged experience in +contemporary Utopias, in futile endeavors to raise man above his own +level while remaining on it, whether by socialistic schemes or social +politics. + +In an article called "Dr. Brownson and the Workingman's Party Fifty +Years Ago," published in _The Catholic World_ of May, 1887, Father +Hecker has himself made some interesting references to his +experiences in the latter field, and upon these we shall draw heavily +for our own account of this period of his life, supplementing them +with whatever bears upon the subject in the memoranda already +referred to. + +Concerning the inception of this party, to which all three of the +young Heckers belonged in 1834, we have a better statement in Dr. +Brownson's _Convert_ than we know of elsewhere. Brownson was for a +time actively interested in it, and in 1829 established a journal in +support of its principles somewhere in Western New York. From him we +learn that it was started in 1828 by Robert Dale Owen, Robert L. +Jennings, George H. Evans, Fanny Wright, and a few other +doctrinaires, foreign-born without exception, in the hope of getting +control of political power so as to use it for establishing purely +secular schools. Their advocacy of anti-Christian and free-love +doctrines had so signally failed among adult Americans that the +slower but surer method of educating the children of the country +without religion had dawned upon them as more certain to succeed. + +"We hoped," writes Dr. Brownson, "by linking our cause with the +ultra-democratic sentiment of the country, which had had from the +time of Jefferson and Tom Paine something of an anti-Christian +character; by professing ourselves the bold and uncompromising +champions of equality; by expressing a great love for the people and +a deep sympathy with the laborer, whom we represented as defrauded +and oppressed by his employer; by denouncing all proprietors as +aristocrats, and by keeping the more unpopular features of our plan +as far in the background as possible, to enlist the majority of the +American people under the banner of the Workingman's party; nothing +doubting that, if we could once raise that party to power, we could +use it to secure the adoption of our educational system." + +This party, however, both as an engine in politics and as a fitting +embodiment of his private views, Dr. Brownson soon abandoned. He was +not truly radical, in the evil sense of that word, at any period of +his career, and the theories of the leaders soon became insupportable +to his moral sense. But he remained true to the cause of the +workingmen while abandoning the organization which assumed to voice +their needs and their wishes. Probably these more ulterior aims of +their leaders were never fully appreciated by the rank and file of +those who followed them. Yet the genesis of the present purely +secular school system, against whose workings and results nearly all +Christian denominations are too late beginning to protest, is clearly +traceable to the propaganda carried on half a century ago by men and +women whose only half-veiled warfare against Christianity, property, +and marriage was then an offence in the nostrils of our people at +large. It is fair to predict that this generation, or another which +shall succeed it, will yet have the good sense to regret, and the +courage to atone for, the fact that hatred to the Catholic Church, +and a desire to cripple her hands where her own children were +concerned, should have been a more powerful agent in dragging them +and theirs into the abyss of secularism than was their love of +Christianity in deterring them from it. + +Father Hecker's account of his own youthful connection with the +"Workingman's Democracy," although written with the direct intention +of placing his estimate of Dr. Brownson on record, has too many +strictly autobiographic touches in it to be here omitted. Such +passages, bearing on long past personal history, are fewer than we +could wish them among his papers, published or unpublished. The five +articles on Dr. Brownson, beginning in _The Catholic World_ of April, +1887, and concluding in November of the same year, contain almost the +only matters relative to his personal history which he ever put into +print. Concerning the party, of which Dr. Brownson says that he had +ceased to be a recognized leader at this time, although he still +threw his influence as a speaker into all its projects for social +reform, Father Hecker writes: + +"We called ourselves the genuine Democracy, and in New York City were +for some years a separate political body, independent of the +'regular' Democracy, and voting our own ticket. I have before me the +files of our newspaper organ, the _Democrat,_ the first number of +which appeared March 9, 1836, published by Windt & Conrad, 11 +Frankfort Street. In its prospectus the _Democrat_ promises to +contend for 'Equality of Rights, often trampled in the dust by +Monopoly Democrats,' to battle 'with an aristocratic opposition +powerful in talent and official entrenchment, and mighty in money and +facilities for corruption.' 'In the course of this duty it will not +fail fearlessly and fully to assert the inalienable rights of the +people['] against 'vested rights' and 'vested wrongs.' It claims to +be the 'instructive companion' of the mechanics' and workingmen's +leisure, 'the promotion of whose interests will ever form a leading +feature of the _Democrat.'_ And in the editorial salutatory it speaks +thus: + +"'We are in favor of government by the people. Our objects are the +restoration of equal rights and the prostration of those +aristocratical usurpations existing in the state of monopolies and +exclusive privileges of every kind, the products of corrupt and +corrupting legislation. . . . At this moment we are the only large +nation on the face of the earth where the mass of the people govern +in theory--where they may govern in reality, if they will--where the +real taxes of government, although too heavy, are but trifling, and +where a majority of the population depend on their own labor for +support; yet such is the condition of that large class that the +fruits of their toil are inadequate to sustain themselves in comfort +and rear their families as the young citizens of a republic ought to +be reared. + +"'. . . He is very shortsighted, however, who thinks that a majority +of the people, where universal suffrage exists, will submit long to a +state of toil and mendicity. The majority would soon learn to +exercise its political rights, and command its representatives to +carry the laws abolishing primogeniture and entails one step further, +and stop all devises of land and prohibit it from being an article of +sale. (In a foot-note of the editorial:) We actually heard these and +several such propositions discussed by a number of apparently very +intelligent mechanics, after the adjournment of a meeting called to +consider the subject of wages, rents, etc.' + +"At that time the main question was the condition of the public +finances, and our agitation was directed chiefly against granting +charters to private banks of circulation. We condemned these as +monopolies, for we were hostile to all monopolies--that is to say, to +the use of public funds or the enjoyment of public exclusive +privileges by any man or association or class of men for their +private profit." + +We interrupt our direct quotation from this article in order to +relate one of the humors of the period, so far as these brothers were +concerned, in the words of the late Mr. George Hecker: + +"When we were bakers the money in common use was the old-fashioned +paper issued by private banks under State charters. We were regularly +against it. So we bought a hand printing-press and set it up in the +garret of our establishment. All the bills we received from our +customers, some thousands sometimes every week, we smoothed out and +put in a pile, and then printed on their backs a saying we took from +Daniel Webster (though I believe it was not quite authentic): 'Of all +the contrivances to impoverish the laboring classes of mankind, paper +money is the most effective. It fertilizes the rich man's field with +the poor man's sweat.' They tried to punish us for defacing money, +but we beat them. We didn't deface it; we only printed something on +the back of it. Isaac and I often worked all night putting up +handbills for our meetings, for in those days there were no +professional bill-posters." + +Father' Hecker's acquaintance with Dr. Brownson, which had so +powerful an effect upon his future career, began in 1834, when +Brownson was invited to lecture in New York in favor of the +principles and aims of this party. Isaac was then in his fifteenth +year. Among the conversations recorded in the memoranda we find this +reference to their earliest interview: + +"I first met Dr. Brownson in New York, in our house. I was then +reading the Washington _Globe,_ Benton's speeches, Calhoun's, etc. +The elder Blair was its editor; its motto was, 'The world is governed +too much'--a motto in whose spirit there could be no great movement +except in the way of revolution. After the establishment of the +American Government the principle expressed in that motto could only +be abandoned or pushed into revolution and anarchy. + +"I put this question to Brownson: 'How can I become certain of the +objective reality of the operations of my soul?' He answered: 'If you +have not yet reached that period of mental life, you will do so +before many years.' + +"It is a great humiliation for me to admit that I was ever in a state +in which I doubted the actual validity of the testimony of my own +faculties, and the reality of the phenomena of my mental existence. I +had begun my mental life in politics, and in a certain sense in +religion; but to my philosophical life I was yet unborn." + +In the article on the "Workingman's Party," already quoted from, +Father Hecker, after mentioning that Dr. Brownson continued to +lecture before the New York members of the party for several years, +goes on as follows: + +"If it be asked why a man like Dr. Brownson, a born philosopher, +should have thus busied himself with the solution of the most +practical of problems by undertaking to abolish inequality among men, +the answer is plain. The true philosopher will not confine himself to +abstract theories. But, furthermore, Brownson at this epoch of his +life had lost his grip on the philosophy that leads men to trust in a +supernatural happiness to be enjoyed in a future state; and the man +who does not look to the hope of a future state of beatitude for the +chief solace of human misery must look to this life as its end. If a +man does not seek beatitude in God he seeks it in himself and his +fellow-men--in the highest earthly development of our better nature +if he becomes a socialist of one school, and in the lusts of the +animal man if he becomes a socialist of the brutal school. The man +who has any sympathy in his heart and is not guided by Catholic +ethics, if he reasons at all on public affairs, will become a +socialist of some school or other. Says Dr. Brownson in _The +Convert,_ p. 101: + +"The end of man, as disclosed by my creed of 1829, is obviously an +earthly end, to be attained in this life. Man was not made for God, +and destined to find his beatitude in the possession of God his +Supreme Good, the Supreme Good itself. His end was happiness--not +happiness in God, but in the possession of the good things of this +world. Our Lord had said, 'Be not anxious as to what ye shall eat, or +what ye shall drink, or wherewithal ye shall be clothed; for after +all these things do the heathen seek.' I gave Him a flat denial, and +said, Be anxious; labor especially for these things, first for +yourselves, then for others. Enlarging, however, my views a little, I +said, Man's end for which he is to labor is the well-being and +happiness of man in this world--is to develop man's whole nature, and +so to organize society and government as to secure all men a paradise +on the earth. This view of the end to labor for I held steadily and +without wavering from 1828 till 1842, when I began to find myself +tending unconsciously towards the Catholic Church.' + +"The reader will have seen by the extracts given that we were a party +full of enthusiasm. I was but fifteen when our party called Dr. +Brownson to deliver the lectures above mentioned. But my brothers and +I had long been playing men's parts in politics. I remember when +eleven years of age, or a year or two older, being tall for my years, +proposing and carrying through a series of resolutions on the +currency question at our ward meetings. As our name indicates-- +'Workingman's Democracy'--we were a kind of Democrats. As to the Whig +party, it received no great attention from us. At that time its +chances of getting control of this State or of the United States were +remote. Our biggest fight was against the 'usages of the party' as in +vogue in the so-called regular Democracy embodied in the Tammany Hall +party. This organization undertook to absorb us when we had grown too +powerful to be ignored. They nominated a legislative ticket made up +half of their men and half of ours. This move was to a great extent +successful; but many of us who were purists refused to compromise, +and ran a stump ticket, or, as it was then called, a rump ticket. I +was too young to vote, but I remember my brother George and I posting +political handbills at three o'clock in the morning; this hour was +not so inconvenient for us, for we were bakers. We also worked hard +on election day, keeping up and supplying the ticket booths, +especially in our own ward, the old Seventh. I remember that one of +our leaders was a shoemaker named John Ryker, and that we used to +meet in Science Hall, Broome Street. + +"If this was the high state of my enthusiasm, so was it that of us +all. Our political faith was ardent and active. But if we had been +tested on our religious faith we should not have come off creditably; +many of us had not any religion at all. I remember saying once to my +brother John that the only difference between a believer and an +infidel is a few ounces of brains. . . . We were a queer set of +cranks when Dr. Brownson brought to us his powerful and eloquent +advocacy, his contribution of mingled truth and error. He delivered +his first course of lectures in the old Stuyvesant Institute in +Broadway, facing Bond Street--the same hall used a little afterwards +by the Unitarian Society while they were building a church for Mr. +Dewey in Broadway opposite Eighth Street, the very same society now +established in Lexington Avenue, with Mr. Collyer as minister. The +subsequent courses were delivered in Clinton Hall, corner of Nassau +and Beekman, the site now occupied by one of our modern mammoth +buildings. I forget how much we were charged admission, except that a +ticket for the whole course cost three dollars. There was no great +rush, but the lectures drew well and abundantly paid all expenses +including the lecturer's fee. The press did not take much notice of +the lectures, for the Workingman's party had no newspapers expressly +in its favor, except the one I have already quoted from. But he was +one of the few men whose power is great enough to advertise itself. +Wherever he was he was felt. His tread was heavy and he could make +way for himself. + +"Dr. Brownson was then in the very prime of manhood. He was a +handsome man, tall, stately, and of grave manners. His face was +clean-shaved. The first likeness of him that I remember appeared in +the _Democratic Review._ It made him look like Proudhon, the French +Socialist. This was all the more singular because at that time he was +really the American Proudhon, though he never went so far as _'La +propriete, c'est le vol.'_ As he appeared on the platform and +received our greeting he was indeed a majestic man, displaying in his +demeanor the power of a mind altogether above the ordinary. But he +was essentially a philosopher, and that means that he could never be +what is called popular. He was an interesting speaker, but he never +sought popularity. He never seemed to care much about the reception +his words received, but he exhibited anxiety to get his thoughts +rightly expressed and to leave no doubt about what his convictions +were. Yet among a limited class of minds he always awakened real +enthusiasm--among minds, that is, of a philosophical tendency. He +never used manuscript or notes; he was familiar with his topic, and +his thoughts flowed out spontaneously in good, pure, strong, forcible +English. He could control any reasonable mind, for he was a man of +great thoughts and never without some grand truth to impart. But to +stir the emotions was not in his power, though he sometimes attempted +it; he never succeeded in being really pathetic. + +"It must be remembered that although Dr. Brownson was technically +classed among the reverends, he was not commonly so called. It may be +said that he was still reckoned among the Unitarian ministry, owing +mostly to his connection with Dr. Channing, of Boston, who took a +great interest in the Workingman's party. But I do not think he was +advertised by us as reverend or publicly spoken of as a clergyman. He +may have been yet hanging on the skirts of the Unitarian movement. +But his career had become political, and his errand to New York was +political. He had given up preaching for some years, and embarked on +the stormy waves of social politics, and had by his writings become +an expositor of various theories of social reform, chiefly those of +French origin. So that the dominant note of his lectures was not by +any means religious, but political. He was at that time considered as +identified with the Workingman's party, and came to New York to speak +as one of our leaders. The general trend of his lectures was the +philosophy of history as it bears on questions of social reform. At +bottom his theories were Saint-Simonism, the object being the +amelioration of the condition of the most numerous classes of society +in the speediest manner. _This was the essence to our kind of +Democracy._ And Dr. Brownson undertook in these lectures to bring to +bear in favor of our purpose the life-lessons of the providential men +of human history. Of course, the life and teachings of our Saviour +Jesus Christ were brought into use, and the upshot of the lecturer's +thesis was that Christ was the big Democrat and the Gospel was the +true Democratic platform! + +"We interpreted Christianity as altogether a social institution, its +social side entirely overlapping and hiding the religious. Dr. +Brownson set out to make, and did make, a powerful presentation of +our Lord as the representative of the Democratic side of +civilization. For His person and office he and all of us had a +profound appreciation and sympathy, but it was not reverential or +religious; the religious side of Christ's mission was ignored. Christ +was a social Democrat, Dr. Brownson maintained, and he and many of us +had no other religion but the social theories we drew from Christ's +life and teaching; that was the meaning of Christianity to us, and of +Protestantism especially." + +In penning the reminiscences just given Father Hecker probably had in +mind the whole period lying between his fourteenth year and his +twenty-first. In the autumn of 1834, when he first made acquaintance +with Orestes Brownson, Isaac Hecker was not yet fifteen, while the +reform lecturer was in his early thirties. But the boy who began at +once, as he has told us, to put philosophical questions, and to seek +a test whereby to determine the validity of his mental processes, was +already well known to the voters of his ward, not merely as an +overgrown and very active lad, always on hand at the polling booths, +and ready for any work which might be entrusted to a boy, but also as +a clear and persuasive speaker on various topics of social and +political reform. + +Politics of the kind into which the young Heckers threw themselves so +ardently were not very different in their methods fifty years ago +from what they are to-day. Reform politics are always the reverse of +what are called machine politics. The meetings of which Father Hecker +speaks were spontaneous gatherings of determined and earnest men, +young and old, held sometimes in public halls, sometimes, when +elections were close at hand, in the open street. Often they were +dominated by leaders better able to formulate theories than to bring +about practical remedial measures. The inception of all great parties +has something of this character. It generally happens that principles +are dwelt upon with an exclusive devotion more or less prejudicial to +immediate practical ends. This is why young men, and even striplings, +provided they are energetic and persuasive, will be listened to with +attention at such eras. Men are seeking for enlightenment, and hence +views are taken for what they seem to be worth rather than out of +respect for the source they spring from. Imagine, then, this tall, +fair, strong-faced boy of fourteen, mounted, perhaps, on one of his +own flour-barrels, dogmatizing the principles of social democracy, +posing as a spontaneous political reformer before a crowded street +full of men twice and thrice his years, but bound together with him +by the sympathies common to the wage-earning classes. It is true that +Isaac Hecker and his brothers, of whom the eldest had but recently +attained to the dignity of a voter, although still poor and +hard-working, had already, by virtue of sheer industry and pluck, +passed over to the class of wage-payers. But they were not less +ardent reformers after than before that transition. Isaac at all +events, was consistent and unchanged throughout his life in the +political principles he adopted among the apprentices and journeymen +of New York over half a century ago. There was little room for vulgar +self-conceit in a nature so frank and sincere as his. What he had to +learn, as well as what he had to teach, always dwarfed merely +personal considerations to their narrowest dimensions in his mind. +Hence his impulsive candor, the clearness of his views, and the +straightforward simplicity of his speech at once attracted notice, +and although so young, he went speedily to the front in the local +management of his party. In the article already quoted from, he tells +us that after 1834 the managers left all future engagements of +lecturers to his brother John and himself. It was doubtless this fact +which led directly to that lasting and fruitful intimacy with Dr. +Brownson which then began. His was the strongest purely human +influence, if we except his mother's, which Isaac Hecker ever knew. +And these two were on planes so different that it is hardly fair to +compare them with each other. + +________________________ + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE TURNING-POINT + +A BRIEF consideration at this point of a certain permanent tendency +of Father Hecker's mind will be of present and future value to the +student of his life. It has been said already that he never changed +the principles he had adopted as a lad among the apprentices and +journeymen of New York; principles which, for all social politics, he +summarized in the homely expression, "I am always for the under dog." +Thus, in the article quoted in the preceding chapter, he had the +right to say of himself and his associates: + +"We were guileless men absorbed in seeking a solution for the +problems of life. Nor, as social reformers at least, were we given +over to theories altogether wrong. The constant recurrence of similar +epochs of social agitation since then, and the present enormous +development of the monopolies which we resisted in their very +infancy, show that our forecast of the future was not wholly +visionary. The ominous outlook of popular politics at the present +moment plainly shows that legislation such as we then proposed, and +such as was then within the easy reach of State and national +authority, would have forestalled difficulties whose settlement at +this day threatens a dangerous disturbance of public order." + +We dwell on his political consistency, however, only because it +affords an evidence of that unity of character which was always +recognized in Father Hecker by those who knew him best. Change in +him, in whatever direction it seemed to proceed, meant primarily the +dropping off of accidental excrescences. There was nothing radical in +it. What he once held with the settled allegiance of his intelligence +he held always, adding to or developing it further as fast as the +clouds were blown away from his mental horizon. From the standpoint +of personal experience he could fairly criticise, as he did in +conversation some few years before his death, Cardinal Newman's +dictum that "conversion is a leap in the dark." "I say," he went on, +"that it is a leap in the light." _"Into_ the light, but through the +dark," was suggested in reply. + +"No," he answered. "If one arrives at a recognition of the truth of +Catholic doctrine through one or other form of Protestant orthodoxy, +then the difficulties of ordinary controversy will indeed leave him +to the very end in the dark. But if he comes to the Church through +the working and the results of natural reason, it is light all the +way, and to the very end. I had this out with Cardinal Newman +personally, and he agreed that I was right." + +It is true that his views were rectified when he entered the Church, +and that when once in it he was ever acquiring new truth and new +views of truth. But his character never changed. He was a luminous +example of the truth of the saying that the child is father to the +man, so often apparently falsified by experience. Boy and man, the +prominent characteristic of his mind was a clear perception of +fundamentals and a disregard of non-essentials in the whole domain of +life. To reverse a familiar maxim, "Take care of the dollars and the +cents will take care of themselves," might describe his plan of +mental economy. To the small coin of discussion in any field of +inquiry he paid little attention. One who knew him many years has +often heard him say, "Emphasize the universal always." + +He was a teacher by natural vocation. No sooner was he satisfied that +he knew anything of general moment than he felt pressed to impart his +knowledge. Contact with him could never be simply for acquaintance' +sake; still less for an idle comparison of views. While no man could +be more frank in the admission of a lack of data on which to base an +opinion in matters of fact, or a lack of illumination on affairs of +conduct or practical direction, when such existed, yet to be certain +was, to him, the self-luminous guarantee of his mission to instruct. +But until that certainty was attained, in a manner satisfactory to +both the intellectual and the ethical sides of his nature, he was +silent. + +As a priest, though he undertook to teach anybody and everybody, yet +he could seldom have given the impression of desiring to impose his +personal views, simply as such. His vital perception that there can +be nothing private in truth shone through his speech too plainly for +so gross a misconception to be easily made by candid minds. The fact +is that the community of spiritual goods was vividly realized by him, +and in good faith he credited all men with a longing like his own to +see things as they really are. As he had by nature a very kindly +manner, benignant and cheerful, the average man readily submitted to +his influence. In his prime he was always a most successful and +popular preacher and lecturer, from the combined effect of this +earnestness of conviction and his personal magnetic quality. Men +whose mental characteristics resembled his became, soon or late, his +enthusiastic disciples, and as to others, although at first some were +inclined to suspect him, many of them ended by becoming his warm +friends. + +It is in this light that we must view the precocious efforts of the +young politician. Nothing was further from his thoughts at any time +than to employ politics as a means to any private end. Although we +have already quoted him as saying that he always felt bound to demand +some good reason why he should not use all things lawfully his, and +enjoy to the full every innocent pleasure, yet that demand was made +solely in the interests of human freedom, never in that of +self-indulgence. He seems to have been ascetic by nature--a Stoic, +not an Epicurean, by the very make-up of his personality. The reader +will see this more clearly as we pass on to the succeeding phases of +Father Hecker's interior life. But we cannot leave the statement even +here without explaining that we use the word ascetic in its proper +sense, to connote the rightful dominance of reason over appetite, the +supremacy of the higher over the lower; not the jurisdiction of the +judge over the criminal. In his case, during the greater part of his +life, the adjustment of the higher and lower, the restraint he placed +upon the beast in view of the elevation due to the man, was neither +conceived nor felt as punitive. We shall see later on how God finally +subjected him to a discipline so corrective as to be acknowledged by +him as judicial. + +Isaac Hecker threw himself into public questions, then, because, +being a workman, he believed he saw ways by which the working classes +might be morally and socially elevated. He wanted for his class what +he wanted for himself. To get his views into shape, to press them +with all his force whenever and wherever an opportunity presented +itself, was for him the inescapable consequence of that belief. Like +his great patron, St. Paul, "What wilt Thou have me to do?" was +always his first question after his own illumination had been +granted. There is a note in the collection of private memoranda that +has been preserved, in which, alluding to the painful struggles which +preceded his clear recognition that the doctrines of the Catholic +Church afforded the adequate solution of all his difficulties, he +says that his interior sufferings were so great that the question +with him was "whether I should drown myself in the river or drown my +longings and doubts in a career of wild ambition." Still, to those +who knew him well, it is impossible to think of him as ever capable +of any ambition which had not an end commensurate with mankind +itself. To elevate men, to go up with them, not above them, was, from +first to last, the scope of his desire. The nature of his +surroundings in youth, his personal experience of the hardships of +the poorer classes, his intercourse with radical socialists, together +with the incomplete character of the religious training given him, +made him at first look on politics as a possible and probable means +to this desirable end. But he was too sensibly impelled by the Divine +impulse toward personal perfection, and too inflexibly honest with +himself, not to come early to a thorough realization, on one hand of +the fact that man cannot, unaided, rise above his natural level, and, +on the other, that no conceivable amelioration of merely social +conditions could satisfy his aspirations. And if not his, how those +of other men? + +One thing that becomes evident in studying this period of Isaac +Hecker's life is the fact that his acquaintance with Dr. Brownson +marks a turning-point in his views, his opinions, his whole attitude +of mind toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Until then the Saviour of men +had been represented to him exclusively as a remedy against the fear +of hell; His use seemed to be to furnish a Divine point to which men +might work themselves up by an emotional process resulting in an +assurance of forgiveness of sin and a secure hope of heaven. +Christianity, that is to say, had been presented to him under the +form of Methodism. The result had been what might have been +anticipated in a nature so averse to emotional excitement and +possessing so little consciousness of actual sin. Drawn to God as he +had always been by love and aspiration, he was not as yet sensible of +any gulf which needed to be bridged between him and his Creator; +hence, to present Christ solely as the Victim, the Expiatory +Sacrifice demanded by Divine Justice, was to make Him, if not +impossible, yet premature to a person like him. Meantime, what he saw +and heard all around him, poverty, inequality, greed, shiftlessness, +low views of life, ceaseless and poorly remunerated toil, made +incessant demands upon him. These things he knew by actual contact, +by physical, mental, and moral experience, as a man knows by touch +and taste and smell. Men's sufferings, longings, struggles, +disappointments had been early thrust upon him as a personal and most +weighty burden; and the only relief yet offered was the Christ of +emotional Methodism. To a nature more open to temptation on its lower +side, and hence more conscious of its radical limitations, even this +defective presentation of the Redeemer of men might have appealed +profoundly. But Isaac Hecker's problems were at this time mainly +social; as, indeed, to use the word in a large sense, they remained +until the end. Now, Protestantism is essentially unsocial, being an +extravagant form of individualism. Its Christ deals with men apart +from each other and furnishes no cohesive element to humanity. The +validity and necessity of religious organization as a moral force of +Divine appointment is that one of the Catholic principles which it +has from the beginning most vehemently rejected. As a negative force +its essence is a protest against organic Christianity. As a positive +force it is simply men, taken one by one, dealing separately with God +concerning matters strictly personal. True, it is a fundamental +verity that men must deal individually with God; but the external +test that their dealings with Him have been efficacious, and their +inspirations valid, is furnished by the fact of their incorporation +into the organic life of Christendom. As St. Paul expresses it: "For +as the body is one, and hath many members; and all the members of the +body, whereas they are many, are yet one body, so also is Christ. For +in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or +Gentiles, whether bond or free, and in one Spirit have we all been +made to drink."* + +[* I Cor. 12:12, 13.] + +It is plain, then, that a religion such as Protestantism, which is +unsocial and disintegrating by virtue of its antagonistic forces, can +contribute little to the solution of social problems. Even when not +actively rejected by men deeply interested in such problems, it is +tolerably sure that it will be practically ignored as a working +factor in their public relations with their fellows. Religion will +remain the narrowly personal matter it began; chiefly an affair for +Sundays; best attended to in one's pew in church or at the family +altar. Probably it may reach the shop, the counter, and the scales; +not so certainly the factory, the mine, the political platform, and +the ballot. If Christianity had never presented itself under any +other aspect than this to Isaac Hecker, it is certain that it would +never have obtained his allegiance. Yet it is equally certain that he +never rejected Christ under any aspect in which He was presented to +him. + +Even concerning the period of his life with which we are now engaged, +and in which we have already represented him as having lost hold of +all distinctively Christian doctrines, we must emphasize the precise +words we have employed. He "lost hold"; that was because his original +grasp was weak. While no authoritative dogmatic teaching had given +him an even approximately full and definite idea of the God-man, His +personality, His character, and His mission, the fragmentary truths +offered him had made His influence seem restrictive rather than +liberative of human energies. Yet even so he had not deliberately +turned his back upon Him, though his tendency at this time was +doubtless toward simple Theism. He had begun to ignore Christianity, +simply because his own problems were dominantly social, and orthodox +Protestantism, the only form of religion which he knew, had no social +force corresponding to its pretensions and demands. + +Now, upon this state of mind the teaching of Dr. Brownson came like +seed upon a fallow soil. Like that which preceded it, it erred rather +by defect than by actual or, at any rate, by wilful deviation from +true doctrine. Isaac Hecker met for the first time in Orestes +Brownson an exponent of Jesus Christ as the great Benefactor and +Uplifter of the human race in this present life. Dr. Brownson has +himself given a statement of the views which he held and inculcated +between 1834 and 1843--which includes the period we are at present +considering--and it is so brief and to the point that we cannot do +better than to quote it: + +"I found in me," he writes (_The Convert,_p. 111), "certain religious +sentiments that I could not efface; certain religious beliefs or +tendencies, of which I could not divest myself. I regarded them as a +law of my nature, as natural to man, as the noblest part of our +nature, and as such I cherished them; _but as the expression in me of +an objective world, I seldom pondered them._ I found them universal, +manifesting themselves, in some form, wherever man is found; but I +received them, _or supposed I received them,_ on the authority of +humanity or human nature, and professed to hold no religion except +that of humanity. I had become a believer in humanity, and put +humanity in the place of God. The only God I recognized was the +divine in man, the divinity of humanity, one alike with God and with +man, which I supposed to be the real meaning of the Christian +doctrine of the Incarnation, the mystery of Emmanuel, or God with +us--God manifest in the flesh. There may be an unmanifested God, and +certainly is; but the only God who exists for us is the God in man, +the active and living principle of human nature. + +"I regarded Jesus Christ as divine in the sense in which all men are +divine, and human in the sense in which all men are human. I took him +as my model man, and regarded him as a moral and social reformer, who +sought, by teaching the truth under a religious envelope, and +practising the highest and purest morality, to meliorate the earthly +condition of mankind; but I saw nothing miraculous in his conception +or birth, nothing supernatural in his person or character, in his +life or doctrine. He came to redeem the world, as does every great +and good man, and deserved to be held in universal honor and esteem +as one who remained firm to the truth amid every trial, and finally +died on the cross, a martyr to his love of mankind. As a social +reformer, as one devoted to the progress and well-being of man in +this world, I thought I might liken myself to him and call myself by +his name. I called myself a Christian, not because I took him for my +master, not because I believed all he believed or taught, but +because, like him, I was laboring to introduce a new order of things, +and to promote the happiness of my kind. I used the Bible as a good +Protestant, took what could be accommodated to my purpose, and passed +over the rest, as belonging to an age now happily outgrown. I +followed the example of the carnal Jews, and gave an earthly sense to +all the promises and prophecies of the Messias, and looked for my +reward in this world." + +The passages we have italicized in this extract may go to show how +far Dr. Brownson himself was, at this period, from being able to give +any but the evasive answer he actually did give to the searching +philosophical questions put by his youthful admirer. But it is not +easy, especially in the light of Isaac Hecker's subsequent +experiences, to overestimate the influence which this new +presentation of our Saviour had upon the development of his mind and +character. For reasons which we have tried to indicate by a brief +description of some of his life-long interior traits, the ordinary +Protestant view, restricted and narrow, which represents Jesus Christ +merely as the appointed though voluntary Victim of the Divine wrath +against sin, had been pressed upon him prematurely. Now He was held +up to him, and by a man who was in many ways superior to all other +men the boy had met, as a great personality, altogether human, +indeed, but still the most perfect specimen of the race; the +supremely worshipful figure of all history, whose life had been given +to the assertion of the dignity of man and the equality of mankind. +That human nature is good and that men are brethren, said Dr. +Brownson, was the thesis of Christ, taught throughout His life, +sealed by His death. The Name which is above all names became thus in +a new sense a watchword, and the Gospels a treasury for that social +apostolate to which Isaac Hecker had already devoted himself with an +earnestness which for some years made it seem religion enough for him. + +So it has seemed before his time and since to many a benevolent +dreamer. Though the rites of the humanitarian cult differ with its +different priests, its creed retains everywhere and always its narrow +identity. But that all men are good, or would be so save for the +unequal pressure of social conditions on them, is a conclusion which +does not follow from the single premise that human nature, inasmuch +as it is a nature and from the hand of God, is essentially good. The +world is flooded, just at present, with schemes for insuring the +perfection and happiness of men by removing so far as possible all +restraints upon their natural freedom; and whether this is to be +accomplished with Tolstoi, by reducing wants to a minimum and +abolishing money; or by establishing clubs for the promotion of +culture and organizing a social army which shall destroy poverty by +making money plenty, appears a mere matter of detail--at all events +to dreamers and to novelists. But to men who are in hard earnest with +themselves, men who "have not taken their souls in vain nor sworn +deceitfully," either to their neighbor or about him, certain other +truths concerning human nature besides that of its essential goodness +are sure to make themselves evident, soon or late. And among these is +that of its radical insufficiency to its own needs. It is a rational +nature, and it seeks the Supreme Reason, if only for its own +self-explication. It is a nature which, wherever found, is found in +the attitude of adoration, and neither in the individual man nor in +humanity at large is there any Divinity which responds to worship. + +It is impossible to say just when Isaac Hecker's appreciation of this +truth became intensely personal and clear, but it is easy to make a +tolerable approximation to the time. He went to Brook Farm in +January, 1843, rather more than eight years after his first meeting +with Dr. Brownson. It was by the advice of the latter that he made +this first decisive break from his former life. From the time when +their acquaintance began, Isaac appears to have taken up the study of +philosophy in good earnest, and to have found in it an outlet for his +energies which insensibly diminished his absorption in social +politics. We have a glimpse of him kneading at the dough-trough with +Kant's _Critique of Pure Reason_ fastened up on the wall before him, +so that he might lose no time in merely manual labor. Fichte and +Hegel succeeded Kant, all of them philosophers whose mother-tongue +was likewise his own, and whose combined influence put him farther +off than ever from the solution of that fundamental doubt which +constantly grew more perplexing and more painful. We find him hiring +a seat in the Unitarian Church of the Messiah, where Orville Dewey +was then preaching, and walking every Sunday a distance of three +miles from the foot of Rutgers Street, "because he was a smart +fellow, and I enjoyed listening to him. Did I believe in +Unitarianism? _No! I believed in nothing."_ + +His active participation in local politics did not continue +throughout all these years. His belief in candidates and parties as +instruments to be relied on for social purification received a final +blow very early--possibly before he was entitled to cast a vote. The +Workingmen had made a strong ticket one year, and there seemed every +probability of their carrying it. But on the eve of the election half +of their candidates sold out to one of the opposing parties. What +other results this treachery may have had is a question which, +fortunately, does not concern us, but it dispelled one of the +strongest of Isaac Hecker's youthful illusions. He continued, +nevertheless, to prove the sincerity with which his views on social +questions were held, by doing all that lay in his power to better the +condition of the men in the employment of his brothers and himself. +After he passed his majority his interest in the business declined +rapidly, and it is impossible to doubt that one of the chief reasons +why it did so is to be sought in his changing convictions as to the +manner in which business in general should be carried on. + +Although in accepting Christ as his master and model he had as yet no +belief in Him as more than the most perfect of human beings, yet, +even so, Isaac Hecker's sincerity and simplicity were too great to +permit him to follow his leader at a purely conventional distance. +"Do you know," he said long afterwards, "the thought that first +loosened me from the life I led? How can I love my fellow-men and yet +get rich by the sweat of their brows? I couldn't do it. You are not a +Christian, and can't call yourself one, I said to myself, if you do +that. The heathenish selfishness of business competition started me +away from the world." + +If he had received a Catholic training, Isaac Hecker would soon have +recognized that he was being drawn toward the practice of that +counsel of perfection which St. Paul embodies to St. Timothy in the +words: "Having food and wherewith to be covered, with these we are +content."* Could he have sought at this time the advice of one +familiar with internal ways, he must have been cautioned against that +first error to which those so drawn are liable, of supposing that +this call is common and imperative, and can never fail to be heard +without some more or less wilful closing of the ears. Though the +Hecker brothers were, and ever continued to be, men of the highest +business integrity, and though there existed between them a cordial +affection, which was intensified to an extraordinary degree in the +case of George and Isaac, yet the unfitness of the latter for +ordinary trade grew increasingly evident, and to himself painfully +so. The truth is, that his ideas of conducting business would have +led to the distribution of profits rather than to their accumulation. +If he could make the bake-house and the shop into a school for the +attainment of an ideal that had begun to hover, half-veiled, in the +air above him, he saw his way to staying where he was; but not +otherwise. + +[* I Timothy 6:8.] + +In the autumn of 1842 there came upon him certain singular +intensifications of this disquiet with himself and his surroundings. +In the journal begun the following spring, he so frequently and so +explicitly refers to these occurrences, now speaking of them as +"dreams which had a great effect upon my character"; and again, +specializing and fully describing one, as something not dreamed, but +seen when awake, "which left an indelible impression my mind," +weaning it at once and for ever from all possibility of natural love +and marriage, that the integrity of any narrative of his life would +demand some recognition of them. His own comment, in the diary, will +not be without interest and value, both as bearing on much that +follows, and as containing all that need be said in explanation of +the present reference to such experiences: + +"April 24, 1843.--. . . How can I doubt these things? Say what may +be said, still they have to me a reality, a practical good bearing on +my life. They are impressive instructors, whose teachings are given +in such a real manner that they influence me whether I would or not. +Real pictures of the future, as actual, nay, more so than my present +activity. If I should not follow them I am altogether to blame. I can +have no such adviser upon earth; none could impress me so strongly, +with such peculiar effect, and at the precise time most needed. Where +my natural strength is not enough, I find there comes foreign aid to +my assistance. Is the Lord instructing me for anything? I had, six +months ago, three or more dreams which had a very great effect upon +my character; they changed it. They were the embodiment of my present +in a great degree. Last evening's was a warning embodiment of a false +activity and its consequence, which will preserve me, under God's +assistance, from falling. . . . I see by it where I am; it has made +me purer." + +In addition to these peculiar visitations, and very probably in +consequence of them, Isaac's inward anxieties culminated in prolonged +fits of nervous depression, and at last in repeated attacks of +illness which baffled the medical skill called to his assistance. +Towards Christmas he went to Chelsea to visit Brownson, to whom he +partially revealed the state of obscurity and distress in which he +found himself. Brownson, who had been one of the original promoters +of the experiment in practical sociology at West Roxbury, advised a +residence at Brook Farm as likely to afford the young man the leisure +and opportunities for study which he needed in order to come to a +full understanding with himself. He wrote to George Ripley in his +behalf and later undertook to reconcile the Hecker household with +Isaac's determination to go thither. + +It was during his stay at Chelsea that Isaac first began plainly to +acquaint his family with the fact that his departure meant something +more important than the moderately prolonged change of scene and +circumstances which they had recognized as essential to his health. +We shall make abundant extracts from the letters which begin at this +date, convinced that his own words will not only afford the best +evidence of the strength of the interior pressure on him, but will +show also its unique and constant bent. + +Our purpose is to show, in the most explicit manner possible, first, +how irresistibly he was impelled toward the celibate life and the +practice of poverty; and second, that in yielding to this impulse, he +was also drawn away from his former view of our Saviour, as simply +the perfect man, to the full acceptance of the supernatural truth +that He is the Incarnate God. + +It is at this period of Father Hecker's life that we first meet with +a positive interference of an extraordinary kind in the plans and +purposes of his life. Many men who have outlived them, and settled +down into respectable but in nowise notable members of society, have +felt vague longings and indefinite aspirations toward a good beyond +nature during the "Storm and Stress" period of their youth. The +record of their mental struggles gets into literature with +comparative frequency, and sometimes becomes famous. It has always a +certain value, if merely as contributing to psychological science; +but in any particular instance is of passing interest only, unless it +can be shown to have been instrumental in shaping the subsequent +career. The latter was the case with Father Hecker. The extraordinary +influences already mentioned continued to dominate his intelligence +and his will, sometimes with, oftener without, explicit assignment of +any cause. It is plain enough that, up to the time when they began, +he had looked forward to such a future of domestic happiness as +honest young fellows in his position commonly desire. "He was the +life of the family circle," says one who knew the Hecker household +intimately; "he loved his people, and was loved by them with great +intensity, and his going away must have been most painful to him as +well as to them." + +On this point the memoranda, so often to be referred to, contain some +words of his own to the same purport. They were spoken early in 1882: +"You know I had to leave my business--a good business it was getting +to be, too. I tell you, it was agony to give everything up--friends, +prospects in life and old associates; things for which by nature I +had a very strong attachment. But I could not help it; I was driven +from it. I wanted something more; something I had not been able to +find. Yet I did not know what I wanted. I was simply in torment." + +The truth is that, while he had always cherished ideals higher than +are usual, still they were not such as need set him apart from the +common life of men. But now he became suddenly averse from certain +pursuits and pleasures, not only good in themselves, but consonant to +his previous dispositions. The road to wealth lay open before him, +but his feet refused to tread it. He was invincibly drawn to poverty, +solitude, sacrifice; modes of life from which he shrank by nature, +and which led to no goal that he could see or understand. There is no +name so descriptive of such impulses as supernatural. + +________________________ + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +LED BY THE SPIRIT + +THE earliest of the letters so fortunately preserved by the affection +of Isaac Hecker's kindred is addressed to his mother, from Chelsea, +and bears date December 24, 1842. After giving some details of his +arrival, and of the kindly manner in which he had been received, he +writes:* + +[* We have corrected some slight errors of orthography and +punctuation in these early letters. They were of the sort to be +expected from a self-trained youth, as yet little used to the written +expression of his thoughts. They soon disappear almost entirely.] + +"But as regards your advice to write my thoughts to you, that is an +impossibility which I cannot govern or control. This ought not to be +so, but so it is. Am I to blame? I feel not. And what if I could +tell? It might be only a deep dissatisfaction which could not be made +intelligible, or at least not be felt as it is felt by me. Let us be +untroubled about it. A little time, and, I hope, all will pass away, +and I be the same as usual. We all differ a little, at least in our +characters; hence there is nothing surprising if our experiences +should differ. I feel that a little time will be my best remedy, +which I trust we will await without much anxiety. Resignation is +taught when we cannot help ourselves. Take nothing I have said +discouragingly. Turn fears into hopes and doubts into faith, and we +shall be better if not happier. There is no use in allowing our +doubts and fears to control us; by fostering them we increase them, +and we want all our time for something better and higher." + +Two days later he writes more fully, and this letter we shall give +almost entire: + +"Chelsea, December 26, 1842.--BROTHERS: I want to write to you, but +what is the use of scrawling on paper if I write what I do not +feel--intend? It is worse than not writing. And yet why I should be +backward I don't know. The change that I have undergone has been so +rapid and of such a kind; that may be the reason. I feel that as I +now am perhaps you cannot understand me. I am afraid lest your +conduct would be such that under present circumstances I could not +stand under it. Do not misunderstand me. If I have ever appreciated +anything in my life, it is the favor and indulgent treatment you have +shown me in our business. I know that I have never done an equal +share in the work which was for us all to do. I have always been +conscious of this. I hope you will receive this as it is written, for +I am open. Daily am I losing that disposition which was attributed to +me of self-approval. . . . There is no reason why I should distrust +your dispositions toward me but my own feelings, and it is these that +have kept me back, that and the change my mind is undergoing. This is +so continuous, and at the same time so firmly fixed, that I am unable +to keep back any longer. I had hopes that my former life would +return, so that I would be able to go on as usual, although this +tendency has always been growing in me. But I find more and more that +it is not possible. I would go back if I could, but the impossibility +of that I cannot express. To continue as I am now would keep me +constantly in an unsettled state of health, especially as my future +appears to be opening before me with clearness. I say sincerely that +I have lost all but this one thing, and how shall I speak it? My mind +has lost all disposition to business; my hopes, life, existence, are +all in another direction. No one knows how I tried to exert myself to +work, or the cause of my inability. I was conscious of the cause, but +as it was supposed to be a physical one, the reason of it was sought +for, but to no purpose. In the same circumstances now I should be +worse. When I say my mind cannot be occupied as formerly, do not +attribute it to my wishes. This is what I fear; it makes me almost +despair, makes me feel that I would rather die than live under such +thoughts. I never could be happy if you thought so. My future will be +my only evidence. _My experience, which is now my own evidence, I +cannot give you._ To keep company with females--you know what I +mean--I have no desire. I have no thought of marrying, and I feel an +aversion to company for such an end. In my whole life I have never +felt less inclined to it. If my disposition ran that way, marrying +might lead me back to my old life, but oh! that is impossible. To +give up, as I have to do, a life which has often been my highest aim +and hope, is done with a sense of responsibility I never imagined +before. This, I am conscious, is no light thought. It lies deeper +than myself, and I have not the power to control it. I do not write +this with ease; it is done in tears, and I have opened my mind as I +have not done before. How all this will end I know not, but cannot +but trust God. It is not my will but my destiny, which will not be +one of ease and pleasure, but one which I contemplate as a perpetual +sacrifice of my past hopes, though of a communion I had never felt. +Can I adopt a course of life to increase and fulfil my present life? +I am unable to give this decision singly. You will, I hope, accept +this letter in the spirit I have written it. I speak to you in a +sense I never have spoken to you before. In this letter I have opened +as far as I could my inmost life. My heart is full and I would say a +great deal more. Truly, a new life has opened to me, and to turn +backward would be death. Not suddenly has it undergone this change, +but it has come to that crisis where my decision must be made; hence +am I forced to write this letter. For its answer I shall wait with +intense anxiety. Hoping you will write soon, my love to all.--ISAAC." + +The next letter, though addressed to his brothers, was apparently +intended for the whole family, and begins with more than Isaac's +customary abruptness: + +"Chelsea, December 28, 1842.--I will open my mind so that you can +have the materials to judge from as well as myself. I feel unable to +the task of judging alone correctly. I have given an account of my +state of mind in my former letter, but will add that what is there +said describes a permanent state, not a momentary excitement. You may +think that in a little time this would pass away, and I would be able +to resume my former life; or, at least, you could so adapt things at +home that although I should not precisely occupy myself as then, +still it might be so arranged as to give me that which I feel +necessary in order to live somewhat contented. + +"I am sorry to say I can in no way conceive such an arrangement of +things at home. Why? I hate to say it, yet we might as well come to +an understanding. I have grown out of the life which can be received +through the accustomed channels of the circle that was around me. I +am subject to thoughts and feelings which the others had no interest +in; hence they could not be expressed. There can be no need to tell +you this--you all must have seen it. How can I stop my life from +flowing on? You must see the case I stand in. Do not think I have +less of the feelings of a brother and a son. My heart never was +closer, not so close as it is now to yours. . . . + +"Do not think this is imagination; in this I have had too much +experience. The life that was in me had none to commune with, and I +felt it was consuming me. I tried to express this in different ways +obscurely, but it appeared singular and no one understood me. This +was the cause of my wishing to go away, hoping I would either get +clear of it or something might turn up, I knew not what. One course +was advised by the doctor, and you all thought as he did--that was to +keep company with the intention of getting married. This was not the +communion that I wanted or that was congenial to my life. Marrying +would not, I am convinced, have had any permanent effect. It was not +that which controlled me, then or now. It is altogether different; it +is a life in me which requires altogether different circumstances to +live it. This is no dream; or, if it is, then have I never had such +reality. . . . + +"When I wrote last it struck me I might secure what I need at Brook +Farm, but that would depend greatly upon how you answer my letter. If +you do as perhaps you may, I will go and see whether I could be +satisfied and how it is, and let you know. + +"So far had I written when your letter came. . . . You appear to ask +this question: What object have you in contemplation? _None further +than to live a life agreeable to the mind I have, which I feel under +a necessity to do."_ + +"Chelsea, December 30, 1842.--TO MOTHER: I am sorry to hear that you +feel worried. My health is good, I eat and sleep well. That my mind +is not settled, or as it used to be, is no reason to be troubled, for +I hope it is not changing for the worse, and I look forward to +brighter days than we have seen in those that are gone. I was +conscious my last letter was not written in a manner to give you +ease; but to break those old habits of our accustomed communion was +to me a serious task, and done under a sense of duty, to let you know +the cause of the disease I was supposed to labor under. That is past +now, and I hope we shall understand each other, and that our future +will be smooth and easy. The ice has been broken. That caused me some +pain but no regret, and instead of feeling sorrow, you will, I hope, +be contented that I should continue the path that will make me +better." + +Concerning Isaac Hecker's residence at Brook Farm, which was begun +about the middle of the following January, we shall have more to say +hereafter. At present our concern is chiefly with those explanations +of his conduct and motives which the anxieties of his family +continually forced him to attempt. There is, however, among the +papers belonging to this period one which, although found with the +letters, was evidently so included by mistake, and at some later +date. It is an outpouring still more intimate than he was able to +make for the enlightenment of others, and is the first vestige of a +diary which has been found. But it seems plain that his longing for +what he continually calls "communion," and the effort to divine the +will of Providence in his regard, must frequently have urged him to +that introspective self-contemplation so common to natures like his +before their time for action has arrived. We make some brief extracts +from this document which illustrates, still more plainly than any of +the letters, the fact that the interior pressure to which he was +subjected had for its uniform tendency and result his vivid +realization of the Incarnation of God in Jesus Christ. It is written +in a fine, close hand on a sheet of letter-paper, which it entirely +covers, and bears date January 10, 1843: + +"Could I but reveal myself unto myself! What shall I say? Is life +dear to me? No. Are my friends dear to me? I could suffer and die for +them, if need were, but yet I have none of the old attachment for +them. I would clasp all to my heart, love all for their humanity, but +not as relatives or individuals. . . . Lord, if I am to be anything, +I am, of all, most unfit for the task. What shall I do? Whom shall I +cry to but Him who has given me life and planted this spirit in me? +Unto Thee, then, do I cry from the depths of my soul for light to +suffer. If there is anything for me to do, why this darkness all +around me? I ask not to be happy. I will forego, as I always had a +presentiment I must do, all hopes which young men of my age are prone +to picture in their minds. If only I could have a ray of light on my +present condition! O Lord! open my eyes to see the path Thou wouldst +have me walk in. . . . + +"Jan. 11.--True life is one continuous prayer, one unceasing +aspiration after the holy. I have no conception of a life insensible +to that which is not above itself lofty. I would not take it on +myself to say I have been 'born again,' but I know that I have passed +from death to life. Things below have no hold upon me further than as +they lead to things above. It is not a moral restraint that I have +over myself, but it is such a change, a conversion of my whole being, +that I have no need of restraint. Temptations still beset me--not +sensual, but of a kind which seek to make me untrue to my life. If I +am not on my guard I become cold. May I always be humble, meek, +prayerful, open to all men. Light, love, and life God is always +giving, but we turn our backs and will not receive. . . . + +"Who can measure the depths of Christ's suffering--alone in the +world, having that which would give life everlasting, a heaven, to +those who would receive it, and yet despised, spit upon, rejected of +men! Oh! how sweet must it have been to His soul when He found even +one who would accept a portion of that precious gift which He came to +the world to bestow! Well could He say, 'Father, forgive them; they +know not what they do.' He would give them life, but they would not +receive. He would save them, but they rejected Him. He loved them, +and they despised Him. Alas! who has measured even in a small degree +the love of Christ and yet denied His superiority over man! His love, +goodness, mercy are unbounded. O Lord! may I daily come into closer +communion with Thy Son, Jesus Christ." + +On the 22d of February he addresses both of his parents in reply to a +letter sent by his brother John, detailing some of their troubles on +this head. He writes: + +"It is as great a difficulty for me to reconcile my being here with +my sense of duty towards you. . . . Since I must speak, let me tell +you that I have at present no disposition to return. Neither are the +circumstances that surround me now those which will give me +contentment; but I feel that I am here as a temporary place, and that +by spring something will turn up which I hope will be for the +happiness of us all. What it will be I have not the least idea of +now. It is as impossible for me to give you an explanation of that +which has led me of late as it would be for a stranger. All before me +is dark, even as that is which leads me now and has led me before. +One sentiment I have which I feel I cannot impart to you. It is that +I am controlled. Formerly I could act from intention, but now I have +no future to design, nothing in prospect, and _my present action is +from a present cause, not from any past._ Hence it is that while my +action may appear to others as designed, to me it is unlooked-for and +unaccountable. I do not expect that others can feel this as I do. I +am tossed about in a sea without a rudder. What drives me onward, and +where I shall be driven, is to me unknown. My past life seems to me +like that of another person, and my present is like a dream. Where am +I? I know not. I have no power over my present, I do not even know +what it is. Whom can I find like myself, whom can I speak to that +will understand me? + +"This makes me still, lonely; and I cannot wish myself out of this +state. I have no will to do that--not that I have any desire to. All +I can say is that I am in it. What would be the effect of necessity +on me, I know not, whether it would lead me back or lead me on. My +feeling of duty towards you is a continual weight upon me which I +cannot throw off--it is best, perhaps, that I cannot. All appears to +me as a seeming, not a reality. Nothing touches that life in me which +is seeking that which I know not." + +TO GEORGE HECKER.--"Brook Farm, March 6, 1843.--What was the reason +of my going, or what made me go? The reason I am not able to tell. +But what I felt was a dark, irresistible influence upon me that led +me away from home. What it was I know not. What keeps me here I +cannot tell. It is only when I struggle against it that a spell comes +over me. If I give up to it, nothing is the matter with me. But when +I look to my past, my duty toward you all, and consider what this may +lead me to, and then attempt to return, I get into a state which I +cannot speak of . . . + +"By attempt to return I mean an attempt to return to my old life, for +so I have to call it--that is, to get clear of this influence. And +yet I have no will to will against it. I do not desire it, or its +mode of living, and I am opposed to its tendency. + +"What bearing this has upon the question of my coming home you will +perceive. As soon as I can come, I will. If I should do so now, it +would throw me back to the place from which I started. Is this fancy +on my part? All I can say is that if so the last nine or ten months +of my life have been a fancy which is too deep for me to control." + +After paying his family a visit in April, he writes to them on his +return: + +"Brook Farm, April 14, 1843.--Here I am alone in my room once more. +I feel settled, and begin to live again, separated from everything +but my studies and thoughts, and the feeling of gratitude toward you +all for treating me so much better than I am aware of ever having +treated you. May I ever keep this sense of obligation and +indebtedness. My prayer is, that the life I have been led to live +these few months back may prove to the advantage of us all in the +end. I sometimes feel guilty because I did not attempt again to try +and labor with you. But the power that kept me back, its hold upon +me, its strength over me, all that I am unable to communicate, makes +my situation appear strange to others, and to myself irreconcilable +with my former state. Still, I trust that, in a short period, all +things will take their peaceful and orderly course." + +TO GEORGE HECKER.--"Brook Farm, May 12, 1843.--How much nearer to +you I feel on account of your good letter you cannot estimate--nearer +than when we slept in the same bed. Nearness of body is no evidence +of the distance between souls, for I imagine Christ loved His mother +very tenderly when He said, 'Woman, what have I to do with thee?'" + +"I have felt, time and again, that either I would have to give up the +life that was struggling in me, or withdraw from business in the way +that we pursue it. This I had long felt, before the period came which +suddenly threw me involuntarily out of it. Here I am, living in the +present, without a why or a wherefore, trusting that something will +shape my course intelligibly. I am completely without object. And +when occasionally I emerge, if I may so speak, into actual life, I +feel that I have dissipated time. A sense of guilt accompanies that +of pleasure, and I return inwardly into a deeper, intenser life, +breaking those tender roots which held me fast for a short period to +the outward. In study only do I enter with wholeness; nothing else +appears to take hold of my life." . . . "I am staying here, +intentionally, for a short period. When the time arrives" (for +leaving) "heaven knows what I may do. I am now perfectly dumb before +it. Perhaps I may return and enter into business with more +perseverance and industry than before; perhaps I may stay here; it +may be that I shall be led elsewhere. But there is no utility in +speculating on the future. If we lived as we should, we would feel +that we lived in the presence of God, without past or future, having +a full consciousness of existence, living the 'eternal life.' . . . + +"George, do not get too engrossed with outward business. Rather +neglect a part of it for that which is immortal in its life, +incomparable in its fulness. It is a deep, important truth: 'Seek +first the kingdom of God, and then all things will be added.' In +having nothing we have all." + +TO MRS. HECKER.--"Brook Farm, May 16, 1843.--DEAR MOTHER: You will +not take it unkind, my not writing to you before? I am sure you will +not, for you know what I am. Daily I feel more and more indebted to +you for my life, especially when I feel happy and good. How can I +repay you? As you, no doubt, would wish me to-by becoming better and +living as you have desired and prayed that I should, which I trust, +by Divine assistance, I may. + +"Mother, I cannot express the depth of gratitude I feel toward you +for the tender care and loving discipline with which you brought me +up to manhood. Without it, oh! what might I not have been? The good +that I have, under God, I am conscious that I am greatly indebted to +thee for; at times I feel that it is thou acting in me, and that +there is nothing that can ever separate us. A bond which is as +eternal as our immortality, our life, binds us together and cannot be +broken. + +"Mother, that I should be away from home at present no doubt makes +you sorrowful often, and you wish me back. Let me tell you how it is +with me. The life which surrounds me in New York oppresses me, +contracts my feelings, and abridges my liberty. Business, as it is +now pursued, is a burden upon my spiritual life, and all its +influence hurtful to the growth of a better life. This I have felt +for a long time, and feel it now more intensely than before. And the +society I had there was not such as benefited me. My life was not +increased by theirs, and I was gradually ceasing to be. I was lonely, +friendless, and without object in this world, while at the same time +I was conscious of a greater degree of activity of mind in another +direction. These causes still remain. . . . + +". . . I feel fully conscious of the importance of making any change +in my life at my present age--giving up those advantages which so +many desire; as well as the necessity of being considerate, prudent, +and slow to decide. I am aware that my future state here, and hence +hereafter, will greatly depend upon the steps I now take, and +therefore I would do nothing unadvised or hastily. I would not +sacrifice eternal for worldly life. At present I wish to live a true +life, desiring nothing external, seeing that things external cannot +procure those things for and in which I live. I do not renounce +things, but feel no inclination for them. All is indifferent to +me--poverty or riches, life or death. I am loosed. But do not on this +account think I am sorrowful; nay, for I have nothing to sorrow for. +Is there no bright hope at a distance which cheers me onward and +beckons me to speed? I dare not say. Sometimes I feel so--it is the +unutterable. Yet I remain contented to be without spring or autumn, +youth or age. One tie has been loosened after another; the dreams of +my youth have passed away silently, and the visions of the future I +then beheld have vanished. I feel awakened as from a dream, and like +a shadow has my past gone by. With the verse at the bottom of the +picture you gave me, I can say: + +"'Oh! days that once I used to prize, +Are ye forever gone? +The veil is taken from my eyes, +And now I stand alone.' + +"But I would not recall those by-gone days, nor do I stand alone. No! +Out from this life will spring a higher world, of which the past was +but a weak, faint shadow." + +________________________ + + + + +CHAPTER V + +AT BROOK FARM + +THE famous though short-lived community at West Roxbury, +Massachusetts, where Isaac Hecker made his first trial of the common +life, was started in the spring of 1841 by George Ripley and his +wife, Nathaniel Hawthorne, John S. Dwight, George P. Bradford, Sarah +Sterns, a niece of George Ripley's, Marianne Ripley, his sister, and +four or five others whose names we do not know. In September of the +same year they were joined by Charles A. Dana, now of the New York +_Sun._ Hawthorne's residence at the Farm, commemorated in the +_Blithedale Romance,_ had terminated before Mr. Dana's began. The +Curtis brothers, Burrill and George William, were there when Isaac +Hecker came. Emerson was an occasional visitor; so was Margaret +Fuller. Bronson Alcott, then cogitating his own ephemeral +experiment at Fruitlands, sometimes descended on the gay community +and was doubtless "Orphic" at his leisure. The association was the +outcome of many discussions which had taken place at Mr. Ripley's +house in Boston during the winter of 1840-41. Among the prominent +Bostonians who took part in these informal talks were Theodore +Parker, Adin Ballou, Samuel Robbins, John S. Dwight, Warren Burton, +and Orestes Brownson. Each of these men, and, if we do not mistake, +George Ripley also, presided at the time over some religious body. +Mr. Ballou, who was a Universalist minister of much local renown, +was, perhaps, the only exception to the prevailing Unitarian +complexion of the assembly. + +The object of their discussions seems to have been, in a general way, +the necessity for some social reform which should go to the root of +the commercial spirit and the contempt for certain kinds of labor so +widely prevalent; and, in a special way, the feasibility of +establishing at once, on however small a scale, a co-operative +experiment in family life, having for its ulterior aim the +reorganization of society on a less selfish basis. They probably +considered that, a beginning once made by people of their stamp, the +influence of their example would work as a quickening leaven. They +hoped to be the mustard-seed which, planted in a congenial soil, +would grow into a tree in whose branches all the birds of the air +might dwell. It was the initial misfortune of the Brook-Farmers to +establish themselves on a picturesque but gravelly and uncongenial +soil, whose poverty went very far toward compassing the collapse of +their undertaking. + +Not all of the ministers whose names have just been mentioned were of +one mind, either as to the special evils to be counteracted or the +remedies which might be tentatively applied. Three different +associations took their rise from among this handful of earnest +seekers after better social methods. Mr. Ballou, who headed one of +these, believed that unity and cohesion could be most surely obtained +by a frank avowal of beliefs, aims, and practices, to which all +present and future associates would be expected to conform. Mrs. +Kirby, whose interesting volume* we have already quoted, says that +the platform of this party bound them to abolitionism, anti-orthodoxy, +women's rights, total abstinence, and opposition to war. They +established themselves at Hopedale, Massachusetts, where, so far as +our knowledge goes, some vestige of them may still remain, though the +analogies and probabilities are all against such a survival. A second +band of "come-outers," as people used to be called in that day and +region, when they abandoned the common road for reasons not obviously +compulsory, went to Northampton in the same State, and from there +into corporate obscurity. + +[* _Years of Experience._ New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1887.] + +Mr. Ripley's scheme was more elastic, and if the money basis of the +association had been more solid, there seems no reason on the face of +things why this community at Brook Farm might not have enjoyed a much +longer lease of life. It seems to have left a most pleasant memory in +the minds of all who were ever members of it. In matters of belief +and of opinion no hard-and-fast lines were drawn at any point. In +matters of conduct, the morality of self-respecting New-Englanders +who were at a farther remove from Puritanic creeds than from +Puritanic discipline, was regarded as a sufficient guarantee of +social decorum. Of the earliest additions to the co-operative +household, a sprinkling were already Catholic; others, including the +wife and the niece of the founder, afterwards became so. Some +attended orthodox Protestant churches; the majority were probably +Unitarians. Discussion on all subjects appears to have been free, +frank, and good-tempered. + +There was no attempt made at any communism except that of +intellectual and social gifts and privileges. There was a common +table, and Mrs. Kirby has given us some attractive glimpses of the +good feeling, and kindly gayety, and practical observance of the +precept to "bear one another's burdens" which came into play around +it. For many months, as no one could endure to have his equal serve +him, and all were equals, there was a constant getting up and down at +table so that each might help himself. Afterwards, when decline had +already set in, so far as the material basis of the undertaking was +concerned, and those who had its success most at heart had begun to +study Fourier for fruitful suggestions, the first practical hint from +that quarter resulted in Mr. Dana's organizing "a group of +servitors." These, writes Mrs. Kirby,* comprised "four of the most +elegant youths at the community--the son of a Louisiana planter, a +young Spanish hidalgo, a rudimentary Free-soiler from Hingham, and, +if I remember rightly, Edward Barlow (the brother of Francis). These, +with one accord, elected as chief their handsome and beloved teacher. +It is hardly necessary to observe that the business was henceforth +attended to with such courtly grace and such promptness that the new +_regime_ was applauded by every one, although it did appear at first +as if we were all engaged in acting a play. The group, with their +admired chief, took dinner, which had been kept warm for them, +afterwards, and were themselves waited upon with the utmost +consideration, but I confess I never could get accustomed to the new +regulation." + +[* _Years of Experience,_ pp. 178, 179.] + +The watchword of the place was fraternity, not communism. People took +up residence at Brook Farm on different terms. Some paid a stipulated +board, and thus freed themselves from any obligatory share in either +domestic or out-door labor. Others contributed smaller sums and +worked out the balance. Some gave labor only, as was the case with +Mrs. Kirby, then Georgiana Bruce, an English girl of strong +character. She says she agreed to work eight hours a day for her +board and instruction in any branches of study which she elected to +pursue. As an illustration of the actual poverty to which the +community were soon reduced, and, moreover, of the low money value +they set on domestic labor, we give another characteristic passage +from her book. The price of full board, as we learn from a bill sent +by Mr. Ripley to Isaac Hecker after the latter's final departure from +the Farm, was five dollars and fifty cents a week: + +"When a year had elapsed I found my purse empty and my wardrobe much +the worse for wear. As I was known to be heartily interested in the +new movement, my case was taken under consideration, and, with the +understanding that I was to add two more hours to my working day, I +was admitted as _bona-fide_ member of the association (which included +only a dozen), and was allowed to draw on the treasury for my very +moderate necessities. Forty dollars a year would cover these, +writing-paper and postage included. The last item was no unimportant +one, as each letter cost from ten to fifty cents, and money counted +for more then than now. + +"I should explain that for the whole of one winter there remained but +two bonnets fit for city eyes among six of us. But the best of these +was forced on whomever was going to town. As for best dresses, a +twenty-five cent delaine was held to be gorgeous apparel. The +gentlemen had found it desirable to adopt a tunic in place of the +more expensive, old-world coat."* + +[* _Years of Experience,_ p. 132.] + +The income of the association was derived from various sources other +than the prices paid for board. There was a school for young +children, presided over by Mrs. Ripley, assisted by various +pupil-teachers, who thus partially recompensed the community for +their own support. Fruit, milk, and vegetables, when there were any +to spare, were sent to the Boston markets. Now and then some +benevolent philanthropist with means would make a donation. No one +who entered was expected to contribute his whole income to the +general purse, unless such income would not more than cover the +actual expense incurred for him. When Isaac Hecker went to West +Roxbury the establishment included seventy inmates, who were +distributed in several buildings bearing such poetical names as the +Hive, the Eyrie, the Nest, and so on. The number rose to ninety or a +hundred before he left them, but the additions seem occasionally to +have been in the nature of subtractions also, taking away more of the +cultivation, refinement, and general good feeling which had been the +distinguishing character of the place, than they added by their money +or their labor. + +Isaac Hecker was never an actual member of that inner community of +whose aspirations and convictions the Farm was intended as an +embodiment. He entered at first as a partial boarder, paying four +dollars a week, and undertaking also the bread-making, which until +then had been very badly done, as he writes to his mother. It should +be understood that whatever was received from any inmate, either in +money or labor, was accepted not as a mere return for food and +shelter, but as an equivalent for such instruction as could be +imparted by any other member of the collective family. And there were +many competent and brilliant men and women there, whose attainments +not only qualified them amply for the tasks they then assumed, but +have since made them prominent in American letters and journalism. +Mr. Ripley lectured on modern philosophy to all who desired an +acquaintance with Spinoza, Kant, Cousin, and their compeers. George +P. Bradford was a thorough classical scholar. Charles A. Dana, then +fresh from Harvard, was an enthusiast for German literature, and +successful in imparting both knowledge and enthusiasm to his pupils. +There were classes in almost everything that any one cared to study. +French and music, as we learn from one of Isaac's letters home, were +what he set himself to at the first. The latter was taught by so +accomplished a master as John S. Dwight, who conducted weekly +singing-schools for both children and adults. + +To what other studies Isaac may have applied himself we hardly know. +It will be noticed that Mr. George William Curtis, in the kindly +reminiscences which he permits us to embody in this chapter, says +that he does not remember him as "especially studious." The remark +tallies with the impression we have gathered from the journal kept +while he was there. His mind was introverted. Philosophical +questions, then as always, interested him profoundly, but only in so +far as they led to practical results. It might be truer to say that +philosophy was at no time more than the handmaid of theology to him. +At this period he was in the thick of his struggle to attain +certainty with regard to the nature and extent of the Christian +revelation, and what he sought at Brook Farm was the leisure and +quiet and opportunity for solitude which could not be his at home. +"Lead me into Thy holy Church, which I now am seeking," he writes as +the final petition of the prayer with which the first bulky volume of +his diary opens. With the burden of that search upon him, it was not +possible for such a nature as his to plunge with the unreserve which +is the condition of success into any study which had no direct +reference to it. We find him complaining at frequent intervals that +he cannot give his studies the attention they demand. Nor were his +labors as the community baker of long continuance. They left him too +little time at his own disposal, and in a short time he became a full +boarder, and occupied himself only as his inclinations directed. + +It may occur to some of our readers to wonder why a man like +Brownson, who was then fast nearing the certainty he afterwards +attained, should have sent a youth like Isaac Hecker to Brook Farm. +It must be remembered that Brownson's road to the Church was not so +direct as that of his young disciple, nor so entirely free in all its +stages from self-crippling considerations. As we shall presently see, +by an abstract of one of his sermons, preached in the spring of 1843, +which was made by Isaac Hecker at the time, Brownson thought it +possible to hold all Catholic truth and yet defer entering the Church +until she should so far abate her claims as to form a friendly +alliance with orthodox Protestantism on terms not too distasteful to +the latter. He was not yet willing to depart alone, and hoped by +waiting to take others with him, and he was neither ready to renounce +wholly his private views, nor to counsel such a step to young Hecker. +He was in harmony, moreover, with the tolerant and liberal tendency +which influenced the leading spirits at Brook Farm. Although he never +became one of the community, he had sent his son Orestes there as a +pupil, and was a frequent visitor himself. Their aims, as expressed +in a passage which we subjoin from _The Dial_ of January, 1842, were +assuredly such as would approve themselves to persons who fully +accepted what they believed to be the social teaching of our Lord, +but who had not attained to any true conception of the Divine +authority which clothes that teaching: + +"Whoever is satisfied with society as it is; whose sense of justice +is not wounded by its common action, institutions, spirit of +commerce, has no business with this community; neither has any one +who is willing to have other men (needing more time for intellectual +cultivation than himself) give their best hours and strength to +bodily labor to secure himself immunity therefrom. . . . Everything +can be said of it, in a degree, which Christ said of His kingdom, and +therefore it is believed that in some measure it does embody His +idea. For its Gate of Entrance is strait and narrow. It is, +literally, a pearl _hidden in a field._ Those only who are willing to +lose their life for its sake shall find it. . . . Those who have not +the faith that the principles of Christ's kingdom are applicable to +this world, will smile at it as a visionary attempt." + +Brook Farm has an interest for Catholics because, in the order of +guileless nature, it was the preamble of that common life which Isaac +Hecker afterwards enjoyed in its supernatural realization in the +Church. It was a protest against that selfishness of the individual +which is highly accentuated in a large class of New-Englanders, and +prodigiously developed in the economical conditions of modern +society. Against these Isaac had revolted in New York; at Brook Farm +he hoped to find their remedy. And in fact the gentle reformers, as +we may call these West Roxbury adventurers into the unexplored +regions of the common life, were worthy of their task though not +equal to it. There is no doubt that in small numbers and with a +partial surrender of individual prerogatives, well-meaning men and +women may taste many of the good things and be able to bear some of +the hardships of the common life. But to compass in permanent form +its aspirations in this direction, as in many others, nature is +incompetent. The terrible if wonderful success of Sparta is what can +be attained, and tells at what cost. The economy of the bee-hive, +which kills or drives away its superfluous members, and the polity of +Sparta, which put the cripples and the aged to death, are essential +to permanent success in the venture of communism in the natural +order. "Sweetness and light" are enjoyed by the few only at the +sacrifice of the unwholesome and burdensome members of the hive. + +Brook Farm, however, was not conceived in any spirit of cruelty or of +contempt of the weaker members of humanity; the very contrary was the +case. Sin and feebleness were capable, thought its founders, of +elimination by the force of natural virtue. The men and women who +gathered there in its first years were noble of their kind; and their +kind, now much less frequently met with, was the finest product of +natural manhood. Of the channels of information which reach us from +Brook Farm, and we believe we have had access to them all, none +contains the slightest evidence of sensuality, the least trace of the +selfishness of the world, or even any sign of the extravagances of +spiritual pride. There is, on the other hand, a full acknowledgment +of the ordinary failings of unpretentious good people. Nor do we mean +to say that they were purely in the natural order--who can be said to +be that? They were the descendants of the baptized Puritans whose +religious fervor had been for generations at white heat. They had, +indeed, cut the root, but the sap of Christian principle still +lingered in the trunk and branches and brought forth fruit which was +supernatural, though destined never to ripen. + +Christ was the model of the Brook-Farmers, as He had become that of +Isaac Hecker. They did not know Him as well as they knew His +doctrine. They knew better what He said than why He said it, and that +defect obscured His meaning and mystified their understandings. That +all men were brethren was the result of their study of humanity under +what they conceived to be His leadership; that all labor is +honorable, and entitled to equal remuneration, was their solution of +the social problem. While any man was superfluously rich, they +maintained, no man should be miserably poor. They were reaching after +what the best spirits of the human race were then and now longing +for, and they succeeded as well as any can who employ only the +selvage of the Christian garment to protect themselves against the +rigors of nature. Saint-Simon was a far less worthy man than George +Ripley, but he failed no more signally. Frederic Ozanam, whose +ambition was limited in its scope by his appreciation of both nature +and the supernatural, succeeded in establishing a measure of true +fraternity between rich and poor throughout the Catholic world. + +There can be no manner of doubt that although Father Hecker in after +life could good-naturedly smile at the singularities of Brook Farm, +what he saw and was taught there had a strong and permanent effect on +his character. It is little to say that the influence was refining to +him, for he was refined by nature. But he gained what was to him a +constant corrective of any tendency to man-hatred in all its degrees, +not needed by himself to be sure, but always needed in his dealing +with others. It gave to a naturally trustful disposition the vim and +vigor of an apostolate for a cheerful view of human nature. It was a +characteristic trait of his to expect good results from reliance on +human virtue, and his whole success as a persuades of men was largely +to be explained by the subtle flattery of this trustful attitude +towards them. At Brook Farm the mind of Isaac Hecker was eagerly +looking for instruction. It failed to get even a little clear light +on the more perplexing problems of life, but it got something +better--the object-lesson of good men and women struggling nobly and +unselfishly for laudable ends. Brook Farm was an attempt to remove +obstructions from the pathway of human progress, taking that word in +the natural sense. + +Even afterwards, when he had known human destiny in its perfect +supernatural and natural forms, and when the means to compass it were +in his possession and plainly competent for success, his memory +reproduced the scenes and persons of Brook Farm in an atmosphere of +affection and admiration, though not unmingled with amusement. He +used not infrequently to quote words heard there, and cite examples +of things done there, as lessons of wisdom not only for the +philosopher but also for the ascetic. He was there equipped with the +necessary external guarantee of his inner consciousness that man is +good, because made so by his Creator--inclined indeed to evil, but +yet a good being, even so inclined. Nothing is more necessary for one +who is to be a teacher among a population whose Catholicity is of +blood and family tradition as well as of grace, than to know that +there is virtue, true and high in its own order, outside the visible +pale of the Church. Especially is this necessary if Catholics in any +age or country are to be fitted for a missionary vocation. That this +is the vocation of the Church of his day was Isaac Hecker's +passionate conviction. He was able to communicate this to Catholics +of the old stock as well as to influence non-Catholics in favor of +the Church; perhaps even more so. More than anything else, indeed, +Brook Farm taught him the defect of human nature on its highest +plane; but it taught him also the worthiness of the men and women of +America of the apostle's toil and blood. The gentle natures whom he +there knew and learned to love, their spirit of self-sacrifice for +the common good, their minds at once innocent and cultivated, their +devotion to their high ideal, the absence of meanness, coarseness, +vulgarity, the sinking of private ambitions, the patience with the +defects of others, their desire to establish the communism of at +least intellectual gifts--all this and much more of the kind fixed +his views and affections in a mould which eminently fitted him as a +vessel of election for apostolic uses. + +Before passing to the study of Isaac Hecker's own interior during the +period of his residence at Brook Farm, it is our pleasant privilege +to communicate to our readers the subjoined charming reminiscence of +his personality at the time, from one who was his associate there: + +"West New Brighton, S.I., February 28, 1890.--DEAR SIR: I fear that +my recollections of Father Hecker will be of little service to you, +for they are very scant. But the impression of the young man whom I +knew at Brook Farm is still vivid. It must have been in the year 1843 +that he came to the Farm in West Roxbury, near Boston. He was a youth +of twenty-three, of German aspect, and I think his face was somewhat +seamed with small-pox. But his sweet and candid expression, his +gentle and affectionate manner, were very winning. He had an air of +singular refinement and self-reliance combined with a half-eager +inquisitiveness, and upon becoming acquainted with him, I told him +that he was Ernest the Seeker, which was the title of a story of +mental unrest which William Henry Channing was then publishing in the +_Dial._ + +"Hecker, or, as I always called him and think of him, Isaac, had +apparently come to Brook Farm because it was a result of the +intellectual agitation of the time which had reached and touched him +in New York. He had been bred a baker, he told me, and I remember +with what satisfaction he said to me, 'I am sure of my livelihood +because I can make good bread.' His powers in this way were most +satisfactorily tested at the Farm, or, as it was generally called, +'the Community,' although it was in no other sense a community than +an association of friendly workers in common. He was drawn to Brook +Farm by the belief that its life would be at least agreeable to his +convictions and tastes, and offer him the society of those who might +answer some of his questions, even if they could not satisfy his +longings. + +"By what influences his mind was first affected by the moral movement +known in New England as transcendentalism, I do not know. Probably he +may have heard Mr. Emerson lecture in New York, or he may have read +Brownson's _Charles Elwood,_ which dealt with the questions that +engaged his mind and conscience. But among the many interesting +figures at Brook Farm I recall none more sincerely absorbed than +Isaac Hecker in serious questions. The merely aesthetic aspects of its +life, its gayety and social pleasures, he regarded good-naturedly, +with the air of a spectator who tolerated rather than needed or +enjoyed them. There was nothing ascetic or severe in him, but I have +often thought since that his feeling was probably what he might have +afterward described as a consciousness that he must be about his +Father's business. + +"I do not remember him as especially studious. Mr. Ripley had classes +in German philosophy and metaphysics, in Kant and Spinoza, and Isaac +used to look in, as he turned wherever he thought he might find +answers to his questions. He went to hear Theodore Parker preach in +the Unitarian Church in the neighboring village of West Roxbury. He +went into Boston, about ten miles distant, to talk with Brownson, and +to Concord to see Emerson. He entered into the working life at the +Farm, but always, as it seemed to me, with the same reserve and +attitude of observation. He was the dove floating in the air, not yet +finding the spot on which his foot might rest. + +"The impression that I gathered from my intercourse with him, which +was boyishly intimate and affectionate, was that of all 'the apostles +of the newness,' as they were gayly called, whose counsel he sought, +Brownson was the most satisfactory to him. I thought then that this +was due to the authority of Brownson's masterful tone, the +definiteness of his views, the force of his 'understanding,' as the +word was then philosophically used in distinction from the reason. +Brownson's mental vigor and positiveness were very agreeable to a +candid mind which was speculatively adrift and experimenting, and, as +it seemed to me, which was more emotional than logical. Brownson, +after his life of varied theological and controversial activity, was +drawing toward the Catholic Church, and his virile force fascinated +the more delicate and sensitive temper of the young man, and, I have +always supposed, was the chief influence which at that time affected +Hecker's views, although he did not then enter the Catholic Church. + +"He was a general favorite at Brook Farm, always equable and playful, +wholly simple and frank in manner. He talked readily and easily, but +not controversially. His smile was singularly attractive and +sympathetic, and the earnestness of which I have spoken gave him an +unconscious personal dignity. His temperament was sanguine. The whole +air of the youth was that of goodness. I do not think that the +impression made by him forecast his career, or, in any degree, the +leadership which he afterwards held in his Church. But everybody who +knew him at that time must recall his charming amiability. + +"I think that he did not remain at Brook Farm for a whole year, and +when later he went to Belgium to study theology at the seminary of +Mons he wrote me many letters, which I am sorry to say have +disappeared. I remember that he labored with friendly zeal to draw me +to his Church, and at his request I read the life and some writing of +St. Alphonse of Liguori. Gradually our correspondence declined when I +was in Europe, and was never resumed; nor do I remember seeing him +again more than once, many years ago. There was still in the clerical +figure, which was very strange to me, the old sweetness of smile and +address; there was some talk of the idyllic days, some warm words of +hearty good will, but our interests were very different, and, +parting, we went our separate ways. For a generation we lived in the +same city, yet we never met. But I do not lose the bright +recollection of Ernest the Seeker, nor forget the frank, ardent, +generous, manly youth, Isaac Hecker. + +"Very truly yours, + +"GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS." + +________________________ + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +INNER LIFE WHILE AT BROOK FARM + +THE private journals from which we are about to quote so largely were +an unhoped-for addition to the stock of materials available for +Father Hecker's biography. Until after his death not even their +existence, still less the nature of their contents, was suspected. +With the exception of two important documents, one written while he +was in Belgium, in obedience to the requirements of his director; the +other in Rome, for the consideration of the four venerable religious +whose advice he sought before founding his community, no records of +his interior life have been discovered which are at all comparable in +fulness to those made during the eighteen months which preceded his +admission to the Church. In his years of health and strength he lived +and worked for others; and in those weary ones of illness which +followed them, he thought and wrote and suffered, but apparently +without making any deliberate notes of his deeper personal experience. + +On those of our readers whose acquaintance with Father Hecker dates, +as our own does, from his intensely active and laborious prime, these +revelations of the period when he was being passively wrought upon +and shaped for his work by the hand of God, may produce an effect not +unlike that we have been conscious of in studying the greater mass +from which our extracts are taken. They will, perhaps, be struck, in +the first place, by the unexpectedly strong witness they bear to the +wholly interior and mystical experience of the man. They testify, +moreover, to the real and objective character of that leading which +he was constrained to follow; and not only that. They do so in a way +which furnishes a convincing reply to a very plausible doubt as to +whether the narrow and uncongenial surroundings of his early life +might not, by themselves, be sufficient to explain the discontent of +a poetic and aspiring nature such as his. + +He was at Brook Farm when that community was at its pleasantest. The +shadow of care and the premonition of failure were, indeed, already +looming up before those who bore the chief responsibilities of the +undertaking, but the group by virtue of whose presence it became +famous had hardly begun to dwindle. And besides those whose names +have since become well known, there were others, young, gay, +intelligent, and well bred, acquaintance and familiarity with whom +were in many ways attractive to a susceptible youth like Isaac +Hecker. What impression he made upon the circle he entered, how +cordially he was received and held in high esteem, our readers +already know. And if he gave pleasure, he received it also. At first +the new circumstances were a little strange and embarrassing to him. +After a fortnight, or thereabouts, we find him noting that he is "not +one of their spirits. They say 'Mr. Hecker' in a tone they do not use +in speaking to each other." But the strangeness soon wore off and he +yielded to the influence of the place with a wholeness which would +have been entire but for the stronger drawing which never let him +free. + +On this point, too, the witness of the journal is peremptory. So it +is as to the unity and consistence of his interior experiences from +first to last. Child, and boy, and man, there was always the same +ardent sincerity of purpose in him, the same docility to the Voice +that spoke within, the same attitude toward "the life that now is" +which Mr. Curtis, in the letter given in the preceding chapter, has +described, with so fine an insight, as one of reserve and +observation. "He was the dove floating in the air, not yet finding +the spot on which his foot might rest," writes Mr. Curtis of Isaac +Hecker at that period of his youth when his surroundings and +companions were for the first time, and very possibly for the last, +wholly congenial to his natural inclinations. And again: "There was +nothing ascetic or severe in him; but I have often thought since that +his feeling was probably what he might have afterward described as a +consciousness that he must be about his Father's business." + +These words are significant testimony to the nobility of the +impression made on others by Father Hecker's personality in early +manhood. Even if our only addition to such scanty knowledge of his +life at Brook Farm as could be gathered from his own conversations in +later years were this happily-touched sketch, it could hardly be more +interesting than it is. But, fortunately, it does not stand alone. +Its fine recognition of the lofty purity of his nature is everywhere +borne out by the unpremeditated and candid self-revelations of the +diary. Their characteristic trait is everywhere aspiration--a sense +of joy in elevation above the earthly, or a sense of depression +because the earthly weighs him down. Then come eager glances of +inquiry in every direction for the satisfaction of his aspirations, +little by little narrowing down to the Catholic Church, wherein the +dove of Mr. Curtis's image was finally to rest his foot for ever. And +in all this he scarcely at all mentions a dread of the Divine wrath +as a motive for his flight. It is not out of the city of destruction, +but toward the celestial city that he goes. He is drawn by what he +wants, not hounded by what he fears. Always there is the reaching out +of a strong nature toward what it lacks--a material for its strength +to work on, a craving for rational joy, coupled with an +ever-increasing conviction that nature cannot give him such a boon. +Men who knew Father Hecker only in his royal maturity, sometimes +cavilled at his words of emphatic faith in guileless nature; but they +had only to know him a little better to learn his appreciation of the +supernatural order, and his recognition of its absolute and exclusive +competency to satisfy nature's highest aspirations. Reading these +early journals, we have constantly recalled the later days when he so +often, and sometimes continually, repeated, "Religion is a boon!" No +one could know that better than he who had so deeply felt the want it +satisfies. + +The diary was begun in the middle of April, 1843, when Isaac had just +returned to Brook Farm after a fortnight spent at home. It opens with +a prayer for light and direction, which is its dedication to the uses +not only of an earnest but a religious seeker. He addresses himself +directly to God as Father, not making either appeal or reference to +our Lord. But there is in it an invocation to those "that are in +heaven to intercede and plead" for him, which recalls the fact, so +often mentioned by him, that it was the teaching of the Catechism of +the Council of Trent on the Communion of Saints which cleared away +his final clouds and brought him directly to the Church. There is a +note, too, among his later papers, in which, speaking of the +phenomena of modern spiritualism, he says that the same longing for +an assurance of personal immortality which leads so many into that +maze of mingled truth and error, had a great share in disposing his +mind to accept the authoritative doctrine of the Church, which here +as elsewhere answered fully the deepest longings of his soul. + +We shall not attempt to follow the chronological order of the journal +with exactness, but in making our extracts shall pursue the order of +topics rather than of time. By the middle of April the question of +the Church had presented itself so unmistakably to Isaac Hecker, as +the necessary preliminary to further progress--to be settled in one +way or another, either set definitely aside as unessential or else +accepted as the adequate solution of man's problems, that his +struggles for and against it recur with especial frequency. Faber has +said somewhere that the Church is the touchstone of rational +humanity, and that probably no adult passes out of life without +having once, at least, been brought squarely face to face with it and +made to understand and shoulder the tremendous responsibility which +its claims impose. There would be no need of a touchstone if there +were no alloy in human nature, no feebleness in man's will, no +darkness in his understanding. Were that the condition of humanity, +the call to the supernatural order would be simply the summons to +come up higher, its symbol a beacon torch upon the heights. As it is, +the path may be mistaken. He whose feet have been set in it from +birth by Christian training may wilfully forsake it. He whose heart +is pure and whose aspirations noble, may be so surrounded by the +mists of inherited error and misapprehension that the light of truth +fails to penetrate them when it first dawns. The road is always +strait which leads any son of Adam to supernal joy in conscious union +with his Creator, even when his will is good and his desire unfeigned. + +We shall find, therefore, that Isaac Hecker's struggles were many and +painful before he fully recognized and attained the necessary means +to the end he craved. They were characteristic also. He was looking +for the satisfaction of his rational aspirations rather than for the +solution of historical problems, although his mind was too clear not +to see that the two are inextricably bound up together. But inasmuch +as at the period of which we are writing, which was that of the +Oxford Tracts, controversy turned mainly on questions of historical +continuity and of Divine warrant in the external revelation of holy +Scripture, it follows that he, and such as he, must have taken a +lonely and unfrequented road towards the truth. Every time he looked +at the Church he was greeted with the spectacle of unity and +uniformity, of discipline and order. These are elements which always +have been, and probably always will be, most attractive to the +classes called educated, to men seeking for external notes of truth, +flying from disorder, fearful of rebellion. But to Isaac Hecker, the +only external note which deeply attracted him was that of universal +brotherhood. If he were to bow his knee with joy to Jesus Christ, it +would be because all, in heaven and earth or hell, should one day +bend in union with him. + +It takes an intimate knowledge of Catholicity to perceive the +interior transformation of humanity by its supernatural aids. On the +one hand, the influence of Isaac Hecker's Brook Farm surroundings was +to persuade him to confide wholly in nature, which there was very +nearly at its unaided best. On the other hand, the treasures of +Catholicity for the inner life were hidden from him. Religion, in his +conception of it--in the true conception of it--must be the binding +of all things together, natural and supernatural. Hence we find him +at times complaining that the Church is not sufficient for _his +wants._ If it were not personal in its adaptation to him, it was +little that it should be historical this, hierarchical that, or +biblical the other. It must be his primarily, because he cannot live +a rational and pure life without it. An ordinarily decorous life, if +you will; free from lust or passion, and without gross unreason, but +nevertheless tame, unprogressive, dry and unproductive, without any +absolute certainty except that of the helplessness of man. Such a +life seemed to him hardly more than a synonym for death. "The fact +is," as he writes on a page now lying before us, "I want to live +every moment. I want something positive, living, nourishing. I +negative only by affirming." + +The earliest entry in this diary has been already quoted in the first + + + +CHAPTER of the present biography. On its second page occurs the +following account of his impressions while in church on Easter Sunday: + +"Monday, April 17, 1843.--Yesterday I went to the Catholic church +at West Roxbury. It was Easter Sunday. The services were, to me, very +impressively affecting. The altar-piece represented Christ's rising +from the tomb, and this was the subject-matter of the priest's +sermon. In the midst of it he turned and pointed to the painting, +with a few touching words. All eyes followed his, which made his +remarks doubly affecting. How inspiring it must be to the priest, +when he is preaching, to see around him the Saviour, and the goodly +company of martyrs, saints, and fathers! There may be objections to +having paintings and sculptures in churches, but I confess that I +never enter a place where there is either but I feel an awe, an +invisible influence, which strikes me mute. I would sit in silence, +covering my head. A sanctified atmosphere seems to fill the place and +to penetrate my soul when I enter, as if I were in a holy temple. +'Thou standest in a holy place,' I would say. A loud word, a heavy +footstep, makes me shudder, as if an infidel were desecrating the +place. I stand speechless, in a magical atmosphere that wraps my +whole being, scarcely daring to lift my eyes. A perfect stillness +comes over my soul; it seems to be soaring on the bosom of clouds." + +"Tuesday, April 18.--I confess that either the Church is not +sufficient for my wants or I have not seen it in its glory. I hope it +may be the latter. I do not want to say it, but I must own that it +fills me no more. I contemplate it, I look at it, I comprehend it. It +does not lead me to aspire. I feel that either it has nothing to +give, or that what it has is not that for which my soul is aching. I +know it can be said in reply that I cannot know what the Church has +until I am in communion with it; that it satisfies natures greater +than mine; that it is the true life of the world; that there is no +true spirituality outside of it, and that before I can judge it +rightly my life must be equal to it in purity and elevation. Much +more might be said. But, after all, what is it? The Catholic shows up +the Anglican; the Anglican retorts with an accusation of corruption, +and even a want of purity; the Protestant, the Presbyterian, claim +their own mission at the expense of consistency and good logic. . . . + +"The whole fact, I suppose, is that if there is anything in +Succession, Tradition, Infallibility, Church organism and form, it is +in the Catholic Church, and our business will be to stop this +controversy and call an Ecumenical Council which shall settle these +matters according to the Bible, Tradition, and the light of the +Church." + +There is a touch of unconscious humor in the final paragraph which +clamored for quotation. But it was plainly written in profound +earnest. + +"Thursday, April 20.--My soul is disquieted, my heart aches. . . +Tears flow from my eyes involuntarily. My soul is grieved--for what? +Yesterday, as I was praying, the thought flashed across my mind, +Where is God? Is He not here? Why prayest thou as if He were at a +great distance from thee? Think of it. Where canst thou place Him--in +what locality? Is He not here in thy midst? Is His presence not +nearest of all to thee? Oh, think of it! God is here. . . . + +"Am I impious to say that the language used in Scripture for Christ's +expresses the thoughts of my soul? Oh, could we but understand that +the kingdom of heaven is always _at hand_ to the discerner, and that +God calls upon all to 'Repent, for ye shall not all disappear until +it shall open. This generation shall not pass away.'" + +Then follows a page of philosophizing on time and eternity, immensity +and space, and "monads who may develop or fulfil their destiny in +other worlds than this," a reminiscence, perhaps, of the lectures on +such topics at which Mr. Curtis says Isaac used to "look in," hoping +to "find an answer to his questions." Such speculations are a trait +throughout the diary, though they are everywhere subordinate to the +practical ends which dominantly interest him. A day or two later +comes a passage, already given in a preceding chapter, in reference +to certain prophetic dreams which it has been given him to see +realized. And at once this follows: + +"April 24, Noon.--The Catholic Church alone seems to satisfy my +wants, my faith, life, soul. These may be baseless fabrics, chimeras +dire, or what you please. I may be laboring under a delusion. Yet my +soul is Catholic, and that faith responds to my soul in its religious +aspirations and its longings. I have not wished to make myself +Catholic, but that answers on all sides to the wants of my soul. It +is so rich, so full. One is in harmony all over--in unison with +heaven, with the present, living in the natural body, and the past, +who have changed. There is a solidarity between them through the +Church. I do not feel controversial. My soul is filled." + +From this point he speedily recedes. By the next day he is "lost +almost in the flesh"; "fallen into an identity with my body," and +notes that for some time he has "done little in study, but feel that +I have lived very much." What hinders him he supposes to be +"contemplating any certain amount of study which I ought to +accomplish--looking to it as an end. Why should I not be satisfied +when I am living, growing? Did Christ and His apostles study +languages? I have the life--is not that the end?" + +"April 28.--What shall I say? Am I wrong? Should I submit and give +myself up to that which does not engage my whole being? To me the +Church is not the great object of life. I am now out of it in the +common meaning. I am not subject to its ordinances. Is it not best +for me to accept my own nature rather than attempt to mould it as +though it were an object? Is not our own existence more than this +existence in the world? + +"I read this morning an extract from Heine upon Schelling which +affected me more than anything I have read for six months. The +Church, says Schelling in substance, was first Petrine, then Pauline, +and must be love-embracing, John-like. Peter, Catholicism; Paul, +Protestantism; John, what is to be. The statement struck me and +responded to my own dim intuitions. Catholicism is solidarity; +Protestantism is individuality. What we want, and are tending to, is +what shall unite them both, as John's spirit does--and that in each +individual. We want neither the authority of History nor of the +Individual; neither Infallibility nor Reason by itself but both +combined in Life. Neither Precedent nor Opinion, but Being--neither a +written nor a preached Gospel, but a living one. . . . + +"It is only through Christ we can see the love, goodness, and wisdom +of God. He is to us what the telescope is to the astronomer, with +this difference: He so exalts and purifies us that our subject +becomes the power to see. The telescope is a medium through which the +boundaries of our vision are enlarged, but it is passive. Christ is +an active Mediator who begets us if we will, and gives us power to +see by becoming one with Him." + +"May 3.--We all look upon this world as suits our moods, +assimilating only such food as suits our dispositions--and no doubt +there is sufficient variety to suit all. . . . Every personality +individualizes the world to himself not subjectively but truly +objectively. . . . Every individual ought, perhaps, to be satisfied +with his own character. For it is an important truth of Fourier's +that attractions are in proportion to destinies. Fear in proportion +to hope, pain in proportion to pleasure, strength in proportion to +destiny, etc. But it is mysterious that we know all this. 'Man has +become as one of us.' We are all dead. + +"Ah, mystic! dost thou show thyself in this shape? But now, being +dead, shall we receive life and immortality (for I imagine +immortality the solidarity of life--i.e., the union of the two lives, +here and heaven) through Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, and +so lose 'the knowledge of good and evil.' For as in Adam all died, so +shall ye all be made alive through Jesus Christ.' The effect of the +fall was literally the knowledge of good and evil. God knows no evil, +and when we become one with Him, through the Mediator, we shall +regain our previous state. Knowledge is the effect of sin, and is +perhaps destined to correct itself. Consciousness and knowledge go +together. Spontaneity and life are one. Knowledge is no gain, for it +gives nothing. I can only know what has been given through +spontaneity. Spontaneity is unity, one; knowledge is division of +being. If Adam had not been separated he would doubtless not have +sinned. 'The woman that Thou gavest me said unto me, Eat, and I did +eat.' Still, through the seed of the woman, which will be the union +restored, is the serpent to be bruised." + +"May 4.--The real effect of the theory of the Church is to isolate +men from the outward world, withdraw them from its enjoyments, and +make them live a life of sacrifice of the passions. This is one +statement. Another would be this: all these things can and should be +enjoyed, but in a higher, purer, more exalted state of being than is +the present ordinary condition of our minds. The only opposition to +them arises when the soul becomes sensual, falls into their arms, and +becomes lost to higher and more spiritual objects. . . . + +"All is dark before me, impenetrable darkness. I appear to live in +the centre. Nothing seems to take hold of my soul, or else it seeks +nothing. Where it is I know not. I meet with no one else around me. I +would that I could feel that some one lived in the same world that I +now do. Something cloudy separates us. I cannot speak from my real +being to others. There is no mutual recognition. When I speak, it is +as if a burden accumulated round me. I long to throw it off, but I +cannot utter my thoughts and feelings in their presence; if I do, +they return to me unrecognized. Shall I ever meet with one the +windows of whose soul will open simultaneously with mine?" + +On the first Sunday of May Isaac went into Boston to hear Brownson +preach, and a day or two later made the subjoined shrewd comments on +the sermon in a letter to his mother: + +"May 9, '43.--His intention is to preach the Catholic doctrine and +administer the Sacraments. How many of them, I suppose, depends on +circumstances. He justifies himself on the ground that he that is not +against us is for us, and that in times of exigency, and in +extraordinary cases, we may do what we could not be excused for doing +otherwise. And he thinks by proclaiming the Catholic faith and +repudiating the attempt to build up a Church, that in time the +Protestant world will become Catholic in its dispositions, so that a +unity will be made without submission or sacrifice. Under present +circumstances it would be impossible, even if the Protestant churches +should be willing to unite with the Catholic, that the Catholic could +even supply priests for forty millions of Protestants, the Protestant +priests being most of them married, etc. + +"I confess the sermon was wholly unsatisfactory to me, un-catholic in +its premises, and many of his arguments and facts chimerical and +illusive. If you grant that the Roman Catholic Church is the true +Church, there is, to my thought, no stopping-place short of its +bosom. Or even if it is the nearest to the truth, you are under +obligations to join it. How any one can believe in either one of +those propositions, as 0. A. B. does, without becoming a Catholic in +fact, I cannot conceive. This special pleading of exceptions, the +necessity of the case, and improbable suppositions, springs more, I +think, from the position of the individual than from the importance +or truth of the arguments made use of. Therefore I think he will give +up in time the ground upon which he now supports his course--not the +object but his position. . . . I have bought a few Catholic books in +Boston which treat upon the Anglican claims to Catholicity, and I +think I can say, so far, I never shall join a Protestant +Church--while I am not positive on the positive side, nor even in any +way as yet decided." + +________________________ + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +STRUGGLES + +THE citations thus far made from Isaac Hecker's youthful diary, +although penned at Brook Farm, bear few traces of that fact. They +might have been written in a desert for all evidence they give of any +special influence produced upon him by personal contact with others. +It is not until the middle of May, 1843, that he begins to make any +reference to his actual surroundings. + +Before following him into these more intimate self-confidences, and +especially before giving in his own words an account of that peculiar +occurrence which so permanently affected his future, some preliminary +remarks seem necessary. + +It has been said already, in an earlier chapter of this biography, +that but for some special intervention of Divine Providence, it is +more than probable that Isaac Hecker would have led the ordinary life +of men in the world, continuing, indeed, to cherish a high ideal of +the duties of the citizen of a free country, but pursuing it along +well-beaten ways. There is no doubt that, unless some such event as +he has narrated, or some influence equivalent to it in effect, had +supernaturally drawn him away, he would of his own volition have +sought what he was repeatedly advised to seek by his most attached +friends, a congenial union in wedlock. He was naturally susceptible, +and his attachments were not only firm, but often seemed obstinate. +Of celibacy he had, up to this time, no other idea than such as the +common run of non-Catholics possess. At home, indeed, when afterwards +pressed to seek a wife, he had answered, truly enough, though holding +fast to his secret, that he "had no thought of marrying and felt an +aversion to company for such an end." And again he writes to his +mother, anxious and troubled for his future, that the circle which +surrounded him in New York oppressed and contracted him, and abridged +his liberty. There was no one in it who "increased his life." + +But at Brook Farm he met some one, as is revealed by his diary and +correspondence, who deeply attracted him, and who might have +attracted him as far as marriage had he not already received the Holy +Spirit's prevenient grace of virginity. That is to say, he found "a +being," to use his impersonal term, whose name and identity he is +careful to veil, awkwardly enough at times with misleading pronouns, +whose charm was so great as to win from him what would have been, in +his normal state, a marital affection. But he was no longer normal. +Although still beyond the visible pale of that garden of elect souls, +God's holy Church, he was already transformed by the quickening grace +which "reaches from end to end mightily and orders all things +sweetly." Our next quotations afford explicit proof on this point: + +"Tuesday, May 16.--Life appears to be a perpetual struggle between +the heavenly and the worldly. + +"Here at Brook Farm I become acquainted with persons who have moved +in a higher rank in society than I--persons of good education and +fine talents; all of which has an improving influence on me. And I +meet with those to whom I can speak, and feel that, to a great +degree, I am understood and responded to. In New York I am alone in +the midst of people. I am not in any internal sense _en rapport_ with +them. + +"I suppose the reason why I do not, in my present state, feel +disposed to connect myself with any being, and would rather avoid a +person whom I was conscious I might or could love, is that I feel my +life to be in a rapid progress, and that no step now would be a +permanent one. I am afraid the choice I would have made some time +since (_if there had not been something deeply secret in my being +which prevented me_) would now be very unsatisfactory. I feel +conscious there could not have been an equal and mutual advance, +because the natures of some are not capable of much growth. And I +mistrust whether there would not have been an inequality, hence +disharmony and unhappiness. + +"To be required to accept your past is most unpleasant. Perhaps the +society with which I was surrounded did not afford a being that +unified with mine own. And I have faith that there are spiritual laws +beneath all this outward framework of sight and sense, which will, if +rightly believed in and trusted, lead to the goal of eternal life, +harmony of being, and union with God. So I accept my being led here. +Am I superstitious or egoistic in believing this? This is, no doubt, +disputed territory. Have we any objective rule to compare our faith +with which would give us the measure of our superstition? How much of +to-day would have seemed miraculous or superstitious to the past? I +confess I have no rule or measure to judge the faith of any man. + +"The past is always the state of infancy. The present is an eternal +youth, aspiring after manhood; hoping wistfully, intensely desiring, +listfully listening, dimly seeing the bright star of hope in the +future, beckoning him to move rapidly on, while his strong heart +beats with enthusiasm and glowing joy. The past is dead. Wish me not +the dead from the grave, for that would be death re-enacted. . . . + +"Oh, were our wishes in harmony with heaven, how changed would be the +scenes of our life! . . . This accordance would be music which only +the angels now hear--too delicate for beings such as we are at +present. List! hast thou not heard in some bright moment a strain +from heaven's angelic choirs? Oh, yes! In our sleep the angels have +whispered such rich music, and the soul being then passive, we can +hear. And the pleasure does not leave us when passion and thought +take their accustomed course. + +"O man! were thy soul more pure, what a world would open to thy inner +senses! There would be no moment of thy existence but would be filled +with the music of love. The prophet said: 'In that day my eyes were +opened.' And behold what he saw! He saw it. Could we but hear! The +word of the Lord is ever speaking--alas! where is one that can hear? +Where are our Isaiahs, our Ezekiels, our Jeremiahs? Oh! thou +shrunken-visaged, black, hollow-eyed doubt! hast thou passed like a +cloud over men's souls, making them blind, deaf and dumb? Ah, ha! +dost thou shudder? I chant thy requiem, and prophets, poets, and +seers shall rise again! I see them coming. Great heaven! Earth shall +be again a paradise, and God converse with men!" + +The next entry is undated, but it was probably made on the last day +of May. It has served to fix the proximate time of the illness and +disquiet which led to his first withdrawal from business and home. + +"Wednesday.--About ten months ago--perhaps only seven or eight--I +saw (I cannot say I dreamed; it was quite different from dreaming; I +was seated on the side of my bed) a beautiful, angelic being, and +myself standing alongside of her, feeling a most heavenly pure joy. +It was as if our bodies were luminous and gave forth a moon-like +light which sprung from the joy we experienced. I felt as if we had +always lived together, and that our motions, actions, feelings, and +thoughts came from one centre. When I looked towards her I saw no +bold outline of form, but an angelic something I cannot describe, +though in angelic shape and image. _It was this picture that has left +such an indelible impression on my mind._ For some time afterward I +continued to feel the same influence, and do now so often that the +actual around me has lost its hold. _In my state previous to my +vision I should have married ere this, for there are those I have +since seen who would have met the demands of my mind._ But now this +vision continually hovers over me and prevents me, by its beauty, +from accepting any one else; for I am charmed by its influence, and +conscious that, should I accept any other, I should lose the life +which would be the only one wherein I could say I live." + +Those of our readers who are either versed in mystical theology or +who have any wide knowledge of the lives of the Church's more +interior saints, with neither of which Isaac Hecker had at this time +any acquaintance, will be apt to recall here St. Francis of Assisi +and his bride, the Lady Poverty, the similar occurrences related by +Henry Suso of himself, and the mystic espousals of St. Catharine. We +have in this relation not only the plainly avowed reason why he +accepted the celibate life, even before entering the Church or +arriving at any clear understanding of his duty to do so, but we have +something more. Not yet certain of his own vocation, the dream of a +virginal apostolate, including the two sexes, had already absorbed +his yearnings, never again to be forgotten. Neither priest nor +Catholic, save in the as yet unrevealed ordinance of God, he was no +longer free to invite any woman to marriage, no matter how deeply he +might be sensible of her feminine attraction. The union of souls? +Yes; for uses worthy of souls. The union of bodies? No; that would +only clip his wings and narrow his horizon. Thenceforward the test of +true kinship with him could only be a kindred aspiration after union +in liberty from merely natural trammels, in order to tend more surely +to a supernatural end. + +This may seem to some a strange beginning to a life so simply and +entirely set apart from the active, or, at least, public union of the +sexes in apostolic labors. Strange or not, the reader will see it to +be more true as this biography proceeds, and its writer is not +conscious of any reluctance to make it known. Such an integral +supernatural mission to men was what he ever after desired and sought +to establish, though he only attained success on the male side. We +cannot deny that this diary, surprising to us in many ways, was most +so in this particular, although in this particular we found the +explanation of many words spoken by Father Hecker in his maturity and +old age, words the most sober and the most decided we ever heard from +him. He never for an hour left out of view the need of women for any +great work of religion, though he doubtless made very sure of his +auditor before unveiling his whole thought. He never made so much as +a serious attempt to incorporate women with his work, but he never +ceased to look around and to plan with a view to doing so. Among the +personal memoranda already mentioned are found evidences of this so +direct, and corroborated by such recent facts, that they cannot be +used until the lapse of time shall have made an extension of this +life as well possible as necessary. + +"June 1.--One cannot live a spiritual life in the world because it +requires so much labor to supply food and clothing that what is +inward and eternal has to be given up for the material and life in +time. If one has to sustain himself at Brook Farm without other means +to aid him, he must employ his strength to that degree that he has no +time for the culture of the spiritual. I cannot remain and support +myself without becoming subject to the same conditions as existed at +home. I cannot expect them to be willing to lessen their present +expenses much for the sake of gaining time for spiritual culture; nor +do I see how I can at home live with my relatives and have the time +which I require. I see no way but to give up the taste for fine +clothing and variety in food. I would prefer the life of the +monastery to that of the external world. The advantages for my being +are greater. The harmony of the two is the full and perfect +existence; but the spiritual should always be preserved at the +expense of the other, which is contrary to the tendency of the world, +and perhaps even to that of this place. I would prefer going hungry +in body than in soul. I am speaking against neither, for I believe in +the fulness of life, in amply supplying all its wants; but the +kingdom of God is more to me than this world. I would be Plato in +love, Zeno in self-strength, and Epicurus in aesthetics; but if I +have to sacrifice either, let Epicurus go." + +"June 12.--At times I have an impulse to cry out, 'What wouldst Thou +have me to do?' I would shout up into the empty vault of heaven: 'Ah, +why plaguest Thou me so? What shall I do? Give me an answer unless +Thou wilt have me consumed by inward fre, drying up the living liquid +of life. Wouldst Thou have me to give up all? I have. I have no +dreams to realize. I want nothing, have nothing, and am willing to +die in any way. What ties I have are few, and can be cut with a +groan.'" + +"Monday, June 26.--Solomon said, after he had tasted all the joys of +the world, 'Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.' I, my friend, who +have scarcely tasted any of the pleasures of the world, would say +with Solomon, 'all is vanity.' I see nothing in which I can work. All +are vanities, shadows; beneath all there is nothing. Great God! what +is all this for? Why torment and pain me so? Why is all this action a +profanity to me? And even holiness, what is it? + +"Oh! I am dumb; my soul is inarticulate. There is that in me which I +would pour out. Oh! why is it that the noblest actions of humanity +speak not to my soul? All life is inadequate--but not in the sense of +the world. I would joyfully be silent, obscure, dead to all the +world, if this alone which is in me had life. I ask not for name, +riches, external conditions of delight or splendor. No; the meanest +of all would be heaven to me, if this inward impulse had action, +lived itself out. But no; I am imprisoned in spirit. What imprisons? +What is imprisoned? Who can tell? + +"You say, good adviser, 'You must accept things as they are--be +content to be; have faith in God; do that work which your hands find +to do.' Good; but it is taken for granted we know what things +are--which is the question. 'Be content to be.' Be what? 'Have faith +in God.' Yes. 'Work?' Yes; but how? Like others. But this is not work +to me; it is death; nay, worse--it is sin; hence, damnation--and I am +not ready to go to hell yet. Your work gives me no activity; and to +starve, if I must, is better than to do the profane, the sacrilegious +labor you place before me. I want God's living work to do. My labor +must be a sermon, every motion of my body a word, every act a +sentence. My work must be devotional. I must feel that I am +worshipping. It must be music, love, prayer. My field must be the +kingdom of God. Christ must reign in all. It must be Christ doing in +me, and not me. My life must be poetical, divine. Head, heart, and +hands must be a trinity in unity; they must tone in one accord. My +work must be work of inspiration and aspiration. My heart cannot be +in heaven when my head and hands are in hell. I must feel that I am +building up Christ's kingdom in all that I do. To give Christ room +for action in my heart, soul, and body is my desire, my aim, purpose, +being. . . . + +"It is not he who goes to church, says his prayers, sings psalms, +says 'Lord, Lord,' who is in God and establishing His kingdom. No; it +is he who is doing it. The earth is to be His kingdom, and your +prayers must be deeds, your actions music ascending to heaven. The +Church must be the kingdom of God in its fulness. . . . + +"Are we Christians if we act not in the spirit in which Christ acted? +Shall we say: 'What shall we do?' Follow the spirit of Christ which +is in you. 'Unless ye are reprobates, ye have it in you.' 'Be ye +faithful, as I am,' said Jesus. 'Love one another as I have loved +you.' Take up your cross and follow Him. Leave all, if the Spirit +leads you to leave all. Do whatever it commands you. There will be no +lack of action. Care not for the world; give up wealth, friends, +those that you love, the opinions of all. Be willing to be despised, +spit upon, crucified. Be silent, and let your silence speak for you." + +It is plain that what Isaac Hecker is here condemning is the life of +the world, wholly ordinary in its aims and motives. It is not to be +understood as a condemnation of the common lot of men, or of that +life in itself. It was only as he saw it over against his own +vocation to something higher that it became repulsive, nay guilty _to +him._ Nor was he even yet so settled in his view of the contrasted +worth of the two careers between which he had to choose, as to be +quite free from painful struggles. In the entry made on the day +preceding this outburst, he once more recurs to the subject of +marriage: + +"Monday Evening, June 26.--This evening the same advice that has been +given me before, first by the doctor who attended me, next by my +dearest friend, was given me again by a man who now resides here." + +"Tuesday Morning, June 27.--Rather than follow this advice, I would +die. I should be miserable all my life. Nay, death before this. These +men appear to me as natural men, but not in the same life as mine. +They are older, have more experience and more judgment than I, +perhaps; but considering the point of view from which their judgment +is formed, their advice does not appear to be the counsel for me. I +never can, nor will, save my health or life by such means. If that is +the only remedy, then unremedied must I remain. + +"But the cause of my present state of mind is not what they suppose. +It is deeper, higher, and, O God! Thou knowest what it is! Wilt Thou +give me hope, strength, guidance?" . . . + +"Friday, June 29.--Am I led by something higher to the life to which +I am tending? Sometimes I think it is most proper for me to return +home, accept things as they are, and live a life like others--as +good, and as much better as possible. If I can find one with whom I +think I can live happily, to accept such a one, and give up that +which now leads me. + +"My friends would say this is the prudent and rational course--but it +appears this is not mine. That I am here is one evidence that it is +not mine. A second is that I struggled against what led me here as +much as lay in my power, until I became weak, sick, and confined to +my bed. Farther than that I could not go. + +"They tell me that if I were married it would not be so with me. I +will not dispute this, although I do not believe it. But, my good +friends, that is the difficulty. To marry is to me impossible. You +tell me this is unnatural. Yes, my brethren, it may be unnatural, but +how shall I be natural? Must I commit that which in my sight is a +crime, which I feel would make me miserable and be death to my soul? +'But this is foolish and one-sided in you. You are wrong-minded. You +will lose your health, your youthful joy, and the pleasure which God +has, by human laws, designed you to enjoy. You should give up these +thoughts and feelings of yours and be like those around you. + +"Yes, my friends, this advice I accept with love, knowing your +kindness to me. But, alas! I feel that it comes from such a source +that I cannot receive it." + +"July 5.--My brother George has been here; he stayed three days. He +told me he had often talked with my brother John about living a life +higher, nobler, and more self-denying than he had done. It appears +from his conversation that since I left home they have been impressed +with a deeper and better spirit. To me it is of much interest to +decide what I shall do. I have determined to make a visit to +Fruitlands. To leave this place is to me a great sacrifice. I have +been much refined in being here. + +"To stay here--to purchase a place for myself--or to go home. These +are questions about which I feel the want of some friend to consult +with. I have no one to whom I can go for advice. If I wish to be +self-denying, one would say at home is the best, the largest field +for my activity. This may be true in one sense. But is it wise to go +where there are the most difficulties to overcome? Would it not be +better to plant the tree in the soil where it can grow most in every +direction? At home, to be sure, if I have strength to succeed, I may, +perhaps, do the most good, and it may be the widest sphere for me. +But there are many difficulties which have such a direct influence on +one to injure, to blight all high and noble sentiments, that I fear +to encounter them, and I am not sure it is my place. Perhaps it would +be best for me not to speculate on the future, but look to Him who is +above for wise direction in all that concerns my life. Sacrifices +must be made. I must expect and accept them in a meek, humble, and +willing spirit." + +________________________ + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +FRUITLANDS + +WHAT influenced Isaac Hecker to leave Brook Farm, a place so +congenial in many ways to his natural dispositions, was, plainly +enough, his tendency to seek a more ascetic and interior life than he +could lead there. The step cost him much, but he had received all +that the place and his companions could give him, and his departure +was inevitable. + +His next move in pursuit if his ideal took him to Fruitlands. This +was a farm, situated near Harvard, in Worcester Co., Massachusetts, +which had been bought by Mr. Charles Lane, an English admirer of Amos +Bronson Alcott, with the hope of establishing on it a new community +in consonance with the views and wishes of the latter. Perhaps +Fruitlands could never, at any stage of its existence as a corporate +home for Mr. Alcott's family and his scanty following of disciples, +have been truly described as in running order, but when Isaac Hecker +went there, on July 11, 1843, it was still in its incipiency. He had +paid the Fruitlanders a brief visit toward the end of June, and +thought that he saw in them evidences of "a deeper life." It speaks +volumes for his native sagacity and keen eye for realities, that less +than a fortnight's residence with Mr. Alcott should have sufficed to +dispel this illusion. + +Bronson Alcott seems to have been by nature what the French call a +_poseur;_ or, as one of his own not unkindly intimates has described +him, "an innocent charlatan." Although not altogether empty, he was +vain; full of talk which had what was most often a false air of +profundity; unpractical and incapable in the ordinary affairs of life +to a degree not adequately compensated for by such a grasp as he was +able to get on the realities that underlie them; and with an imposing +aspect which corresponded wonderfully well with his interior traits. +That, in his prime, his persuasive accents and bland self-confidence, +backed by the admiration felt and expressed for him by men such as +Emerson, and some of the community at Brook Farm, should have induced +an open-minded youth like Isaac Hecker to take him for a time at his +own valuation, is not strange. The truth is, that it was one of +Father Hecker's life-long traits to prove all things, that he might +find the good and hold fast to it. There was an element of justice in +his make-up which enabled him to suspend judgment upon any +institution or person, however little they seemed to deserve such +consideration, until he was in a condition to decide from his own +investigations. We shall see, later on, how he tried all the +principal forms of Protestantism before deciding upon Catholicity, +strong as his tendency toward the Church had become. We have never +known any other man who, without exhibiting obstinacy, could so +steadfastly reserve his judgment on another's statement, especially +if it were in the nature of a condemnation. + +When Isaac Hecker first made his acquaintance, Mr. Alcott had but +recently returned from England, whither he had gone on the invitation +of James P. Greaves, a friend and fellow-laborer of the great Swiss +educator, Pestalozzi. Mr. Alcott had gained a certain vogue at home +as a lecturer, and also as the conductor of a singular school for +young children. Among its many peculiarities was that of carrying +"moral suasion" to such lengths, as a solitary means of discipline, +that the master occasionally publicly submitted to the castigation +earned by a refractory urchin, probably by way of reaching the +latter's moral sense through shame or pity. This was, doubtless, +rather interesting to the pupils, whether or not it was corrective. +Mr. Alcott's peculiarities did not stop here, however, and Boston +parents, when he began to publish the _Colloquies on the Gospels_ +which he held with their children, concluded, on the evidence thus +furnished, that his thought was too "advanced" to make it prudent to +trust them longer to his care. Miss Elizabeth P. Peabody, since so +well known as an expositor of the Kindergarten system, had been his +assistant. She wrote a _Record of Mr. Alcott's School_ which +attracted the attention of a small band of educational enthusiasts in +England. They gave the name of "Alcott House" to a school of their +own at Ham, near London, and hoped for great things from the personal +advice and presence of the "Concord Plato." He was petted and feted +among them pretty nearly to the top of his bent; but his visit would +have proved a more unalloyed success if the hard Scotch sense of +Carlyle, to whom Emerson had recommended him, had not so quickly +dubbed his vaunted depths deceptive shallows. + +On his return he was accompanied by two Englishmen who seemed to be +like-minded with himself, a Mr. H. G. Wright and Mr. Charles Lane, +both of whom returned within a year or two to their own country, +wiser and perhaps sadder men. Lane, at all events, who was a simple +and candid soul for whom Isaac Hecker conceived a long-enduring +friendship, sunk all his private means irrevocably in the futile +attempt to establish Fruitlands on a solid basis. To use his own +words in a letter now at our hand, though referring to another of Mr. +Alcott's schemes, his little fortune was "buried in the same grave of +flowery rhetoric in which so many other notions have been deposited." + +Lying before us there is an epistle--Mr. Alcott's most ordinary +written communications with his friends must have demanded that term +in preference to anything less stately--in which he has described his +own ideal of what life at Fruitlands ought to be. No directer way of +conveying to our readers a notion of his peculiar faculty of seeming +to say something of singular importance occurs to us, than that of +giving it entire. Though found among Father Hecker's papers, it was +not addressed to him but to one of his most-valued Brook Farm +associates: + +"Concord, Mass., February 15, 1843.--DEAR FRIEND: In reply to your +letter of the 12th, I have to say that as until the snow leaves the +ground clear, the Family cannot so much as look for a locality (which +then may not readily be found), it seems premature to talk of the +conditions on which any association may be formed. + +"Nevertheless, as human progress is a universally interesting +subject, I have much pleasure in communicating with you on the +question of the general conditions most conducive to that end. + +"I have no belief in associations of human beings for the purpose of +making themselves happy by means of improved outward arrangements +alone, as the fountains of happiness are within, and are opened to us +as we are preharmonized or consociated with the Universal Spirit. +This is the one condition needful for happy association amongst men. +And this condition is attained by the surrender of all individual or +selfish gratification--a complete willingness to be moulded by +Divinity. This, as men now are, of course involves self-renunciation +and retrenchment; and in enumerating the hindrances which debar us +from happiness, we shall be drawn to consider, in the first place, +ourselves; and to entertain practically the question, Are we prepared +for the giving up all, and taking refuge in Love as an unfailing +Providence? A faith and reliance as large as this seems needful to +insure us against disappointment. The entrance to Paradise is still +through the strait gate and narrow way of self-denial. Eden's avenue +is yet guarded by the fiery-sworded cherubim, and humility and +charity are the credentials for admission. Unless well armed with +valor and patience, we must continue in the old and much-trodden +broad way, and take share of the penalties paid by all who walk +thereon. + +"The conditions for one are conditions for all. Hence there can be no +parley with the tempter, no private pleas for self-indulgence, no +leaning on the broken reed of circumstances. + +"It is not for us to prescribe conditions; these are prescribed on +our natures, our state of being--and the best we can do, if +disqualified, is either to attain an amended character, or to +relinquish all hopes of securing felicity. + +"Our purposes, as far as we know them at present, are briefly these: + +"First, to obtain the free use of a spot of land adequate by our own +labor to our support; including, of course, a convenient plain house, +and offices, wood-lot, garden, and orchard. + +"Secondly, to live independently of foreign aids by being +sufficiently elevated to procure all articles for subsistence in the +productions of the spot, under a regimen of healthful labor and +recreation; with benignity towards all creatures, human and inferior; +with beauty and refinement in all economies; and the purest charity +throughout our demeanor. + +"Should this kind of life attract parties towards us--individuals of +like aims and issues--that state of being itself determines the law +of association; and the particular mode may be spoken of more +definitely as individual cases may arise; but, in no case, could +inferior ends compromise the principles laid down. + +"Doubtless such a household, with our library, our services and +manner of life, may attract young men and women, possibly also +families with children, desirous of access to the channels and +fountain of wisdom and purity; and we are not without hope that +Providence will use us progressively for beneficial effects in the +great work of human regeneration, and the restoration of the highest +life on earth. + +"With the humane wish that yourself and little ones may be led to +confide in providential Love, + +"I am, dear friend, very truly yours, + +"A. BRONSON ALCOTT." + +It must be admitted that there is something delightful in the +_naivete_ of this undertaking to be "sufficiently elevated to live +independently of foreign aids," after first getting "the _free use_ +of a spot of land, . . . including, _of course,_ a convenient plain +house, and offices, wood-lot, garden, and orchard." Establishments +which would tolerably approximate to this description, and to the +really essential needs of its prospective founder, have long existed +in every civilized community. There are certain restrictions placed +upon their inmates, however, and Mr. Alcott's desire was to make sure +of his basis of earthly supplies, while left entirely free to +persuade himself that he had arrived at an elevation which made him +independent of them. Still, though "a charlatan," it must not be +forgotten that he was "an innocent" one. He was plainly born great in +that way, and had no need to achieve greatness in it. As Father +Hecker said of him long afterwards, "Diogenes and his tub would have +been Alcott's ideal if he had carried it out. But he never carried it +out." Diogenes himself, it may be supposed, had his ideal included a +family and an audience as well as a tub, might finally have come to +hold that the finding of the latter was a mere detail, which could be +entrusted indifferently to either of the two former or to both +combined. Somebody once described Fruitlands as a place where Mr. +Alcott looked benign and talked philosophy, while Mrs. Alcott and the +children did the work. Still, to look benign is a good deal for a man +to do persistently in an adverse world, indifferent for the most part +to the charms of "divine philosophy," and Mr. Alcott persevered in +that exercise until his latest day. "He was unquestionably one of +those who like to sit upon a platform," wrote, at the time of his +death, one who knew Alcott well, "and he may have liked to feel that +his venerable aspect had the effect of a benediction." But with this +mild criticism, censure of him is well-nigh exhausted. There was +nothing of the Patriarch of Bleeding Heart Yard about him except that +"venerable aspect," for which nature was responsible, and not he. + +Fruitlands was the caricature of Brook Farm. Just as the +fanatic is the caricature of the true reformer, so was Alcott the +caricature of Ripley. This is not meant as disparaging either +Alcott's sincerity or his intelligence, but to affirm that he lacked +judgment, that he miscalculated means and ends, that he jumped +from theory to practice without a moment's interval, preferred +to be guided by instinct rather than by processes of reasoning, +and deemed this to be the philosopher's way. + +In the memoranda of private conversations with Father Hecker +we find several references to Mr. Alcott. The first bears date +February 4, 1882, and occurs in a conversation ranging over the +whole of his experience between his first and second departures +from home. We give it as it stands: + +"Fruitlands was very different from Brook Farm--far more ascetic." + +"You didn't like it?" + +"Yes; but they did not begin to satisfy me. I said to them: +'If you had the Eternal here, all right. I would be with you.'" + +"Had they no notion of the hereafter?" + +"No; nothing definite. Their idea was human perfection. They set out +to demonstrate what man can do in the way of the supremacy of the +spiritual over the animal. 'All right,' I said, 'I agree with you +fully. I admire your asceticism; it is nothing new to me; I have +practised it a long time myself. If you can get the Everlasting out +of my mind, I'm yours. But I know' (here Father Hecker thumped the +table at his bedside) 'that I am going to live for ever.'" + +"What did Alcott say when you left?" + +"He went to Lane and said, 'Well, Hecker has flunked out. He hadn't +the courage to persevere. He's a coward.' But Lane said, 'No; you're +mistaken. Hecker's right. He wanted more than we had to give him.'" + +Mr. Alcott's death in 1888 was the occasion of the reminiscences +which follow: + +"March 5, 1888.--Bronson Alcott dead! I saw him coming from Rochester +on the cars. I had been a Catholic missionary for I don't know how +many years. We sat together. 'Father Hecker,' said he, 'why can't you +make a Catholic of me?' 'Too much rust here,' said I, clapping him on +the knee. He got very angry because I said that was the obstacle. I +never saw him angry at any other time. He was too proud. + +"But he was a great natural man. He was faithful to pure, natural +conscience. His virtues came from that. He never had any virtue +beyond what a good pagan has. He never aimed at anything more, nor +claimed to. He maintained that to be all. + +"I don't believe he ever prayed. Whom could he pray to? Was not +Bronson Alcott the greatest of all?" + +"Did he believe in God?" + +"Not the God that we know. He believed in the Bronson Alcott God. He +was his own God." + +"You say he was Emerson's master: what do you mean by that?" + +"He taught Emerson. He began life as a pedler. The Yankee pedler was +Emerson's master. Whatever principles Emerson had, Alcott gave him. +And Emerson was a good pupil; he was faithful to his master to the +end. + +"When did I know him first? Hard to remember. He was the head of +Fruitlands, as Ripley was of Brook Farm. They were entirely different +men. Diogenes and his tub would have been Alcott's ideal if he had +carried it out. But he never carried it out. Ripley's ideal would +have been Epictetus. Ripley would have taken with him the good things +of this life; Alcott would have rejected them all." + +"How did he receive you at Fruitlands?" + +"Very kindly, but from mixed and selfish motives. I suspected he +wanted me because he thought I would bring money to the community. +Lane was entirely unselfish. + +"Alcott was a man of no great intellectual gifts or acquirements. His +knowledge came chiefly from experience and instinct. He had an +insinuating and persuasive way with him--he must have been an ideal +pedler." + +"What if he had been a Catholic, and thoroughly sanctified?" + +"He could have been nothing but a hermit like those of the fourth +century--he was naturally and constitutionally so odd. Emerson, +Alcott, and Thoreau were three consecrated cranks: rather be crank +than president. All the cranks look up to them." + +Beside these later reminiscences we shall now place the contemporary +record of his impressions made by Isaac Hecker while at Fruitlands. +Our first extract, however, was written at Brook Farm, a few days +before going thither: + +"July 7, 1843.--I go to Mr. Alcott's next Tuesday, if nothing +happens. I have had three pairs of coarse pants and a coat made for +me. It is my intention to commence work as soon as I get there. I +will gradually simplify my dress without making any sudden +difference, although it would be easier to make a radical and +thorough change at once than piece by piece. But this will be a +lesson in patient perseverance to me. All our difficulties should be +looked at in such a light as to improve and elevate our minds. + +"I can hardly prevent myself from saying how much I shall miss the +company of those whom I love and associate with here. But I must go. +I am called with a stronger voice. This is a different trial from any +I have ever had. I have had that of leaving kindred, but now I have +that of leaving those whom I love from affinity. If I wished to live +a life the most gratifying to me, and in agreeable company, I +certainly would remain here. Here are refining amusements, cultivated +persons--and one whom I have not spoken of, one who is too much to me +to speak of, one who would leave all for me. Alas! him I must leave +to go." + +In this final sentence, as it now stands in the diary and as we have +transcribed it, occurs one of those efforts of which we have spoken, +to obliterate the traces of this early attachment. "Him" was +originally written "her," but the _r_ has been lengthened to an _m,_ +and the _e_ dotted, both with a care which overshot their mark by an +almost imperceptible hair's-breadth. If the nature of this attachment +were not so evident from other sources, we should have left such +passages unquoted; fearing lest they might be misunderstood. As it +is, the light they cast seems to us to throw up into fuller +proportions the kind and extent of the renunciations to which Isaac +Hecker was called before he had arrived at any clear view of the end +to which they tended. + +"Fruitlands, July 12.--Last evening I arrived here. After tea I went +out in the fields and raked hay for an hour in company with the +persons here. We returned and had a conversation on Clothing. Some +very fine things were said by Mr. Alcott and Mr. Lane. In most of +their thoughts I coincide; they are the same which of late have much +occupied my mind. Alcott said that to Emerson the world was a +lecture-room, to Brownson a rostrum. + +"This morning after breakfast a conversation was held on Friendship +and its laws and conditions. Mr. Alcott placed Innocence first; +Larned, Thoughtfulness; I, Seriousness; Lane, Fidelity. + +"July 13.--This morning after breakfast there was held a conversation +on The Highest Aim. Mr. Alcott said it was Integrity; I, Harmonic +being; Lane, Progressive being; Larned, Annihilation of self; Bower, +Repulsion of the evil in us. Then there was a confession of the +obstacles which prevent us from attaining the highest aim. Mine was +the doubt whether the light is light; not the want of will to follow, +or the sight to see." + +"July 17.--I cannot understand what it is that leads me, or what I am +after. Being is incomprehensible. + +"What shall I be led to? Is there a being whom I may marry and who +would be the means of opening my eyes? Sometimes I think so--but it +appears impossible. Why should others tell me that it is so, and will +be so, in an unconscious way, as Larned did on Sunday last, and as +others have before him? Will I be led home? It strikes me these +people here, Alcott and Lane, will be a great deal to me. I do not +know but they may be what I am looking for, or the answer to that in +me which is asking. + +"Can I say it? I believe it should be said. Here I cannot end. They +are too near me; they do not awaken in me that sense of their high +superiority which would keep me here to be bettered, to be elevated. +They have much, very much. I desire Mr. Alcott's strength of +self-denial, and the unselfishness of Mr. Lane in money matters. In +both these they are far my superiors. I would be meek, humble, and +sit at their feet that I might be as they are. They do not understand +me, but if I am what my consciousness, my heart, lead me to feel--if +I am not deceived--why then I can wait. Yes, patiently wait. Is not +this the first time since I have been here that I have recovered +myself? Do I not feel that I have something to receive here, to add +to, to increase my highest life, which I have never felt anywhere +else? + +"Is this sufficient to keep me here? If I can prophesy, I must say +no. I feel that it will not fill my capacity. O God! strengthen my +resolution. Let me not waver, and continue my life. But I am sinful. +Oh, forgive my sins! What shall I do, O Lord! that they may be +blotted out? Lord, could I only blot them from my memory, nothing +would be too great or too much." + +"July 18.--I have thought of my family this afternoon, and the +happiness and love with which I might return to them. To leave them, +to give up the thought of living with them again--can I entertain +that idea? Still, I cannot conceive how I can engage in business, +share the practices, and indulge myself with the food and garmenture +(_sic_) of our home and city. To return home, were it possible for +me, would most probably not only stop my progress, but put me back. + +"It is useless for me to speculate upon my future. Put dependence on +the spirit which leads me, be faithful to it; work, and leave results +to God. If the question should be asked me, whether I would give up +my kindred and business and follow out this spirit-life, or return +and enjoy them both, I could not hesitate a moment, for they would +not compare--there would be no room for choice. What I do I must do, +for it is not I that do it; it is the spirit. What that spirit may be +is a question I cannot answer, What it leads me to do will be the +only evidence of its character. I feel as impersonal as a stranger to +it. I ask, Who are you? Where are you going to take me? Why me? Why +not some one else? I stand amazed, astonished to see myself. Alas! I +cry, who am I and what does this mean? and I am lost in wonder." + +"Saturday, July 21.--Yesterday, after supper, a conversation took +place between Mr. Alcott, Mr. Lane, and myself; the subject was my +position with regard to my family, my duty, and my position here. Mr. +Alcott asked for my first impressions as regards the hindrances I have +noted since coming here. I told him candidly they were: 1st, his want +of frankness; 2d, his disposition to separateness rather than win +co-operators with the aims in his own mind; 3d, his family, who +prevent his immediate plans of reformation; 4th, the fact that this +place has very little fruit on it, while it was and is their desire +that fruit should be the principal part of their diet; 5th, my fear +that they have too decided a tendency toward literature and writing +for the prosperity and success of their enterprise. + +"My relations with my family are very critical at this period--more +so than they have ever been. It is the crisis of the state we have +been in for this past year. If God gives me strength to be true to +the spirit, it is very doubtful how far those at home will be willing +to second it. I have written them a letter asking for their own aims +and views of life, and I am anxious for their answer. The question of +returning is not a wilful one with me, for it is the spirit which +guides me. If it can live there, I go back. If not, I am governed and +must follow where it leads, wherever that may be." + +The letter referred to in this entry of the diary is too long, and +covers too much ground already traversed, to be quoted in full, but +it contains some striking passages. It was written at Fruitlands, +July 17, '43. After inquiring with his customary directness what are +their aims in life and what they are doing to attain them, he goes on +to say: + +"Although the idea or aim which each one aspires toward and tries to +realize will be colored by his own peculiar tendencies, still, in +substance, in practice, they will agree if they are inspired by the +self-same spirit." + +Here we have the practical good sense which reined in and directed +Isaac Hecker throughout his life, making it finally impossible for +him not to see and recognize the visible Church, notwithstanding his +mystical tendency, his want of thorough education, and his birthright +of heresy. + +Again he writes: + +"There are all the natural ties why we should not be separated, and +no reasons why we should, unless there exists such a wide difference +in the aims we seek to realize that it would be injurious or +impossible for us to live in family, in unity, in love. I do not +believe this difference exists, but if it does, and we are conscious +of being led by a higher spirit than our own, we should and would +sacrifice all that hinders us from the divine calling. That demands +implicit, uncompromising obedience. It speaks in the tone of high +authority. The dead must bury their dead. That which offends it must +be got rid of at all costs, be it wife, parents, children, brothers, +sisters, or our own eye or hand. I do not contemplate a sacrifice of +either of these; still, it is well to consider whether, if such a +demand should be made of us, we are in such a state of mind that we +would be willing to give one or all up, if they should stand in the +way of our progress toward God. . . . + +"If you desire to continue the way of life you have and do now lead, +be plain, frank, and so express yourselves explicitly. If not, and +you have any desire or intention in your minds to alter or make a +radical change in your external circumstances for the sake of a +higher, better mode of life, be equally open, and let me know all +your thoughts and aspirations which are struggling for expression, +for real life. . . . + +"We have labored together in union for material wealth; can we now +labor in the same way for spiritual wealth? If there are sufficient +points of accord in us in this higher life, we must come together and +live in harmony. Since my departure from home there has been a change +in my mind, or, perhaps more truly, a sudden and rapid growth in a +certain direction, the germs of which you must have heretofore +perceived in my conduct and life. On the other hand, I suppose there +has been a progress in your minds, and I feel that the time has +arrived when we should see where we are, so that we may either come +together or separate. Our future relation cannot be a wilful one. It +must be based on a unity of spirit, for the social, the humane +instincts cannot bind us together any longer. . . . Have we the +spiritual as well as the natural brotherhood? this is the question +which deeply concerns us now. . . . I do not know what the spirit has +done for you since my departure. If it has led you as it has led me, +there is no reason why I should be amongst strangers by birth, +although not altogether strangers in love . . . Think seriously upon +your answer. Act true. Life is to me of serious import, and I feel +called upon to give up all that hinders me from following this import +wherever it may lead. But do not let this influence you in your +judgments. We have but a short life to live here, and I would offer +mine to some worthy end: this is all I desire. My health is very +good. I am still at Fruitlands, and will remain here until something +further happens. Accept my deepest love." + +While waiting for an answer to this letter, the diary shows how +continuously Isaac's mind was working over this problem of a final +separation from his kindred. It seems probable that it was, on the +whole, the deepest emotional one that he had to solve. Both filial +duty and natural affection were strong sentiments with him. One +notices in these letters how courteous and urbane is the tone he +uses, even when insisting most on the necessity which lies upon him +to cut all the ties which bind him. This was a family trait. In a +letter written to us last September in answer to a question, Mr. +Charles A. Dana incidentally refers to a visit he paid Isaac Hecker +at his mother's house. "It was a very interesting family," he writes, +"and the cordiality and sweetness of the relations which prevailed in +it impressed me very greatly." + +The entry we are about to quote opens with an odd echo from a certain +school of mysticism with which Isaac about this time became familiar: + +"July 22, 1843.--Man requires a new birth--the birth of the feminine +in him. + +"The question arises in my mind whether it is necessary for me to +require the concurrence of my brothers in the views of life which now +appear to demand of me their actualization. + +"Can I not adopt simple garmenture and diet without their doing so? +Must I needs have their concurrence? Can I not leave results to +themselves? If my life is purer than that of those around me, can I +not trust to its own simple influence? + +"But if there is a great difference of spirit, can we live together? +Does not like seek like? In money matters things must certainly be +other than they have been. We must agree that no accounts shall be +kept between ourselves, let the consequences be what they may. I +would rather suffer evils from a dependence on the spirit of love +than permit that of selfishness to exist between us. I ask not a cent +above what will supply my immediate, necessary wants. . . They may +demand ten times more than I, and it would be a happiness to me to +see them use it, even if I thought they used it wrongfully. All the +check I would be willing to employ would be that of love and mutual +good feeling. If I remain as I now am, I shall require very little, +and that little would be spent for the benefit and help of others. + +"July 23.--I will go home, be true to the spirit with the help of +God, and wait for further light and strength. . . . I feel that I +cannot live at this place as I would. This is not the place for my +soul. . . My life is not theirs. They have been the means of giving +me much light on myself, but I feel I would live and progress more in +a different atmosphere." + +On the 25th of July Isaac finally departed from Fruitlands, and after +remaining for a few days at Brook Farm, he returned to his home in +New York. Before following him thither, it may be well to give at +once such further references to this period of his life as are +contained in the memoranda. The following extract is undated: + +_"A propos_ of Emerson's death, Father Hecker said: 'I knew him well. +When I resolved to become a Catholic I was boarding at the house of +Henry Thoreau's mother, a stone's-throw from Emerson's at Concord.'" + +"What did Thoreau say about it?" + +"'What's the use of your joining the Catholic Church? Can't you get +along without hanging to her skirts?' I suppose Emerson found it out +from Thoreau, so he tried his best to get me out of the notion. He +invited me to tea with him, and he kept leading up to the subject and +I leading away from it. The next day he asked me to drive over with +him to the Shakers, some fifteen miles. We stayed over night, and all +the way there and back he was fishing for my reasons, with the plain +purpose of dissuading me. Then Alcott and he arranged matters so that +they cornered me in a sort of interview, and Alcott frankly developed +the subject. I finally said, 'Mr. Alcott, I deny your inquisitorial +right in this matter,' and so they let it drop. One day, however, I +was walking along the road and Emerson joined me. Presently he said, +'Mr. Hecker, I suppose it was the art, the architecture, and so on in +the Catholic Church which led you to her?' 'No,' said I; 'but it was +what caused all that.' I was the first to break the Transcendental +camp. Brownson came some time after me. + +"Years later, during the war, I went to Concord to lecture, and +wanted Emerson to help me get a hall. He refused. + +"Alcott promised that he would, but he did not, and I think Emerson +dissuaded him. After a time, however, a priest, a church, and a +congregation of some six or seven hundred Catholics grew up in +Concord, and I was invited to lecture, and I went. The pastor +attended another station that Sunday, and I said the Mass and meant +to give a homily by way of sermon. But as I was going to the altar, +all vested for the Mass, two men came into my soul: one, the man who +lived in that village in former years, a blind man, groping about for +light, a soul with every problem unsolved; the other a man full of +light, with every problem solved, the universe and the reason of his +existence known as they actually are. Well, there were those two men +in my soul. I had to get rid of them, so I preached them of to the +people. Some wept, some laughed, all were deeply moved. That night +came the lecture. It rained pitchforks and pineapples, but the hall, +a large one, was completely filled. Multitudes of Yankees were there. +Emerson was absent, but Alcott was present. I had my lecture all cut +and dried. 'Why I became a Catholic' was the subject. But as I was +about to begin, up came those two men again, and for the life of me I +couldn't help firing them off at the audience, and with remarkable +effect. Next day I met Emerson in the street and we had a little talk +together. None of those men are comfortable in conversation with an +intelligent Catholic. He avoided my square look, and actually kept +turning to avoid my eyes until he had quite turned round! Such men, +confronted with actual, certain convictions are exceedingly +uncomfortable. They feel in subjection to you. They cannot bear the +steadfast glance of a man of certain principles any better than a dog +can the look of his master. Like a dog, they turn away the head and +show signs of uneasiness." + +From the memoranda, also, we take this reminiscence of George Ripley, +the man whom Father Hecker loved best of all the Transcendental party: + +"January 23, 1885.--Seeing my perplexity at Brook Farm, George Ripley +said, 'Mr. Hecker, do you think we have not got true religion? If you +think so, say so. If you have views you think true, and which we +ought to have, let us hear them.' I answered, 'No; I haven't the +truth, but I am trying to get it. If I ever succeed, you will hear +from me. If I don't, you never will. I am not going to teach before I +am certain myself. I will not add myself to the list of humbugs.' + +"Ripley was a great man; a wonderful man. But he was a complete +failure. I loved him dearly, and he knew it, and he loved me; I know +well he did. When I came back a Redemptorist from Europe, I went to +see him at the _Tribune_ office. He asked me, 'Can you do all that +any Catholic priest can do?' 'Yes.' 'Then I will send for you when I +am drawing towards my end.' + +"Indeed, if one could have gone to Ripley, at any time in his later +years, and said, 'You will never return again to the society of men,' +and persuaded him it was true, he would have said at once, 'Send for +Father Hecker or some other Catholic priest.' I am persuaded that the +fear of facing his friends hindered George Ripley from becoming a +Catholic. He sent for me when taken down by his last illness, but his +message was not delivered. As soon as I heard that he was ill I +hastened to his bedside, but his mind was gone and I could do nothing +for him." + +And now, having given so fully such of his own impressions as remain +of the persons and places which helped to shape Father Hecker in +early manhood, we will terminate the record of this period with two +letters, one from each community, which were written him soon after +his return to New York. No words of our own could show so well the +hearty affection and implicit trust which he awakened and returned: + +"Brook Farm, September 18, 1843.--MY DEAR FRIEND: I was rejoiced to +hear from you, though you wrote too short a letter. Your beautiful +fruit, enough to convert the direst sceptic to Grahamism, together +with the pearled wheat, arrived safely, although a few days too late +to be in perfectly good order. We distributed them to all and +singular, men, women, and children, who discussed them with great +interest, I assure you; many, no doubt, with silent wishes that no +good or beautiful thing might ever be wanting to you. I am glad to +learn that you are so happy in New York, that you find so much in +your own mind to compensate for the evils of a city environment, and +that your aspirations are not quenched by the sight of the huge +disorders that daily surround you. I hardly dare to think that my own +faith or hope would be strong enough to reconcile me to a return to +common society. I should pine like an imprisoned bird, and I fear I +should grow blind to the visions of loveliness and glory which the +future promises to humanity. I long for action which shall realize +the prophecies, fulfil the Apocalypse, bring the new Jerusalem down +from heaven to earth, and collect the faithful into a true and holy +brotherhood. To attain this consummation so devoutly to be wished, I +would eat no flesh, I would drink no wine while the world lasted. I +would become as devoted an ascetic as yourself, my dear Isaac. But to +what end is all speculation, all dreaming, all questioning, but to +advance humanity, to bring forward the manifestation of the Son of +God? Oh, for men who feel this idea burning into their bones! When +shall we see them? And without them, what will be phalanxes, groups +and series, attractive industry, and all the sublime words of modern +reforms? + +"When will you come back to Brook Farm? Can you do without us? Can we +do without you? But do not come as an amateur, a self-perfectionizer, +an aesthetic self-seeker, willing to suck the orange of Association +dry and throw away the peel. Oh! that you would come as one of us, to +work in the faith of a divine idea, to toil in loneliness and tears +for the sake of the kingdom which God may build up by our hands. All +here, that is, all our old central members, feel more and more the +spirit of devotedness, the thirst to do or die, for the cause we have +at heart. We do not distrust Providence. We cannot believe that what +we have gained here of spiritual progress will be lost through want +of material resources. At present, however, we are in great straits. +We hardly dare to provide the means of keeping warm in our pleasant +nest this winter. + +"Just look at our case. With property amounting to $30,000, the want +of two or three thousands fetters us and may kill us. That sum would +free us from pecuniary embarrassment, and for want of that we work +daily with fetters on our limbs. Are there not five men in New York +City who would dare to venture $200 each in the cause of social +reform, without being assured of a Phalanx for themselves and their +children for ever? Alas! I know not. We are willing to traverse the +wilderness forty years; we ask no grapes of Eshcol for ourselves; we +do not claim a fair abode in the promised land; but what can we do, +with neither quails nor manna, with raiment waxing old, and shoes +bursting from our feet? + +"Forgive me, my dear Isaac, for speaking so much about ourselves. But +what else should I speak of? And who more sympathizing with our +movement than yourself? + +"Do not be surprised at receiving this letter so long after date. Not +less than four times have I begun it, and as often have been +interrupted. Pray write me now and then. Your words are always sweet +and pleasant to my soul. Believe me, ever yours truly, + +"GEORGE RIPLEY." + + +"Harvard, Mass., November 11, 1843.--DEAR FRIEND: Your kind letter of +the 1st came duly to hand, and we are making arrangements to enjoy +the benefit of your healthful bequest. + +"Please to accept thanks for your sympathy and the reports of persons +and things in your circle. They have interested me much but I am +about to make you the most incongruous return conceivable. For +pleasure almost unqualified which you have conferred on me, I fear I +shall trouble you with painful relations; in return for a barrel of +superfine wholesome wheat-meal, I am going to submit to you a peck of +troubles. Out of as many of these as you lovingly and freely can, you +may assist me; but, of course, you will understand that I feel I have +no claim upon you. On the contrary, indeed, I see that I run the +hazard of forfeiting your valued friendship by thus obtruding my +pecuniary concerns into our hitherto loftier communings. You know it +to be a sentiment of mine, that these affairs should never be +obtruded between aesthetic friends, but what can one do in extremity +but to unburden candidly to the generous? + +"When I bought this place, instead of paying the whole $1,800, as I +wished, $300 of my money went to pay old debts with which I ought to +have had nothing to do; and Mrs. Alcott's brother, Samuel J. May, +joined his name to a note for $300, to be paid by instalments in two +years. And now that the first instalment is due, he sends me word +that he declines paying it. As all my cash has been expended in +buying and keeping up the affair, I am left in a precarious position, +out of which I do not see the way without some loveful aid, and to +you I venture freely to submit my feelings. Above all things I should +like to discharge at once this $300 note, as unless that is done the +place must, I fear, fall back into individuality and the idea be +suspended. Now, if as much cash is loose in your pocket, or that of +some wealthy friend, there shall be parted off as much of the land as +will secure its return, from the crops alone, in a few years; or, I +would sell a piece until I can redeem it; or, I would meet the loan +in any other secure way, if I can but secure the land from the demon +usury. This mode seems to me the most desirable. But I could get +along with the instalment of $75, and would offer like security in +proportion. Or, if you can do it yourself, and would prefer the +library as a pledge, you shall select such books as will suit your +own reading and would cover your advance in cash any day you choose +to put them up to auction, if I should fail to redeem them. Or, I +would give my notes of hand that I could meet by sales of produce or +of land. If I had the benefit of your personal counsel, we could +contrive something between us, I am sure, but I have no such aid +about me. The difficulty in itself is really light, but to me, under +present circumstances, is quite formidable. If at your earliest +convenience you acquaint me with your mind, you will much oblige. + +"I have another trouble of a personal nature. I suffer already this +winter from the inclemency of the weather, so much that my hands are +so chapped that I can scarcely hold the pen. If I could find +employment in a more southern position that would support me and the +boy, and leave a little to be applied to the common good, I would +undertake it. I think I could at the same time be of some mental and +moral service to the people where I might be located. + +"Another trouble. Young William has been very ill for the last month, +brought on, I believe, by excessive work. He is still very weak, and +has not sat up for three weeks. + +"All these, besides sundry slighter plagues, coming upon me at once, +have perhaps a little disconcerted my nerves, and the advice and +assistance of a generous friend at such a juncture would be indeed +serviceable. If the journey were not so long and so costly I would +ask you to come. Be assured that whatever may be your decision in any +of these relations, my esteem for you cannot be thereby diminished. +My only fear is that such encroachments on your good nature will +reduce your estimation of, dear friend, yours most sincerely, + +"CHARLES LANE. + +"Regards to the Doctor and all friends. The Shakers have kindly +inquired for you, and they still take much interest in our life. Have +you seen the last _Dial?_ The _Present_ is good, but surely not good +enough. I hope to write a more universal letter in response to your +next, for which I wait." + +Poor Lane, failing to find any equally confiding and generous friend +to shoulder with him the personal debts of the founder of Fruitlands, +was compelled at last to let the farm "lapse into individuality" and +to see "the idea suspended." In his next and "more universal letter" +he announces that the experiment is ended in consequence of Mrs. +Alcott's refusal to remain on the place through the winter. Lane went +over to the neighboring Shaker community, and from there to England, +where Father Hecker met him during his own residence at Clapham, +after his ordination. His letters followed Father Hecker for several +years, and breathe always the same unselfishness, the same simple +trust in human goodness, and the same fondness for speculations on +"the universal." + +________________________ + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +SELF-QUESTIONINGS + +NOT finding any solution of his spiritual difficulties at either +Fruitlands or Brook Farm, Isaac Hecker turned his face once more +toward the home from which he had departed nearly a year before. He +expected little from this step, but his state of mind was now one in +which he had begun to anticipate, at any turn, some light on the +dispositions of Providence in his regard which might determine his +course for good and all. And, meantime, as patient waiting was all +that lay in his own power, it seemed the wisest course to yield to +the solicitations of his kindred and abide results in his own place. +He did not go there at once, however, after quitting Alcott's +community, but returned to Brook Farm for a fortnight. His journal +during this period offers many pages worthy of transcription. + +It is possible that we have readers who may deem us too copious in +our quotations from this source. But, if wearisome to any, yet they +are necessary to those for whom this Life is especially written. The +lessons to be learned from Father Hecker are mainly those arising +from the interaction between God's supernatural dealings with him, +and his own natural characteristics. This fact, moreover, is typical +as well as personal, for the great question of his day, which was the +dawning of our own, was the relation of the natural man to the +regenerating influences of Christianity. This being so, it is plain +to our own mind that no adequate representation of the man could be +made without a free use of these early journals. They seem to us one +of the chief Providential results of the spiritual isolation of his +youth. He was in a manner driven to this intimate self-communing, on +one hand by his never-satisfied craving for sympathetic companionship, +and on the other by his complete unacquaintance with a kind of +reading which even at this point might have shed some light upon his +interior difficulties. In later years he enjoyed, in the study of +accredited Christian mystics, that kind of satisfaction which a +traveller experiences who, after long wanderings in what had seemed a +trackless desert, obtains a map which not only makes his whole route +plain, but assures him that he did not stray from well-known paths +even during his times of most extreme bewilderment. + +That the diary has the character we here claim for it, and is not the +mere ordinary result of a morbid and aimless introspection, is +plainly shown by the speedy cessation of excessive self-analysis on +Father Hecker's part, after he had actually reached the goal to which +he was at this period alternately sweetly led and violently driven. +But it is also shown by the deep humility which is revealed precisely +by this sharp probing of his interior. Though he felt himself in +touch with God in some special way, yet it was with so little pride +that it was his profound conviction, as it remained, indeed, +throughout his life, that what he had all had or might have. But the +study of his interior thus forced upon him was far from a pleasing +task. "It is exceedingly oppressive to me to write as I now do," we +find him complaining; "continually does myself appear in my writing. +I would that my I were wholly lost in the sea of the Spirit--wholly +lost in God." + +We preface the subjoined extract from the diary with the remark that +Father Hecker's reading of signs of the Divine will in men and events +often brought him to the verge of credulity, over which he was +prevented from stepping by his shrewd native sense. Though he +insisted all his life on interpreting them as signal flags of the +Divine wisdom, this did not hinder him from gaining a reputation for +sound practical judgment: + +"Brook Farm, July 31, 1843.--Man is the symbol of all mysteries. Why +is it that all things seem to me to be instinct with prophecy? I do +not see any more individual personalities, but priests and oracles of +God. The age is big with a prophecy which it is in labor to give +birth to." + +"My experience is different now from what it has been. It is much +fuller; every fibre of my being seems teeming with sensitive life. I +am in another atmosphere of sentiment and thought. . . . I have less +real union and sympathy with _her,_ and with those whom I have met +much nearer heretofore. It appears as if their atmosphere was denser, +their life more natural, more in the flesh. Instead of meeting them +on my highest, I can only do so by coming down into my body, of which +it seems to me that I am now almost unconscious. There is not that +sense of heaviness, dulness, fleshliness, in me. I experience no +natural desires, no impure thoughts, nor wanderings of fancy. Still, +I feel more intensely, and am filled to overflowing with love, and +with desire for union. But there is no one to meet me where I am, and +I cannot meet them where they are." + +All his life Father Hecker was on the lookout for the great human +influences which run across those of religion, either to swell their +volume or to lessen their force. These are mainly the transmissions +of heredity, and the environments that are racial, temporal, epochal, +or local. This enduring tendency is foreshadowed in the following +extracts: + +"August 2, 1843.--I have been thinking much of late about the very +great influence which nationality and the family progenitors have +upon character. Men talk of universality, impartiality, +many-sidedness, free judgment, unbiased opinion, and so on, when in +reality their national and family dispositions are the centre and +ground of their being, and hence of their opinions. They appear to be +most themselves when they show these traits of character. They are +most natural and earnest and at home when they speak from this link +which binds them to the past. Then their hearts are opened, and they +speak with a glow of eloquence and a peculiar unction which touch the +same chord in the breasts of those who hear them. It is well for man +to feel his indebtedness to the past which lives in him and without +which he would not be what he is. He is far more its creature than he +gives himself credit for. He reproduces daily the sentiments and +thoughts of the dim and obscure before. There are certain ideas and +aspirations which have not had their fulfilment, but which run +through all men from the beginning and which are continually +reproduced. There is a unity of race, called Humanity; one of place, +called Nationality; one of birth, called Kindred; one of affinity, +called Love and Friendship. By all these we are greatly influenced. +They all make their mark upon the man." + +"The faculties which take cognizance of the inner world have been +awakened in only a few of the human race, and these, to distinguish +them, have been called prophets, miracle-workers, Providential men, +seers, and poets. Now, their privilege is that of all men in a +greater or less degree, just as is the case with regard to the +faculties which relate to the outward world. For when men in general +were as ignorant about the exterior world as they now are about the +interior, the men of science, the astronomers, the mathematicians, +the founders of the arts, were held to be miraculous, gods, and they +were deified. What any one man (and this is a most comfortable and +cheering thought) has been or has done, all men may in a measure be +or do, for each is a type, a specimen of the whole human race. If it +is said in reply, 'These miracles or great acts, which you hold as +actual, are mere superstitious dreams,' I care not. That would be +still more glorious for us, for then they are still to be performed, +they are in the coming time, these divine prophetic instincts are yet +to be actualized. The dreams of Orpheus, the inspired strains of the +Hebrew bards, and, above all, the prophecies of Christ, are before +us. The divine instincts will be realized as surely as there is a God +above who inspires them. It is the glory of God that they should be +so; it is His delight. This world must become heaven. This is its +destiny; and our destiny, under God, is to make it so. Prophecy is +given to encourage and nourish our hopes and feed our joys, so that +we may say with Job, 'I know that although worms shall eat this +flesh, and my bones become dust, yet at the latter day I shall see my +Redeemer face to face.'" + +The sentences which follow can be paralleled by words taken from all +who have truly interpreted the doctrine of Christ by their lives or +their writings: + +"To him that has faith all things are possible, for faith is an act +of the soul; thy faith is the measure of thy power." + +"If men would act from the present inspiration of their souls they +would gain more knowledge than they do by reading or speculating." + +"No man in his heart can ask for more than he has. Think of this +deeply. God is just. We have what we ought to have, even according to +our own sense of justice." + +"The desire to love and be beloved, to have friends with whom we can +converse, to enter society which we enjoy--is it not best to deny and +sacrifice these desires? It may be said that, gratified, they add to +life, and the question is how to increase life, not how to diminish +it. But by denying them, would not our life gain by flowing in a more +heavenly direction?" + +"We are daily feeding the demons that are in us by our wicked +thoughts and sinful acts; these are their meat and drink. I make them +gasp sometimes. My heart laughs quite merrily to think of it. When I +am hungry, and there is something tempting on the table, hunger, like +a serpent, comes creeping up into my throat and laps its dry tongue +with eagerness for its prey, but it often returns chagrined at its +discomfiture." + +"That which tempts us we should deny, no matter how innocent it is in +itself. If it tempts, away with it, until it tempts no more. Then +partake of it, for it is then only that you can do so prudently and +with temperance." + +"All our thoughts and emotions are caused by some agent acting on us. +This is true of all the senses and the spiritual faculties. Hence we +should by all possible means purify and refine our organism, so that +we may hear the most delicate, the sweetest, the stillest sounds and +murmurings of the angels who are about us. How much fuller and richer +would be our life if we were more acutely sensitive and finely +textured! How many exquisite delights nature yields which we are not +yet aware of! What a world surrounds us of which none but holy men, +prophets, and poets have had a glimpse!" + +"The soul is a plate on which the senses daguerreotype indelibly +pictures of the outer world. How cautious should we be where we look, +what we hear, what smell, or feel, or taste! And how we should +endeavor that all around us should be made beautiful, musical, +fragrant, so that our souls may be awakened to a divine sense of life +without a moment's interruption!" + +"O God, be Thou my helper, my strength and my redeemer! May I live +wholly to Thee; give me grace and obedience to Thy Spirit. May all +self be put from me so that I may enter into the glorious liberty of +the sons of God, Awaken me, raise me up, restore me, O Jesus Christ, +Lord, Heavenly King!" + +In reading what next follows it must be remembered that at the time +when it was written Isaac Hecker had absolutely no knowledge of +Catholic mystical theology. It is since that day that English-speaking +Catholics have had access to the great authorities on this subject +through adequate translations. But what little he had learned from +other sources, combined with his own intuitional and experimental +knowledge of human capabilities for penetrating the veil, had already +furnished him with conclusions which nothing in his devoted study of +Catholic mystical writers forced him to lay aside: + +"Belief in the special guidance of God has been the faith of all +deeply religious men. I will not dispute the fact that some men are +so guided, but will offer an explanation of it which seems to me to +reconcile it with the regular order of laws established by God. My +explanation would be that this guidance is not a miraculous power, +specially bestowed upon some men, but merely a higher degree of +ordinary divine guidance. Our ordinary life is inspired; the other is +only a higher degree of what is common to all. The evil which arises +from the contrary opinion is this: men who have received a higher +degree of insight believe that it is a special miraculous gift, and +that all they may say is infallibly true, whereas they still retain +their own individuality though raised to a purer state of being. They +have not been so raised in order to found new sects, or to cause +revolutions, but to fulfil the old, continue and carry it on as far +as they have been given light to do so. In forming new sects they but +reproduce their own individualities with all their errors. So +Swedenborg did, and Wesley, men of modern times who were awakened in +a greater degree than the mass of their fellows. Their mistake lay in +their attempt to make universal ends out of their individual +experiences. In the ordinary state no man does this, but these, being +lifted a little above the mass, became intoxicated. The only one, so +far as I have read, who has had humility equal to his inspiration was +Jacob Boehmen. Luther, Calvin, Fox, Penn, Swedenborg, Wesley, had +self in view. Selfism is mixed with their universalism. None has +spoken truth so pure and universal as Boehmen. He is the most +inspired man of modern times. He had more love and truth than all the +other mystics put together, and fewer faults than either one of them +taken singly." + +________________________ + + + + +CHAPTER X + +AT HOME AGAIN + +IT was the middle of August, 1843, when Isaac Hecker once more took +up his residence with his family in New York. His first endeavor was +to sink back again as far as possible into the old routine of +business. + +"To-morrow I commence to work," he writes on the evening of his +return. "My interior state is quiet and peaceful. I have not met any +one yet. My dear mother understands me better than any one else. How +far business will interfere with my inner life remains to be seen. O +Lord! help me to keep my resolution, which is not to let the world +enter my heart, but to keep it looking toward Thee! My heart has been +in a constant prayerful state since I have been at home. It is busy +in its own sanctuary, its own temple, God. O Lord! preserve it." + +One of the first noteworthy things revealed by the diary--which from +this time on was kept with less regularity than before--is that Isaac +not only maintained his abstemious habits after his return, but +increased their rigor. For a robust man, working hard for many hours +out of every twenty-four, and deprived of all the pleasant +relaxations, literary, conversational and musical, to which he had +been accustoming himself for many months, the choice of such a diet +as is described in the following sentences was certainly +extraordinary: + +"August 30.--If the past nine months or more are any evidence, I find +that I can live on very simple diet--grains, fruit, and nuts. I have +just commenced to eat the latter; I drink pure water. So far I have +had wheat ground and made into unleavened bread, but as soon as we +get in a new lot, I shall try it in the grain." + +He had evidently at this time a practical conviction of the truth of +a principle which, in after years, he repeated to the present writer +in the form of a maxim of the transcendentalists: "A gross feeder +will never be a central thinker." It is a truth of the spiritual no +less than of the intellectual order. A little later we come upon the +following profession of a vegetarian faith, which will be apt to +amuse as well as to edify the reader: + +"_Reasons for not eating animal food._ + +"It does not feed the spirit. + +"It stimulates the propensities. + +"It is taking animal life when the other kingdoms offer sufficient +and better increment. + +"Slaughter strengthens the lower instincts. + +"It is the chief cause of the slavery of the kitchen. + +"It generates in the body the diseases animals are subject to, and +encourages in man their bestiality. + +"Its odor is offensive and its appearance unaesthetic." + +The apprehension under which he had labored, that city life would +present many temptations which he would find it difficult to +withstand, appears to have been unfounded. Some few social +relaxations he now and then permitted himself, but they were mostly +very sober-toned. "Last evening I attended a Methodist love-feast," +is his record of one of these. "In returning I stopped at the ward +political meeting." Then he notes that although the business he +follows is especially full of temptations--as no doubt it was to a +man keeping so tight a rein over his most natural and legitimate +appetites--he feels deeply grateful that, so far, he has had no need +to fear his being led away. "What yet remains?" he adds. "My diet is +all purchased and all produced by hired labor. I suppose that slave +labor produces almost all my dress. And I cannot say that I am +rightly conditioned until all I eat, drink, and wear is produced by +love." + +It was a vivid recollection of these early efforts after an ascetic +perfection which had neither guide nor definite plan, which prompted +the following vigorous self-appreciation, made by Father Hecker two +years before his death. He had been speaking of some of his youthful +experiments in this direction, and ended with an amused laugh and the +ejaculation, + +"Thank God! He led me into the Catholic Church. If it hadn't been for +that I should have been one of the worst cranks in the world." + +Here are two expressions taken from the diary of a permanent fact of +Father Hecker's individuality. They help to explain why he was +misunderstood by many in later years: + +"Men have fear to utter absurdities. The head is sceptical of the +divine oracles of the heart, and before she utters them she clothes +them in such a fantastic dress that men hear the words but lose the +life, the thought." + +"We often act to be understood by the heart, not by the head; and +when the head speaks of its having understood, we deny its +understanding. It is the secret sympathy of the heart which is the +only response that is looked for. Speech is cold, profane." + +This must recall, to those who were intimate with Father Hecker, how +often he arrived at his own convictions by discussing them with +others while they were yet but partially formed. It is a custom with +many to do so, mind assisting mind, negation provoking affirmation, +doubt vanishing with the utterance of the truth. In Father Hecker's +case his perfect frankness led him, when among his own friends, to +utter half-formed ideas, sometimes sounding startling and erroneous, +but spoken with a view to get them into proper shape. At such times +it required patience to know just what he meant, for he never found +it the easiest to employ terms whose meaning was conventional. + +By the first of September such faint hopes as Isaac had entertained +of adapting himself to the conditions of his home in New York were +well-nigh dissipated. But a certain natural timidity, joined with the +still complete uncertainty he felt as to what his true course should +be, made him dissemble his disquiet so long as it was bearable. After +a month or two, by a mutual agreement between his brothers and +himself which exonerated him from much of the manual labor which they +still shared with the men in their employment, he devoted himself to +an occupation more accordant to his mind. He set to work to make +single beds and private rooms for the workmen, contriving various +conveniences and means of occasional solitude for them, and in other +ways doing all in his power to achieve for them the privileges he +found so necessary for himself. Of these efforts we get occasional +glimpses in the diary. But it is, in the main, devoted to more +impersonal and larger topics, and the facts of his daily employment, +as just given, have been gained from other sources. + +"September 1.--There are two ways in which the spirit may live itself +out. One is to leave all these conditions, purchase a spot of ground, +and live according to its daily dictates. The other is to make these +conditions as harmonic as possible by giving the men" (workmen) "an +associative interest in the accumulations of our associative labor. +Both extremes require renunciation of property and of self. Love, +universal love is the ruler, and only by it can the spirit find peace +or be crowned with the highest happiness." + +"The mystery of man's being, the unawakened capacities in him, we are +not half aware of. A few of the race, the prophets, sages, and poets, +give us a glimpse of his high destiny. Alas! that men should be on +the borders of such mighty truths and stand as blind and dumb as +lower animals before them!" + +"Balaam sometimes, but ignorantly, utters true prophecies. A remark I +heard to-day leads me to say this. Speaking of diet a man said: 'Why, +what do you intend? At last you will have men to live on God.' We +must become God-like, or God-full. Live as He lives, become one with +Him. Until we are reconciled with our Father we are aliens, +prodigals. Until we can say, My Father and I are one, we have not +commenced to be. We must fulfil what the Apostle said (and it means, +perhaps, more than we commonly imagine): 'In God we live and move and +have our being.'" + +"The deeper and more profound a truth is, the less proof can you give +in its support." + +"September 8.--On the evening of the 6th I went to see the French +Opera Company in Auber's 'Black Domino.' It did not please me as well +as some music I have heard, though parts of it were very beautiful. +The hymns of the nuns were very sweet. The thought occurred to me +that if the Church does not provide religious gratifications for the +true wants of humanity, she must be silent if men feed them +profanely. It is because the Church has not done her duty that there +are so many secular societies for Reformation, Temperance, and so on. +The Church has provided for the salvation of the sinner's soul by +means of spiritual acts, such as prayer, penance, the Eucharist and +other sacraments. But now she must provide terrestrial sacraments for +the salvation and transfiguration of the body." + +"We should strive constantly to actualize the ideal we perceive. When +we do realize all the beauty and holiness that we see, we are not +called to deny ourselves, for then we are living as fully on all +sides as we have capacity to do. Are we not in this state? Then, if +we are sincere, we will give up lower and unnecessary gratifications +for the sake of the ideal we have in view. + +"I would die to prove my immortality." + +"At times we are called to rely on Providence, to be imprudent and +reckless according to the wisdom of the world. So I am willing to be +thought. Each of us has an individual character to act out, _under +the inspiration of God,_ and this is the highest and noblest we can +do. We are forms differing from one another, and if we are acting +under the inspirations of the Highest, we are doing our uttermost; +more the angels do not. What tends to hinder us from realizing the +ideal which our vision sees must be denied, be it self, wealth, +opinion, or death." + +"The Heart says, 'Be all that you can.' The Intellect says, 'When you +are all that you can be--what then?'" + +"Infinite love is the basis of the smallest act of love, and when we +love with our whole being, we are in and one with God." + +"To love is to lose one's self and gain God. To be all in love is to +be one with God." + +"When the Spirit begets us, we are no more; the Spirit is, and there +is nothing else." + +"There is much debauchery in speaking wilfully. + +"Every act of self is sin, is a lie. + +"The Spirit will lead you into solitude and silence if it has +something to teach you. + +"You must be born again to know the truth. It cannot be inculcated. + +"To educate is to bring forth, not to put in. To put in is death; +to flow out is life." + +Lest the reader may have got an impression, from any of the extracts +already given, that Isaac Hecker was puffed up by the pride of his +own innocence, we transcribe what follows. It shows that he did not +fall under the Apostle's condemnation: "If we say that we have no +sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." It was +written on the last Sunday of September, and, after this long +outpouring of confession, longing, and weakness, the diary was not +again resumed for nearly a month. The desire expressed in its second +paragraph for the kind of spiritual refreshment which in after years +he so often enjoyed under the name of a "retreat," seems noteworthy. + +"September 24, 1843.--The human heart is wicked above all things. The +enemy of man is subtle and watchful beyond conception. Instead of +being on the way of goodness, I am just finding out the wickedness of +my nature, its crookedness, its impurity, its darkness. I want deep +humility and forgetfulness of self. I am just emerging out of gross +darkness and my sight is but dim, so that my iniquities are not +wholly plain to my vision. + +"At present I feel as if a week of quiet silence would be the means +of opening more deeply the still flowing fountains of divine life. I +would cut off all relations but that of my soul with the Spirit--all +others seem intrusions, worldly, frivolous. The inpouring of the +Spirit is checked by so much attention to other than divine things. +In the bustle and noisy confusion its voice is unheard. + +"I feel that one of my greatest weaknesses, because it leads me to so +much sin, is my social disposition. It draws me so often into +perilous conversations, and away from silence and meditation with the +Spirit. Lately I have felt almost ready to say that good works are a +hindrance to the gate of heaven. Pride and self-approbation are so +often mixed with them. I feel that nothing has been spoken against +the vain attempt to trust in good works which my soul does not fully +accord with. This is a new, a very new experience for me." + +The foregoing must be understood in the sense of good works hindering +better works. Isaac Hecker felt his noblest aspirations to be, for +the moment at any rate, towards solitude and the passive state of +prayer; and in this he was hindered by the urgency of his zeal for +the propagation of philanthropic schemes and his great joy in +communing with men whom he hoped to find like-minded with himself. The +time came when he was able to Join the two states, the inner +purifying the outer man and directing his energies by the instinct of +the Holy Spirit. This entry goes on as follows: + +"By practice of our aspirations, ideals, and visions, we convert them +into real being. + +"We should be able to say, 'Which of you convinceth me of sin?' +before we are fit to preach to others in such a way that our +preaching may have a practical effect upon society. + +"Did all our efforts flow into realizing the teachings of the Spirit, +we should do much more good and be greater in the sight of God than +we are now by so much speaking and writing. But let us be watchful +that the pride of good works does not take the place of that of +speaking and writing. + +"By our sins and many weaknesses we are prevented from entering the +Promised Land, and must die just in sight of it. Instead of being +humble, willing, and self-denying in our youth, and being led by the +Spirit of God, we keep on in the spirit of the world and give all the +substance of our being to its service. And when we are nearly worn +out we flee to God, and die, perhaps, in sight of heaven, instead of +having been among its inhabitants, living in it upon earth, in the +full bloom of our youthful joy of life. . . . + +"The Lord has been good to me and my heart is filled with His warm +love. Blessed be Thou, O God! for Thou hast given me a taste of Thy +sweetness. Thou hast given me gratitude and thankfulness and an +overflowing heart of praise. I would stand still and shout and bless +God. It is God in us that believes in God. Without the light of God +we should be in total darkness, and He is the only source of light. +The more of God we have in us, the more we see beyond us. + +"Thy inspiration, O God! is love and wisdom. In Thee they are one, as +light and warmth are in the fire. + +"Thou art the true, eternal food of life, and he that has tasted Thee +can never be at rest until he is wholly filled with Thee. Lord, when +we are without Thee we are lost, dead, in darkness. It is in and by +Thy presence that we live and move and have our being. + +"Ever more, O Lord, increase Thy Spirit in us until between as there +is no more we or Thee, but Thou, O Father, art all! + +"Like the fixed light in a crystal which flashes back the light of +the sun, so does the soul of man reflect God. + +"A good life consists in passive as well as active virtues. + +"O Lord, so fill me that nothing shall be left but Thee, and I may be +no more." + +One would be tempted to believe that none but a master in the +spiritual life could have written the sentences which immediately +follow this outburst of love and praise. Yet remember that Isaac +Hecker was not yet twenty-four, and that he knew nothing of the ways +of the Spirit except what the Spirit Himself had directly taught him: + +"The reason why men are perplexed and in darkness about their being +and the questions which their being often asks, is not that these are +insoluble, but that the disposition and spirit in which a solution is +attempted is so contrary to that in which they may be solved, that +they appear as hidden mysteries. + +"When we come together to converse, it should be to learn from each +other what good we can and ought to do, and so mingle the brightness +of one with the dimness of the other. Our meetings should be such +that we should go away feeling that God had been with us and +multiplied our blessings. The question should be, 'Brother, can you +teach me the way of the Lord in a more perfect manner than that in +which I tread it, so that my soul may be increased and God abide in +me more and more?' Oh! he is my brother, my master, who leads me to +do more and more good and to love and live more of God. He that does +not increase my heart in love or my mind in true godly wisdom, is +unprofitable and negatively injurious to me. + +"Wilfulness locks up while willingness" (docility) "unlocks the +portal to the divine mysteries of God. I would not attempt to solve a +mystery by intellect, but by being." + +"October 17.--It is some time since I have written in this book. All +my spare time has been occupied in writing letters to my friends, +meditating, feeling, arranging matters with my brothers regarding our +relations with each other, and attending to the business. I have had +little time to read and to visit my friends. Since I have written my +feelings have become more definite, my thoughts clearer and more +distinct, and my whole mind more systematic. . . . + +"The settlement which has been made with my brothers gives me the +opportunity of doing what my spirit has long demanded of me. This +afternoon I have been working on their bedroom, making it larger and +more pleasant for their minds. This is the first movement I have made +toward ameliorating their condition. I hope that God will give me +strength to continue." + +"October 18.--I feel this afternoon a deep want in my soul +unsatisfied by my circumstances here, the same as I experienced last +winter when I was led from this place. It is at the very depth of my +being. Ah, it is deeply stirred! Oh, could I utter the aching void I +feel within! Could I know what would fill it! Alas! nothing that can +be said, no, nothing, can touch the aching spot. In silence I must +remain and let it ache. I would cover myself with darkness and hide +my face from the light. Oh, could I but call upon the Lord! Could I +but say, Father! Could I feel any relationship!" + +"November 3.--All things considered, could I, under any +circumstances, have more opportunities for self-culture and for doing +good than I have in my present position? + +"For one thing, there is too much demand on me for physical action. +My heart and head have not their share of time. But when I consider, +I am at a loss to know how we can possibly diminish our business in +any way without a still greater demand on us for physical labor in +consequence of diminishing it. + +"Yesterday afternoon I went alone in my bedroom and I was led to +pray, and to think what more I can do for the friends around me than +I now do. This morning I arose and prayed, and felt determined not to +let any outward event disturb my inward life; that nothing should +ruffle my inward peace, and that this day should be one of interior +life, let come what would. + +"Often I think of my past life and my present with such a strength of +emotion that I would cry aloud, 'O Heaven help me from my course! +This is not the life I would lead, but how shall I change it? O Lord! +wilt Thou guide me and lead me, no matter what pain or distress I may +have to pass through, to the true path Thou wouldst have me go in? +Oh! I thank Thee for all Thou hast in any way inflicted on me; it has +been to me the greatest blessing I could have received. And, O Lord! +chasten me more, for I need it. How shall I live so that I may be the +best I can be under any conditions? If those in which I now am are +not the best, where shall I go or how shall I change them? Teach me, +O Lord! and hear my humble prayer.'" + +The following account of his curious inner experiences tells of the +positive interference of God and His angels, supplementing the calmer +moods in which Isaac longed for and struggled towards the settled +condition only to be attained after his entering the Church. + +"November 5.--How is it and why is it that I feel around me the +constant presence of invisible beings who affect my sensibility, and +with whom I converse, as it were, in thought and feeling, but not in +expression? At times they so move me that I would escape them, if I +could, by running away from where I am. I can scarcely keep still; I +feel like beating, raving, and grasping what I know not. Ah! it is an +unearthly feeling, and painfully afflicts my heart. How to get rid of +it I do not know. If I remain quietly where I am, by collecting its +scattered rays it burns more deeply into my soul, bringing forth deep +sighs, groans, and at times demanding all my energy to repress an +unnatural howl. + +"How shall I escape this? By remaining here and trying to bear it, or +by travelling? To do the latter has often occurred to me of late. By +such a cause I was driven from home last winter. What the result will +be this time I cannot tell; but if I did know, I would not wait, as I +did then, until it came on me with such power as to be torturing in +the extreme. Ah, what nervous strength and energy I feel at such +times! If I speak of it to my brothers, they cannot understand me, +never having had the same experience. My timidity, which does not +wish to be thought of as desiring anything extra on account of my +life, makes me bear it until it is unendurable. Hence I am silent so +long as it does not speak for itself, which extremity might be +prevented were circumstances other than they are. Since they are not, +let it be borne with, say strength and resignation united with hope. +'Tis this that is fabled in Prometheus and Laocooen--and how well +fabled, too." + + It is significant that after every extraordinary disturbance, such +as the above, he experienced the impulse to study the credentials of +claimants in the outer religious world, the envoys of the Deity to +man; and this especially concerning the Catholic Church. He goes on +at once to say: + +"Of late I have felt more disposed to look into church matters than +for six months past. Last evening I made a visit to the Rev. Mr. +Haight" (an Episcopal clergyman) "and conversed with him about that +subject for an hour and a half. We differed very little in our +opinions. If the Church of Rome has fallen into corruptions from her +over-warmth, the Anglican has neglected some of her duties through +her coldness. And if the Anglican receives the first five or six +councils as legitimate and rejects the Council of Trent as not a full +one, still, as an individual, I think Rome did not establish or +enjoin anything in those decrees" (the Tridentine) "which was not in +harmony with the Spirit of Christ, the Scriptures, and tradition. But +the Anglican thinks she has, and hence, in his judgment, they are +unwarrantable and unnecessary." + +"November 15.--How does Jesus commune with Humanity through the +Church? Does He now commune with the Church? Was the life given by +Him to His immediate disciples all that has been given and +transmitted to us, or does He now commune with the visible Church? +And how? He promised to be with His disciples even unto the end of +the world, to send the Comforter who should lead them into all truth, +and to intercede for us with the Father. The Church holds that its +sacraments and forms are the visible means for communing with the +invisible--that grace is imparted through them to the worthy +receiver. Is it true that such grace is imparted? If it is, it will +be shown by its fruits. Contrast the Catholic who believes most in +the sacraments with the Quaker who does not believe in them at all as +religious or moral forces. Certainly, if the sacraments have any +beneficial effect, it should be shown in the contrast between those +who totally deny their efficacy and those who religiously believe in +them. Now, does this show what one would naturally expect to flow +from faith in the sacraments? + +"November 20.--I feel in better health than I have ever had, both +mind and body, having at the same time an increased sensitiveness, so +that the touch of any one I cannot bear. Also, I am conscious of a +more constant spiritual communion. I feel more vividly and distinctly +the influence and presence--spiritual presence--of others. + +"I lie down in my bed at night with the same feelings with which I +rise in the morning. I anticipate as much from one as from the other. +The events, emotions, and thoughts which come in my sleep are as much +a part of my real life as those of the day. Waking and sleeping are +two forms of existence. To me the latter state is full of interest +and expectation. The two states mutually act upon each other. . . . + +"Hope, Faith, Wish, are the presentiments of sight, the evidences of +becoming sight to the senses. They are the forerunners of vision. It +is by them we know. . . . + +"To believe is to see, not with the senses but with the higher +faculties of the soul, reason, imagination, hope. . . . + +"I believe that every faculty may be elevated to the state of +prophecy. + +"Reasoning is faith struggling with doubt." + +________________________ + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +STUDYING AND WAITING + +THAT "movable feast," Thanksgiving Day, gave Isaac occasion for +making this examination of conscience at five o'clock in the morning: + +"When I cast my eyes back, it seems to me that I have made some +progress--that I have grown somewhat better than I was. Thoughts, +feelings, and passions which were active in my bosom, and which, in +truth, were not to be well-spoken of, have given place, I hope, to a +better state of mind. + +"How am I now actualizing my spiritual life? It would be hard for me +to answer at this moment. Am I less wilful? Do I sacrifice more than +I did? Am I more loving? I am afraid that I am doing nothing more +than I did; and therefore I took up this book to give an account of +myself. + +"Study occupies the best part of my time most generally. I recite +lessons in Latin and in German every day, and now intend to study +English grammar again. Then I read considerable, and write letters to +my friends. All this, added to the hours I have to spend in business, +leaves me not sufficient time to meditate; and there is no +opportunity here for me to go into a retired, silent place, where I +can be perfectly still, which is what has the most internal effect on +me, and the best and most lasting. Two things I should and must do +for my own soul's sake: speak less, and think less of my friends. To +do this will give me a retired place and an opportunity for silence +in the midst of all that is around me. + +"I feel that I am not doing anything to ameliorate the social +condition of those around me who are under my influence and partial +control. Just now there seems a stand-still in this direction. The +Spirit promises to teach us in all things: what more would it have me +do in this way? What should be my next step? My mind has been +partially drawn away from this by the present poor state of business, +which keeps us cramped in our funds. + +"I fear that to take less food than I now do would injure my +health--else I should fast often. + +"To-day let me put in practice the two above-mentioned duties: +silence, and less thought upon my friends. + +"And now, O God! If Thou helpest not I shall be worse than before. +Heavenly Father, as the lower depends on the light and warmth of the +sun for its grace and beauty, so, and much more, do I depend on Thee +for life and progress. O Lord! from the depths of my heart I would +implore Thee to aid me in all good intentions. My heart overflows +with its fulness of gratitude for what Thou hast done for me, and I +know Thou wilt not shorten Thy hand. Thy beauty, Thy loveliness, O +God! is beyond our finite vision, far above our expression. Lord, all +I can utter is, Help my weakness." + +"December 2, 1843.--My heart, these two days back, has been filled +with love. Oh, had I some one to whom I could unbosom myself! There +is a something that affects my heart which is invisible, and to me +strange." + +Here he seems to intend the literal, physical heart, making it the +scene, at the same time, of a spiritual emotion. On the same day he +writes: + +"I will not feed my body with impure food--is it not of infinitely +more importance that I should not feed my spirit with deeds of +impurity? By this I mean my gaining a living by making and selling +articles which, in my judgment, are injurious, being luxurious and +altogether unnecessary. Should I cease from doing that which is +contrary to my spirit, what else should I do? O Lord, enlighten Thou +my path!" + +With what zeal he still persisted in the practice of bodily +mortification this entry bears witness: + +"December 6.--Day before yesterday I fasted and took a cold +shower-bath. My diet is apples, potatoes, nuts, and unleavened bread. +No water--scarcely a mouthful a week." + +Then follow some thoughts on the solidarity of humanity, which +retards individual progress by weighting each with the burdens of all +others. He finds in this an explanation of the truth that our Lord +took all the sins of men upon Himself and suffered for them on the +cross. The blind ingratitude with which this sacrifice has been +repaid cuts him with anguish, from which he rises into this cry of +love and adoration: + +"O Lord! my heart is choked from the utterance of its depth of +thankfulness. O dear Christ! O sweet Christ! O loving Christ! oh, +more than brother, friend! oh, more than any other being can be! O +Son of God! oh, Thou who showest forth the pure love of God! oh, Thou +inexpressible Love! draw me nearer Thee, let me feel more of Thy +purity, Thy love! Oh, baptize me with Thy Spirit and loosen my tongue +that I may speak of Thy love to men! Oh, it cannot be spoken of, nor +can our hearts feel its greatness. God! what is Thy mercy that Thou +sufferest us to live? Our ingratitude is too great to be uttered. +Lord, I am silent, for who can speak in Thy presence? O Father! O +Love! O Loving-kindness! My heart could fly away!" + +On his birthday, December 18, 1843, having finished his twenty-third +year, he puts down an account of conscience in the form of prayers +and aspirations to God, breathing a deep sense of humility, +expressing regret for his inactivity, his lack of gratitude for +favors both spiritual and temporal, and adding a fervent appeal for +more light and greater courage. In almost every entry of any length +in the diary during this period he complains of his lack of solitude +and of the means of obtaining it. His mind, after arriving home, was +tossed with many interior distresses which he could not communicate +to his brothers, nor even to his mother, with any hope of +assuagement, but which silence and solitude enabled him to soothe by +prayer. On the last day of the year he reverts to the great changes +which 1843 had witnessed in his soul, and which, he says, were +accompanied by bitter anguish. Twelve months before he had been with +his "dear friend, 0, A. Brownson, filled with an unknown spirit, +driven from home by it, and like one intoxicated, not knowing who I +was or wherefore I was so troubled"--then to Brook Farm, and to +Fruitlands, and back again in New York for the previous five or six +months, the same spirit still in sovereign mastery over him, and, +"though regulated, none the less powerful." He says that he is not so +restless nor his mind so chaotic, but that he still has a pain at +heart which he declares to be almost unbearable, joined to some +nervous excitability. + +Meantime, besides trying to employ himself actively in the business +of the Hecker Brothers, he recited lessons daily in both German and +Latin, and read much, chiefly on topics suggested by the difficulties +with which his life was beset, such as philosophy, religious +controversy, and the graver sorts of poetry, of which that of Goethe +made a deep impression on him. The melancholy unrest and longing +which such poetry embodies sunk into his very heart. Often it gave +perfect expression to his own doubting and distressed state of soul. +He also found some relaxation in an occasional visit to the theatre +and heard nearly all the lectures given in the city. One of the +dreams of his life, the amelioration of the social condition of the +working people, he found himself unable to actualize in any +appreciable degree. It is evident that his brothers shared his +philanthropic views; but when it came to set practically to work +there was a lack of harmony. John Hecker was for attaining the object +by stricter discipline, treating the men rather as servants; while +"we," says Isaac, speaking of himself and George, "took the side of +treating them with kindness, and, as far as possible, as brethren." +In truth, it was evidence of nobility of character in these three +brothers that they could so much as dream of actualizing so radical a +social reform in but one establishment amidst so many in ardent +business competition with each other. It may be said in passing that +the practical charity of the Hecker Brothers continued to do credit +to the spirit which originally prompted their attempts at social +reform. During a period of general distress some years since they +distributed bread free, sending their own wagons around the city for +the purpose. + +No small part of Isaac's distress arose from what the diary calls the +ugliness, vulgarity, and discord everywhere to be met with in his +daily round of duties. He had one refuge from this in his domestic +life--a pleasant, pure, and peaceful home; and another in the inner +chamber of his soul, better fitted every day to be a sanctuary to +which he could fly for solace. But his heart fairly bled for the vast +mass of men and of women about him, only a few of whom had such an +outer refuge, and perhaps fewer still the inner one. This sympathy he +felt his life long. He ever blamed the huge accretion of law and +customs and selfishness which is called society for much of this +misery of men, this hindrance to a fair distribution of the goods of +this world, this guilty permission on the part of the fortunate few +of the want and dirt and ugliness and coarseness which are the lot of +almost the whole race of man. Yet he was not blind to individual +guilt. Right here in his diary, after lamenting his enforced +inability to succor human misery, he says that some words dropped by +the workmen in conversation with him cause him to record his +conviction that suffering and injustice, together with the +deprivation of liberty, are due to one's own fault as well as to that +of others: + +"Every evil that society inflicts upon me, the germ of it is my own +fault; in proportion as I free myself from my vices will I free +myself from the evils which society inflicts upon me. Be true to +thyself and thou canst not be false to any one. Be true to thyself +and it follows as night follows day that others cannot be false to +thee." + +Of course this panacea offers only an inward healing, for none more +readily admitted than he who wrote these sentences that in externals +the true heart is often the first victim of the malice of the false +heart. + +Ever and again we find in the diary reflections on the general aspect +of religion. The Protestant churches seemed to him to fail to meet +the aspirations of the natural man; that is the burden of his +complaint against them all. Some, like the Unitarians, did but offer +man his best self and hence added nothing to humanity, while humanity +at its best ceaselessly condemned itself as insufficient. This +insufficiency of man for himself, Calvinistic and Lutheran +Protestantism in their turn condemned as a depravity worthy of the +deepest hell, making man a wretch maimed in his very nature so +cruelly and fatally as to be damned for what he could not help being +guilty of. Meantime the Catholic Church was seen by Isaac Hecker as +having elements the most attractive. It recognized in man his native +dignity; it saw in him a being made God-like by the attribute of +reason, and called him to a state infinitely more God-like by a +supernatural union with Christ. It understood his weakness, pitied +it, and knew how to cure it. True, there are passages here in which +his impatience with the public attitude of the Church betrays that +his view of it was yet a distant one; they show, also, an undue +concentration of his gaze upon social evils. "The Church is a great +almoner," he says, "but what is she doing to ameliorate and improve +the circumstances of the poorer and more numerous classes? She is +more passive than active." "Instead of the Church being in the head +and front of advancement, suffering martyrdom for Christ, she is in a +conservative relation with society." Yet he adds: "We speak of the +Church as she is exhibited by her bishops and clergy, and only in +this sense." + +Isaac Hecker's renewed experiment of engaging in business and +following at the same time the lead of the peremptory Spirit within +him soon proved a failure. He complains, though not as bitterly as +the year before when he felt the first agony of this suffering, that +the greater part of his true life is lost in his present +position--the thoughts, feelings, studies which are of supreme value +to him, getting entrance into his mind almost by stealth, while, at +the same time, he is not of much use in the business and of little +benefit to others in any way. On March 10 he wrote to Brownson that +he was going to give up business totally and finally, and asked his +Advice about a course of study "for the field of the Church," not +having yet fully settled as to whether it should be "the Roman or the +Anglican." Upon his determination to withdraw from the secular +affairs of life he experienced "such peace, calmness, and deep, +settled strength and confidence" as never before. "I feel the +presence of God," he writes, "wherever I am. I would kneel and praise +God in all places. In His presence I walk and feel His breath +encompass me. My soul is borne up by His presence and my heart is +filled by His influence. How thankful ought we to be! How humble and +submissive! Let us lay our heads on the pillow of peace and die +peacefully in the embrace of God." + +Brownson answered his letter with one of encouragement to carry out +his purpose. Yet, there was a pang; Isaac laments "the domestic +comforts, the little offices of tender love" which he should lose by +going from home. And well he might, for tender love may well describe +the bond uniting the dear old mother and her three noble sons. The +present writer had no personal acquaintance with John Hecker, but we +never heard his name mentioned by Father Hecker except with much +affection. George always seemed to us something like a perfect man. +He especially it was who all his life gave his entire unselfish love +to his brother Isaac. The reader has noticed, we hope, that there has +been no mention so far in the diary of difficulty in obtaining money +for the expenses of his various journeyings and for his support when +absent from home. The two brothers in New York appear to have held +these pilgrimages in search of the truth in such reverence as to make +Isaac their partner, only in a higher sense than ever before. And +George Hecker, especially, seemed throughout his life to continue +Isaac a member of his great and rich firm, lavishing upon his least +wish large sums of money, and these not only for his strictly +personal expenditure, but for any cause whatever he might have at +heart. + +________________________ + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE MYSTIC AND THE PHILOSOPHER + +BEFORE summarizing and conveniently arranging Isaac Hecker's reasons +for becoming a Catholic and narrating the accompanying incidents, we +give the following profession of faith in the authority of the Spirit +speaking within. It was written in the diary in the midst of his +preparations for his baptism, and is an early witness of a permanent +characteristic of Father Hecker's life. It is, besides, a fitting +introduction to the description of his state of mind when he entered +the Church, showing better than anything we have found what kind of +man became a Catholic in Isaac Hecker. + +"Man is a mystic fact. + +"What is most interior is ever mystical, and we should ever be in the +centre of the circle of the mystic life. + +"We must unfold the mystical in all our expressions, actions, +thoughts, and motions. + +"It is the mystic life only which can fully interest man. This is +deeper than all conditions, behind all organs, faculties, and +functions. + +"We must listen to those who speak to us in the interior world, and +hear the mystic man speak through us. + +"The mystic man is ever youthful, fresh, and new. + +"The mystic sphere is the kingdom of heaven within. + +"I can neither study nor sit down and read for any length of time. +The inner man will not permit me. Ever he calls me from it to +meditate and enjoy his presence. + +"He says: I am all. Ask of me and I will give you more than has been +written--more than you can ever find or dig out by study. + +"Be my spokesman--this is your office. Submit to me--this is your +glory. I have taken up my abode in you on condition that you will be +faithful and submissive. + +"You have no business to ask of me what I am going to set you about. +I am, and you know it--and this is enough for you to know. + +"This is my condition of remaining with you--that you entertain me, +and me alone, and no other on any pretext whatsoever. I am all, and +this suffices. You have nothing to say, to do, or to be troubled +about. Do only as I bid you, follow what I tell you, and be still. + +"If you neglect me in any way, or forget me for any other object, now +that you have enjoyed my confidence, love, and blessing, I will not +abide with you any longer. + +"I want all your time and to speak all that is to be said. You have +no right to speak a word--not a word--of your own. You are not your +own. You have given yourself up to me, and I am all. I will not leave +you unless you leave me first, and even then I shall ever be the +nearest to you, but you will not know it. + +"I am your Friend; the One who loves you. I have discovered myself to +you and will do so yet more. But the condition of so doing requires +from you even more faith, tenderness, and submissiveness. + +"Nothing is so real, so near, so full of enjoyment as I am to you, +and you cannot leave me without giving up the greater for the less. + +"I talk to you at all times and am near you at all seasons, and my +joy is to be in your presence, to love you and to take delight in +this love I bestow upon you. I direct your pen, speech, thought, and +affections, though you know it not sensibly. But you shall know more +clearly who I am, and all respecting me, if you but comply with my +requirements. You need not fear: you cannot make any mistakes if you +submit to be guided by me." + +Isaac Hecker had now tried every form of philosophy. Whoever sailed +with Brownson on that voyage which ended on the shores of Catholic +truth, had explored the deep seas and sounded the shoal waters of all +human reason; and young Hecker had been Brownson's friend and +sympathizer since the years of his own earliest mental activity. +Pantheism, subjectivism, idealism, and all the other systems were +tried, and when at last he was convinced that _Life is Real_ it was +only after such an agony as must attend the imminent danger of fatal +shipwreck. + +He had, meantime, given a fair trial to philanthropy. Theoretically +and practically, Isaac Hecker loved humanity; to make men happy was +his ever-renewed endeavor; was, in truth, the condition on which his +own happiness depended. For years this view of his life-task +alternated with his search for exact answers to the questions his +soul asked about man's destiny hereafter; or, one might rather say, +social questions and philosophical ones borrowed strength from each +other to assail him till his heart throbbed and his brain whirled +with the agony of the conflict. + +In a series of articles in _The Catholic World_ published in 1887, +and before referred to, Father Hecker called Dr. Brownson's road to +the Church the philosophical road. Finding that doctrines which his +philosophical mind perceived to answer the deepest questions of the +soul were taught only in one society, and there taught with +authority, he argued validly that that society could lay claim to the +right to teach. From the doctrine to the teacher, from the truth to +the external authority that teaches it, is an inference of sound +reason. This applies to Father Hecker's case also, for he was of a +bent of mind truly philosophical, and he has placed on record the +similarity of his philosophical difficulties with those of Brownson. +But in addition to philosophical questions, and far more pressing, +were to Isaac Hecker the problems arising from the mystical +occurrences of which his soul was the theatre. Were these real? that +is, were they more than the vagaries of a sensitive temperament, the +wanderings of a sentimental imagination, or, to use Father Hecker's +own words, "the mere projections into activity of feelings entirely +subjective; mystical impulses towards no corresponding objective +realities, or, at any rate, with objects which it is not possible to +bring into the field of the really knowable? Some will admit that +religious feeling is as much a verity as any other part of human +consciousness, affirming, however, the subjectivity of all purely +spiritual life; and no more can be said, they insist, for the +principles, metaphysical and logical, with which they are associated +in the spiritual life of man. Now, such a theory never leaves the +soul that is governed by reason at rest. The problem ever and again +demands solution: are these yearnings, aspirations, unappeased +desires, or religious feelings--the ruling traits of the noblest men +and women--are they genuine, real, corresponding to and arising from +the reality of certain objects external to the soul? I think that in +the solution of this problem Dr. Brownson fought and won his greatest +victory; at any rate, it was to me the most interesting period of his +life. No wonder, since I had the same battle to fight myself, and it +was just at this epoch that I came into closest contact with him. We +fought this battle shoulder-to-shoulder."--_Catholic World,_ +October, 1887, pp. 5-6. + +Brownson's heavy heart was due to philosophical difficulties, and +Isaac Hecker's to the same; but in addition the latter had a mystical +experience to which Brownson was at that time, certainly, a stranger, +and, as far as we know, he remained so; and these mystical +difficulties demanded settlement far more imperatively than did the +philosophical ones. Isaac Hecker's inner life must have an external +adjunct of divine authority. Such aspirations of the soul for present +union with God in love as he had, are more peremptory in demanding +satisfaction than those of the logical faculty in demanding the +ascertainment of the certain truth. Philosophy outside the Church is +to the searcher after truth what St. Paul said the Law was to the +Jews, a schoolmaster; but, to a soul in the condition of Isaac +Hecker, the Holy Spirit is a spouse demanding union. Both Brownson +and himself were men true to their convictions, courageous and +unselfish. They were both firmly determined to have the truth and to +have the whole of it, whether spoken _ex cathedra_ in the divine +court of the innermost soul, or _ex cathedra_ by the supreme +authority of God in the organism of the Christian Church. "Brownson +was firmly persuaded," says Father Hecker, "and so am I, that the +great fault of men generally is that they deem the life of their +souls, thoughts, judgments, and convictions, yearnings, aspirations, +and longings to be too subject to illusion to be worthy their +attentive study and manly fidelity; that even multitudes of Catholics +greatly undervalue the divine reality of their inner life, whether in +the natural or supernatural order." + +The philosophical difficulty was far less serious than the spiritual +one. To the philosopher the fundamental truths of human reason are +established as objective realities by processes common to every sane +mind, and are backed by the common consent of men; and this is true +also of the prime verities of ethics. But when a man finds himself +subject to secret influences of the utmost power over him, able to +cast him off or to hold him, to sicken his body and distress his +soul, extending his views of the truth by flashes of light into +vistas that seem infinite, making his love of right an ecstasy, his +sympathy for human misery a passion, controlling his diet and his +clothing, ordering him here and there at will and knowing how to be +obeyed--when, in a word, a man finds himself treated by God in a +manner totally different from any one else he knows or ever heard of, +it is plain that he must agonize for the possession of a divine +sanction to which he can appeal in common with all men, and which +must therefore exist in the external order. He longs, above all +things, to test his secret in the light of day. + +The problem that Isaac Hecker had to solve, as he described it +himself, was whether his life was real--using the word "life" to +denote its truest meaning, the interior life. We have been careful to +make the reader aware of how deep and continuous were the inner +touches of the Holy Spirit which led him on. Before applying for +admission to the Church, there was no truth that he could believe +more firmly than that he was the temple of the Holy Ghost. Of that he +had the certitude which is called personal and the teaching of God +which is most direct. Yet something was lacking, and therein lay his +agony, for he knew that his fellow-men were entitled to all that he +had of truth and virtue. The more distinct the Voice which spoke +within, the more perplexing it became to hear no echo from without. +He felt sure that what was true and holy for him must be so for all, +and yet he could not so much as make himself understood if he told +his secret to others. To the born Catholic there is no such +difficulty. He is so fully accustomed to the verification of the +inner action of God, enlightening his mind and stinging his +conscience, by God's external action in the Church, that he often +confounds the two. He knows the Voice better by its echo than by its +own tones. There are many good Catholics, but few enlightened +mystics. This is not for lack of guidance, so far as doctrine is +concerned, for accredited authors on such subjects are numerous and +their teaching is uniform and explicit, besides being of the most +intense interest to those for whose instruction it is adapted. These +masters of spiritual doctrine not only dwell upon the interior life +itself, but also on the external order of God in His Church which +brings His interior teaching into proper relation with the exterior. +The interior life thus made integral is alone worthy of the term +_real;_ is alone worthy of the description of St. Paul when he calls +it "the witness of the Spirit." Now, as a witness who cannot be +brought into open court to give his testimony might as well be dumb, +and is as good as no witness, so the inner life, lacking the true +external order of God, is cramped and helpless; and cramped and +helpless Isaac Hecker was. Whatever he did, therefore, toward +investigating religious evidences was done primarily as a search for +the external criterion which should guarantee the validity of the +inspirations of God within him, and at the same time provide a medium +of union with his fellow-men. + +Those whose advertence is not particularly aroused to the facts of +their interior life, have for their main task either the study of the +Church as a visible society, claiming continuity with one established +by Christ; or, preceding that, the question whether such a society +was ever founded by God. Now, although such questions must be settled +by all, they are not the main task of men like Isaac Hecker. In their +case the problem transcending all others is where to find that divine +external order demanded for the completion of their inner experience. +Such men must say: If there is no external order of God in this +world, then my whole interior life is fatally awry. + +The captain whose voyage is on the track of the trade winds +nevertheless needs more than dead reckoning for his course; he needs +to take the sun at noon, to study the heavens at night, and to con +his chart. To follow one's interior drift only is to sail the ocean +without chart or compass. The sail that is wafted by the impulses of +the divine Spirit in the interior life must have, besides, the +guarantee of divine veracity in the external order to justify him. +This he needs, in order to safeguard him in the interior life itself, +and to provide a common court of appeal between himself and his +fellows, or otherwise he is in danger of fanaticism, and is certain +of the mistrust of his fellow-men. No man, unsupported by external +miracles, can claim to teach what is vouched for only by his own +testimony; and this especially applies to purely subjective +experiences. Isaac Hecker was a born teacher of men, and to be shut +off from them by an isolated experience was to be robbed of his +vocation. A soul like his, led to the truth along the path of social +reform, will hail with delight a religion which organizes all +humanity on a basis of equality, and at the same time verifies and +explains the facts of each one's particular experience. Such a +religion is to be longed for, not only because of its universal +brotherhood, but also because it can decide between the inspirations +of the Holy Spirit and the criminal conceits of passion or the dreams +of an imaginative temperament. + +Many years afterwards Father Hecker thus stated the harmony between +the inner and outer action of God in the soul's life: + +"In case of obscurity or doubt concerning what is the divinely +revealed truth, or whether what prompts the soul is or is not an +inspiration of the Holy Spirit, recourse must be had to the divine +teacher or criterion--the authority of the Church. For it must be +borne in mind that to the Church, as represented in the first +instance by St. Peter and subsequently by his successors, was made +the promise of her divine Founder that 'the gates of hell should +never prevail against her.' No such promise was ever made by Christ +to each individual believer. 'The Church of the living God is the +pillar and ground of truth.' The test, therefore, of a truly +enlightened and sincere Christian will be, in case of uncertainty, +the promptitude of his obedience to the voice of the Church. + +"From the above plain truths the following practical rule of conduct +may be drawn: The Holy Spirit is the immediate guide of the soul in +the way of salvation and sanctification; and the criterion or test, +that the soul is guided by the Holy Spirit, is its ready obedience to +the authority of the Church. This rule removes all danger whatever, +and with it the soul can walk, run, or fly, if it chooses, in the +greatest safety and with perfect liberty, in the ways of +sanctity."--_The Church and the Age,_ p. 35. + +In transcribing the above we are reminded that St. Ignatius, who was +the divine instrument in establishing and perfecting God's authority +in the external order, yet left on record that so clearly had the +Holy Spirit shown him by secret teaching the truths of religion, +that, if all the Scriptures had been destroyed, his private +revelations at Manresa would have sufficed him in their stead. + +All that we have just been saying helps to answer the question why +Orestes Brownson and Isaac Hecker did not set up systems of their +own, and become Carlyles and Emersons or, especially in Father +Hecker's case, Emanuel Swedenborgs or Edward Irvings. We find the +following among the memoranda of conversations: + +"June 30, 1886.--Why didn't I switch off from Christianity as Carlyle +did? Because I hope that I was truer to natural reason; but chiefly +because God had given me such an amount of infused lights and graces +that I was forced to seek a guide or go off into extravagant +fanaticism. They were ready to encourage me in the latter. George +Ripley said to me, 'Hecker, what have you got to tell? Tell us what +it is and we will accept it.'" + +The impression a perfectly "independent thinker" made on him, as +typified in Emerson, is told in an entry in his diary, dated April 24, +1844: + +"I have had a few words with Emerson. He stands on the extreme ground +where he did several years ago. He and his followers seem to me to +live almost a purely intellectual existence. His wife I have +understood to be a very religious woman. They are heathens in +thought, and profess to be so. They have no conception of the Church: +out of Protestantism they are almost perfectly ignorant. They are the +narrowest of men, yet they think they are extremely 'many-sided'; +and, forsooth, do not comprehend Christendom, and reject it. The +Catholic accepts all the good they offer him and finds it +comparatively little compared to that which he has." + +That he recognized that the test of the character of his inner +experiences, for good or ill, was to be finally found in what they +led him to, is shown by the following passage, already quoted, from +the diary: "What I do I must do, for it is not I that do it; it is +the Spirit. What that Spirit may be is a question I cannot answer. +What it leads me to do will be the only evidence of its character. I +feel as impersonal as a stranger to it." + +The aid which fidelity to the light of reason and the cherishing and +obeying the inspirations of the Holy Spirit lends to the discovery of +the fulness of truth is shown by the following extract from an +article by Father Hecker in _The Catholic World_ of October, 1887: + +"The man who establishes the historical identity of the Church of +to-day with the Apostolic college says the doctrines now taught must +be true; the man who perceives the identity of the Church's doctrines +with his own highest aspirations also proves them true. The man who +has become responsive to the primitive action of his reason says that +the Church, which is its only authoritative exponent, must be a +divinely appointed teacher. The infallible authority of the Church in +her past, present, and future teaching is established by the +necessity of the truths which she teaches for the welfare of the +human race, by thus completing the outlines of natural truth drawn by +the divine hand in human consciousness." + +By this we see that, if the divine inner life had need of the divine +outer life for its integrity, it is equally certain that in his case, +and also in that of Dr. Brownson, the intimate action of God within +was a pointer to the true Church of the Divine Word incarnate in the +actual world of humanity: for Dr. Brownson chiefly in the +intellectual order, for Isaac Hecker in both the intellectual and +mystical. We have no fear of wearying the reader with the length of +an extract of such value as the following: + +"The one who reaches Catholicity by the philosophical road, as +Brownson did, by no means pretends that the problem of human destiny +can be solved by mere force of reason: Catholicity is not +rationalism. Nor does he pretend that the product of reason's action, +the knowledge of human immortality and liberty and of the being of +God, place man apart from or above the universal action of God upon +all souls by means of a visible society and external ordinances: +Catholicity is well named; it is universal. But he knows that when a +man is persuaded of a truth philosophically he is not called upon by +his intelligence or his conscience to base it upon historical +evidence; it is enough that he has one source of certitude in its +favor. It may be a truth first known by revelation, but if the human +intelligence is capable of receiving it in revelation it must have +some element of kinship to the truths of pure reason. As in the order +of nature men are like unto God, so is there a likeness between the +truth of God naturally known and that known only by revelation. + +"As there is an appetite in the human heart which not all the +treasures, honors, joys of nature can satisfy, so there is a void in +the mind which all the truth within reach of the unaided natural +faculties leaves unfilled. When a man without guile is brought face +to face with truth he spontaneously desires union with it. Appetite +proves the existence of food, and the food affirms itself by +satisfying the appetite. + +"Where there is question of a principle there is a class of minds +which must study the part a principle has played in history, and is +mainly influenced for or against it from its effect on former +generations of men. This class follows the historical road. Another +class is so profoundly moved by the truths of revelation as soon as +known, assimilates them so readily and perfectly, becomes so absorbed +and lost in them, that the history of revelation is not of primary +importance; it is only necessary in order to establish necessary +facts, such as the divine institution of an external society, and of +other external aids. But with this philosophical class of minds the +truth stands sponsor for itself and is its own best witness. The +impression produced by revelation here and now upon the soul without +guile is one of the best probable proofs to that soul of the +historical claims of the society to which God entrusted it. 'The +Church Accredits Itself' was the title of one of the most powerful +articles Dr. Brownson ever wrote for this magazine. + +"Both the historical and the philosophical processes are necessary, +but each is more so to one class of minds than to another. To the +philosophical mind, once scepticism is gone and life is real, the +supreme fact of life is the need of more truth than unaided reason +can know. The more this need is felt, and the more clearly the +deficiencies of natural reason are known, the better capable one is +to appreciate the truths of revelation which can alone supply these +deficiencies. In such a state of mind you are in a condition to +establish revealed truth in a certain sense _a priori,_ and the +method _a posteriori_ is then outranked. The philosopher outranks the +historian. In minds of a speculative turn the historian is never +considered of primary importance. The principles which its facts +illustrate are furnished him by human reason in philosophy, and by +the divine reason in revelation. The historical mind has never been +considered in the world of thought as sovereign. The philosopher is +broad enough to study all ways leading to the full truth and joy of +life, whether logical or traditional; but he knows that the study of +principles is higher than that of facts. . . . No man can +intelligently become a Catholic without examining and deciding the +historical question. But back of this is the consideration that the +truths the Church teaches are necessarily in harmony with my +reason--nay, that they alone solve the problems of reason +satisfactorily and answer fully to the wants of the heart. To some +minds the truths standing alone compel assent; that is to say, the +truths standing alone, and considered in themselves, demand the +submission of my reason. Among these truths, thus imperative, not the +least is the need of the very Church herself, viewed in her action on +men and nations--viewed quite apart from the historical and +Scriptural proof of her establishment by Christ. Once the mind is +lifted above subjectivism and is face-to-face with the truth, union +with the Church is only a question of time and of fidelity to +conscience."--_Catholic World,_ November, 1887, "Dr. Brownson and +Catholicity." + +________________________ + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +HIS SEARCH AMONG THE SECTS + +HAD Protestantism possessed anything capable of attracting Isaac +Hecker he would certainly have found it, for he made due and diligent +search. He was, in a manner, bound to do so, for the atmosphere in +which he had been born and nurtured had not yet cleared so fully that +he could say to himself with positive assurance that there was no +safe midway between no-belief and Catholicity. + +All the natural influences of his surroundings were such as to draw +him to one or other of the Protestant denominations. The power of +example and precept in his mother tended that way. The power of +public opinion, in so far as it had any religious bearing, was +Protestant. The most intelligent and high-minded people he had +enjoyed intimate acquaintance with were Protestant by birth and +training. True, most of these had fallen away from both the +fellowship and the doctrines of orthodoxy; but while they had not the +heart to point him to what had been their Egypt, still they had no +Promised Land to lead him into, and were confessedly in the Desert. +Yet their influence was indirectly favorable to Protestantism as +opposed to Catholicity, although no one but the ministers whom he +consulted thought of urging him to identify himself with any variety +of it until he showed signs of becoming a Catholic. + +To this rule Brownson may appear as a partial exception, but until +the summer of 1844 he was so in appearance only. It is true that +Isaac Hecker had learned from him the claims of most of the great +forms of Protestantism, and got his personal testimony as to the +emptiness of them all. Brownson was a competent witness, for he had +been an accepted disciple of every school, from sterile +Presbyterianism to rank Transcendentalism. Although of a certain +testiness of temper, he bore malice to no man and to no body of men. +His testimony was in the presence of patent facts, and his +condemnation of all forms of orthodox Protestantism in the end was +unreserved. But, up to the date given above he still made a possible +exception in favor of Anglicanism. In the middle of April, 1843, he +wrote Isaac a letter, motioning him toward this sect, at the same +time affirming that he could not quite accept it for himself. Such +counsel was no better than motioning him away from it, and was but a +symbol of Brownson's own devious progress, swaying now to one side +and again to the other, but always going forward to Rome. But young +Hecker would learn for himself. Of an abnormally inquiring mind by +nature, he never accepted a witness other than himself about any +matter if he could help it. + +In the early part of 1844 the question of religious affiliation began +to press for settlement with increasing urgency, casting him at times +into an agony of mind. It was not merely that he was impelled by +conscience towards the fulness of truth, but that truth in its +simplest elements seemed sometimes to be lacking to him. He was heard +to say in after years that, had he not found Catholicity true, he +would have been thrown back into a scepticism so painful as to +suggest suicide as a relief. Yet those who have trodden any of the +paths which lead from inherited heresy to true doctrine, will +appreciate the force of the influences, both personal and social, +which induced him to reconsider, and make for himself the grand +rounds of Protestant orthodoxy before turning his back upon it for +ever. + +We find him, therefore, going diligently to all who claimed to be +watchmen on the walls of Sion, to seek from each one personally that +countersign which would tally with the divine word nature and grace +were uttering in his own soul. He interviewed ministers repeatedly. +"Not having had," he wrote in this magazine for November, 1887, +"personal and experimental knowledge of the Protestant denominations, +I investigated them all, going from one of them to another--Episcopal, +Congregational, Baptist, Methodist, and all--conferring with their +ministers and reading their books. It was a dreary business, but I +did it. I knew Transcendentalism well and had been a radical +socialist. All was found to be as stated above. Brownson's ripe +experience and my own thoroughly earnest investigation tallied +perfectly. Indeed, the more you examine the Protestant sects in the +light of first principles the more they are found to weaken human +certitude, interfere with reason's native knowledge of God and His +attributes, and perplex the free working of the laws of human +thought. Protestantism is no religion for a philosopher, unless he is +a pessimist--if you can call such a being a philosopher--and adopts +Calvinism." + +Why Calvinism, with its dread consistency of aversion for human +nature, did not attract him in these early inquiries was expressed by +Father Hecker in after years by the saying, "Heresy always involves a +mutilation of man's natural reason." The typical Calvinist foams +against man's natural capacity for the true and the good, and one of +its representatives, a Presbyterian minister, had the consistency to +say to our young disciple of nature, "Unless you believe that you are +totally depraved you will certainly suffer eternal damnation." These +words were spoken to one who felt some sort of apostleship growing +into act within his bosom: to preach the Gospel to those who are +totally depraved he perceived to be both vain and suicidal. +Furthermore, the consciousness of his own upright character, his +experience and observation of human virtue in others, made abstract +arguments needless to prove that Calvinism is an outrage on human +kind and a blasphemy against the Creator. + +Anglicanism, too--uncleansed, as it notoriously is, of a Calvinistic +taint, broken up by absolute license of dissent, maintaining a mere +outward conformity to an extremely lax discipline--affronted Isaac +Hecker's ideal of the communion of man and God; man seeking and God +giving the one only revelation of divine truth, unifying and +organizing the Christian community: and this in spite of an +attraction for the beauty of the Episcopal service which he often +confesses in his diary. + +In the same scrupulous spirit he tried the Baptists, though he must +have known that they were, almost without exception, Calvinists. He +had a conference with one of their ministers which, from the account +he gives of it, must have degenerated into something like a wrangle. +"If," said young Hecker, "you admit that baptism is not a saving +ordinance, why, then, do you separate yourselves from the rest of +Christendom on a mere question of ceremonial observance?" There could +be no satisfactory answer to this question. + +As to the Methodists, they made fifty years ago much less pretension +to an intellectual footing in the religious world than at the present +day. One thing, Father Hecker tells us, drew his sympathetic regards +their way--their doctrine of perfection. He went to one of their +ministers, a Dr. Crawford. "I have read in the Bible," said he, "'If +thou wouldst be perfect, go and sell all thou hast'; now, that is the +kind of Christian I want to be." The answer was: "Well, young man, +you must not carry things too far; you are too enthusiastic. Christ +does not require that of us in the nineteenth century." After +conversing with him for some time, the minister told him to give up +such ideas and study for the ministry. + +A singular episode in his search was his meeting with two +enthusiastic Mormon apostles, and a long and careful examination, +under their guidance, of the then newly-delivered revelations and +prophecies of Joseph Smith. He describes his Mormon acquaintances as +men of some intelligence, but given over, totally and blindly, to +Smith's imposture. + +But what cut under the claims of every form of Protestantism was the +error, common to them all, concerning the rule of faith: the private +and independent judgment of the teaching of Scripture made by each +man for himself. As the real owner of a homestead has most reason to +dread a dealer in false titles, so the truly free man has most reason +to dread false liberty. Isaac Hecker was the type of rational +individual liberty, hence the very man to abhor most the caricature +of that prerogative in the typical Protestant. + +Five years before his death, in an article in _The Catholic World_ +entitled "Luther and the Diet of Worms," Father Hecker put the case +thus: "It is a misapprehension common among Protestants to suppose +that Catholics, in refusing the appeal of Martin Luther at the Diet +of Worms, condemn the use of reason or individual judgment, or +whatever one pleases to call the personal act which involves the +exercise of man's intellect and free will. The truth is, personal +judgment flows from what constitutes man a rational being, and there +is no power under heaven that can alienate personal judgment from +man, nor can man, if he would, disappropriate it. The cause of all +the trouble at the Diet of Worms was not personal judgment, for +neither party put that in question. The point in dispute was the +right application of personal judgment. Catholics maintained, and +always have and always will maintain, that a divine revelation +necessitates a divine interpreter. Catholics resisted, and always +will resist, on the ground of its incompetency, a human authority +applied to the interpretation of the contents of a divinely-revealed +religion. They consider such an authority, whether of the individual +or the state, in religious matters an intrusion. Catholics insist, +without swerving, upon believing in religion none but God. . . . To +investigate and make one's self certain that God has made a +revelation is of obligation, and consistent with Christianity. But as +a divine revelation springs from a source above the sphere of reason, +it necessitates a divinely authorized and divinely assisted +_interpreter_ and teacher. This is one of the essential functions of +the Church." + +That the use of the Scriptures is not, and cannot be made the +ordinary means for making all men Christians, was plain to Isaac +Hecker for other reasons than the essential one thus clearly stated. +For, if such were the case, God would bestow on all men the gift to +read at sight, or cause all to learn how to read, or would have +recorded in the Book itself the words, "Unless a man reads the Bible, +and believes what he reads, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God," +or their plain equivalent; whereas the Bible, as we have it now, did +not exist in the apostolic days, the most glorious era of the +Christian Church. Such is Father Hecker's argument in a powerful +article in _The Catholic World_ for October, 1883. He continues: + +"But suppose that everybody knew how to read, or all men were gifted +to read at first sight; suppose that everybody had a copy of the +Bible within his reach, a genuine Bible, and knew with certitude what +it means; suppose that Christ himself had laid it down as a rule that +the Bible, without note or comment, and as interpreted by each one +for himself, is the ordinary way of receiving the grace of +salvation--which is the vital principle of Protestantism; suppose all +these evident assumptions as true. Would the Bible even in that case +suffice to make any one man, woman, or child a Christian? Evidently +not. And why? For that is a personal work, and the personal work of +Christ; for Christ alone can make men Christians. And no account of +Christ is Christ. . . The contents of a book, whatever these may be, +are powerless to place its readers in direct contact and vital +relations with its author. No man is so visionary as to imagine that +the mental operation of reading the _Iliad,_ or the _Phaedo,_ or the +_Divine Comedy,_ suffices to put him in communication with the +personality of Homer, or Plato, or Dante. All effort is in vain to +slake the thirst of a soul famishing for the _Fountain_ of living +waters from a brook, or to stop the cravings of a soul for the living +Saviour with a printed book. . . . His words are 'Come unto ME all +that are weary and heavy laden, and I will refresh you.' It was the +attempt to make men Christians by reading the Bible that broke +Christendom into fragments, multiplied jarring Christian sects, +produced swarms of doubters, filled the world with sceptics and +scoffers at all religion, frustrated combined Christian action, and +put back the Christian conquest of the world for centuries. Three +centuries of experience have made it evident enough that, if +Christianity is to be maintained as a principle of life among men, it +must be on another footing than the suicidal hypothesis invented in +the sixteenth century after the birth of its divine Founder." + +His farewell interviews with exponents of the Protestant claims were +mainly, if not wholly, with representatives of Anglicanism. This did +not arise from any grounded hope of getting all he wanted there, but +from an insensible drift of his mind upon those currents of thought +set in motion by the great power of Newman. The air was full of +promise of non-Roman Catholicity, and the voices which called the +English-speaking world to listen were the most eloquent since +Shakespeare. It needed but a dim hope pointing along any road to +induce the delicate conscience of Isaac Hecker to try if it might not +be a thoroughfare. But neither in his copious entries in the diary at +this period, nor in his articles in this magazine for the year 1887 +on Dr. Brownson's difficulties--and these were much like his own--do +we find any trace of his discovering in Anglicanism a germ of +Catholicity unfolding from the chrysalis of genuine Protestantism and +casting it off. This was readily perceived in Isaac Hecker's bearing +and conversation by acute Episcopalians themselves, as in the case of +Dr. Seabury, who, as Father Hecker relates in the articles above +referred to, prophesied Brownson's conversion to Catholicity, and did +so for reasons which Seabury must have known would apply to young +Hecker also. + +Many at this time were being drawn by poetical sentiment to the +beautiful and religious forms of Episcopalian worship; drawn and held +rather by imagination and feeling than by any adhesion of their minds +to distinctive Anglican doctrines. Father Hecker was, indeed, more +poetical in temperament than at first acquaintance he seemed to be, +but his mind was so constituted that he must have the main reasons of +things, whether religious or not, firmly settled before he could +enjoy their use. Nor could he be content with fragments of revealed +truth, such as are found in all denominations of non-Catholics. +"There is a large floating body of Catholic truth in the world," says +Newman; "it comes down by tradition from age to age. . . . Men +[outside the church] take up and profess these scattered truths, +merely because they fall in with them." Not so Father Hecker: no +flotsam and jetsam of doctrine for him, unless some fragment would +reveal to him the name of the ship from which it had been torn, and +the port from which she had sailed, and so lead him to the discovery +of the ship herself, crew, cargo, port, and owner. + +Yet he lingered long over the claim of Anglicanism to be the Catholic +religion. Of Mr. Haight and of his interviews with him we have +already spoken. Through him he came across a published letter of a +Mr. Norris, Episcopal minister in Carlisle, Pa., which so pleased him +for its Catholic tendency that he wrote to him, asking to be allowed +to go to Carlisle and live there as the writer's pupil. The answer, +though a refusal of this request, was kind, and contained a cordial +invitation to visit Mr. Norris after Easter. On his way to Concord, +in the following spring, Isaac made a long detour to the little town +in southern Pennsylvania, interviewed Mr. Norris, and came away no +wiser than before. + +The following words of the diary, under date of March 30, 1844, refer +to an Episcopal dignitary of higher grade: + +"Mr. Haight gave me a note of introduction to Dr. Seabury. I called +to see him two evenings ago and had a very pleasant conversation with +him. His sociableness and perfect openness of expression I was quite +delighted with. He frankly acknowledged that he thought that error +had been committed on both sides in the controversy of the +Reformation between the Pope and the Anglican Church. He recommended +me to examine those points which kept me from joining the Anglican or +Roman Church before I should do anything further, as there was the +charge of schism against the Anglican Church and neglect of +discipline among the members of her communion. I told him that though +the Church of Rome may commit errors in practice, she had not +committed any in principle, and that it was easier to prune a +luxuriant tree than to revivify a tree almost exhausted of life. I +left him with an earnest invitation to call again." + +This half-confession of schism and frank avowal of lack of discipline +on the part of a perfectly representative official of the Anglican +Church was something singularly Providential, for it came within a +fortnight after Isaac Hecker's first interview with Bishop Hughes, +described in the diary under date of March 22. That powerful man and +great prelate was a type of the best form of Catholicism at that day. +He was of the Church militant in more senses than one; and the +military qualities which have inspired the public action of Catholic +champions for the past three centuries were strongly developed in +him. That it was for the good of religion that it should have such +characters as John Hughes to care for its public welfare there is no +room to doubt. Since then the temper of Protestant Americans has +undergone a change which is almost radical. It has grown infinitely +more just and kindly towards Catholics. The decay of the Protestant +bond of cohesion from lapse of time and from the unsettlement of +belief in its chief doctrines; the fighting of two wars, one of them +the great Rebellion, which fused the populations of States and +acquainted men better with their neighbors; the coming in of millions +of Catholic foreigners whose every breath was an aspiration for +liberty; the rise, culmination, and collapse of the anti-Catholic +movement termed Know-nothing-ism; the polemical warfare of Bishop +Hughes himself and of his contemporaries--these and other causes have +made it possible, nay necessary, to treat non-Catholics in a +different spirit from what wisdom dictated fifty years ago. + +If Dr. Seabury owned to schism and lack of discipline in Anglicanism, +Bishop John Hughes brought out to Isaac Hecker the very contrary as +the attractive qualities of Catholicity. He was questioned by the +young inquirer about the latter's chances for studying for the +priesthood should he decide on entering the Church, and he answered +according to rigid notions of the place of authority in religion. + +"He said," are the words of the diary, ending a summary of the +interview, "that their Church was one of discipline. I thanked him +for the information that he gave, and told him that it was for just +such instruction that I sought him. He seemed to think that I had +some loose notions of the Church. So far, this settles my present +intention of uniting myself with the Roman Catholic Church. Though I +feel not in the least disinclined to be governed by the most rigid +discipline of any church, yet I am not prepared to enter the Roman +Catholic Church at present. It is not national with us, hence it does +not meet our wants, nor does it fully understand and sympathize with +the experience and dispositions of our people. It is principally made +up of adopted and foreign individuals." + +To us this is exceedingly instructive, for it tells us how _not_ to +meet the earnest seeker after Catholic truth. Even a good-natured +dog does not show his teeth when caressed, nor is an artillery salute +the only show of amity between even warlike powers. Yet the repellant +attitude of the great controversialist was that of very many +representative Catholics of his time, especially those holding his +high office. For although he really did know the American people, and +although their country was fully his own, and was by him deeply and +intelligently loved, yet he did not understand or sympathize with the +religious movements of which his strange young visitor was the truest +type. He afterwards knew him better and loved him. + +The toss thus given Isaac Hecker by Bishop Hughes's catapult of +"discipline" had the good effect of throwing him again upon a full +and perfect and final investigation of Protestantism. With what +immediate result is shown by the Seabury interview already related, +and with what honesty of purpose is shown by the following words +written the same day: + +"If a low passion usurps the place of pure love, if a blind prejudice +usurps the place of Catholic truth, he who informs me of it, though +he had been my enemy (if enemies it is possible for me to have), I +will receive him as an angel from heaven, as an instrument of God. My +honor, my consistency, my character consists in faithfulness to God's +love, God's truth, and nothing else. Let me be but true to Him--how +then can I be false to either man or the world? It is Him who knows +our secret thoughts that we should fear (if fear we must) and obey." + +Thus it was Anglicanism that engaged Isaac Hecker's last efforts to +adjust a Protestant outside to his inward experience with the Holy +Spirit; and this for a reason quite evident. That body pretended, +then as now, to be the Catholic Christian Church, assisting men to +union with God by a divinely-founded external organism, but not +demanding the sacrifice of human liberty. To an inexperienced +observer such as he, it seemed possible that Anglicanism might be the +union of historical Christianity with manly freedom. Closer +observation proved to him not only the compatibility of Catholicity +and liberty, but that Anglicanism, though assuming some of the forms +of Catholic unity, is kept alive by the principle of individual +separatism common to all Protestant sects. For a time, or in a place, +it may have much or little of Catholicity; but in no place can it +live for a day without the Protestant principle of a right of final +appeal to the individual judgment to decide upon the verity of +doctrine. + +________________________ + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +HIS LIFE AT CONCORD + +"I HAVE been groping in darkness, seeking where Thou wast not, and I +found Thee not. But, O Lord my God, _Thou hast found me_--leave me +not." + +These words are part of a long prayer written by Isaac Hecker in his +diary April 23, 1844, after his arrival at Concord, Mass. He appears +to have gone directly there from Carlisle, Pa., where he had spent +some days with the Rev. William Herbert Norris, whose published +letter to "A Sincere Enquirer" had excited in the young man a hope +that he might find in him a teacher whose deep inward experiences +would be complemented by the adequate external guaranty that he was +seeking. We have already noted that he was disappointed. He states +the reason very suggestively in a letter written at the time: + +"Alas, that men should speak of those things they are most ignorant +of! What hopes did he not awaken in my bosom as I read his letter to +a Sincere Enquirer, and how were they blasted when I met him and +found that it was not he, but Hooker, Newman, Paul, etc.! It is a sad +fact that many believe, but very few give themselves up to what they +believe so that they may have the substance of their belief." + +Isaac Hecker's business in Concord had, as usual, two sides. +Externally it meant going on with Greek and Latin, under the guidance +of the lately deceased George P. Bradford, a scholar of rare +acquirements, whose acquaintance he had made at Brook Farm the +previous year. The end he sought in this study was to fit himself for +"working in the field of the church." But as the question of which +church was not even yet fully settled in his mind, his search for the +true religion still remained his deepest and most inmost purpose. +Nevertheless, he was enjoying at this time one of his periods of +profound interior and exterior peace. "I feel," he writes, "that I am +growing in God's grace. To Him I look for support. Will He not impart +wisdom as well as love?" + +His surroundings at Concord are so vividly described in the letters +he wrote to his family that we cannot omit quotations from them. The +first of these is dated at Brook Farm, and describes his efforts to +find a room after reaching the village. He seems to have gone at once +to Mr. Bradford's house on his arrival. + +"April 22, '44.-. . . After supper we sallied forth again. We saw a +room, and what do you imagine they charged for it? Seventy-five +dollars a year!! This was out of the question. We went further and +found a room, good size, very good people, furnished, and to be kept +in order for eight dollars a quarter. This seemed reasonable to me, +and also to Mr. Bradford. I felt safe in telling the lady that I +thought I should take it. I requested Mr. Bradford to keep a look-out +for me while I was gone, and if we could not find a better place +before I returned I would accept this. This morning I left Concord to +come and see Charles Dana concerning the books I shall require, and +to see some of my friends. I got into Boston at ten o'clock, and +walked out here by dinner-time. All of the old set that are here were +delighted to see me. I have conversed with a few of them, and find +them more open to consider the claims of the Church than I had +anticipated." + +"Concord, April 24, '44.--Dear Friends: This evening I can say that I +am settled, comfortably settled in every particular. All that is +needed for my comfort is here: a good straw bed, a large table, +carpet, washstand, book-case, stove, chairs, looking-glass--all, all +that is needful. And this for seventy-five cents a week, including +lights; wood is extra pay. This is the inanimate about me. The lady +of the house, Mrs. Thoreau, _is a woman._ The only fear I have about +her is that she is too much like dear mother--she will take too much +care of me. She has told me how she used to sit up nights, waiting +for a young man whom she had taken to board, to come home. He was a +stranger to her, but still she insists that she must treat all as she +would her own, and even with greater care. If you were to see her, +mother, you would be perfectly satisfied that I have fallen into good +hands, and met a second mother, if that is possible." + +"April 25, 1:30 P.M.--I have just finished my dinner; it was _ein +herrliches Essen._ Unleavened bread (from home), maple-sugar, and +apples which I purchased this morning. Previous to taking dinner I +said my first lesson to Mr. Bradford in Greek and Latin. + +"I am extremely well situated, and feel contented in myself, and +deeply grateful to you all for your goodness in helping me to pursue +the real purpose of my being. All we can do is to be faithful to God +and to the work He has given us to do, and, whatever end He may lead +us to, to have that central faith that 'all is for the best.' There +is only one life, and that is life in God; and only one death, and +that is separation from Him. And this life is not and cannot be +measured by the external eye. We must be fixed in God before we can +do anything rightly--study, labor, social, political or of any +kind. . . . + +"I have written this letter full of nothingness; I will be more +settled the next time and do better. Send all your love to me--think +more of heaven and we shall grow happier. If once celestial love has +touched us, we cannot rest until it dwells and abides in our hearts. +To you all I send my warmest and purest love.--ISAAC." + +"Concord, May 2, 1844.--Dear Friends: It was my intention not to +write home until I had received a letter from you; but as none has +yet come, and I am in want of a few things, I will write you +immediately. + +"You can scarcely imagine how different my life is now from what it +was at home. It is like living in another world. It is possible that +you might not be suited with the conditions here, but to me they are +the very ones which are congenial to my present state of being. I am +alone from early dawn to late at night; no one to intrude upon my +quiet except Mr. Bradford, who occupies the hour between twelve and +one to hear my recitations, and Mrs. Thoreau a few minutes in making +my bed in the mornings. The rest of my time is devoted to study, +communion, and, a little of it, to reading. How unlike the life at +home! + +"The thought just occurs to me that if such a life seems desirable to +you, how easily you could obtain it. What is it that costs so much +labor of mind and body? Is it not that which we consume on and in our +bodies? Then, if we reduce the consumption there will be less need of +production. Most of our labor is labor for the body. We are +treasuring up corruption for the day of death; is this not so? As we +rise in spirit above the body we shall bring all its appetites into +subjection to the moral law. . . . + +"This is what I should like you to do for me. All the food that I +brought with me is gone, and as I would like to have my razor sent +on, and as the articles you can give me would be better than any I +can get here, you will be so kind as to send with it the following +list, if you think best: 1. Put in some hard bread. 2. A few +unleavened wheat biscuits, such as I used to make. 3. Some unleavened +Graham biscuits. 4. A five-cent or ten-cent loaf of bread, if you +think it will keep good until it gets here. 5. Get me a linen summer +frock-coat such as are worn--those loose ones. Dunster has my measure +and he can cut it for you. Let it be made. I have only a summer +jacket with me, and that is John's. 6. Do not forget the razor. You +can put in any other simple, solid food, if you wish to send any. Do +I ask too much from you? If so, you must be kind enough to tell me. +Your labor is already too great, and I am burdening you with +more. . . . + +"How much my heart loves you all! How unkindly I have spoken to you +at times! You will forgive me and love me none the less, will you +not? May we live together more and more in the unity of love." + +"May, 1844.--. . . My studies are pursued with the same spirit in +which they were commenced, and there seems to me no reason to fear +but that they will be continued in the same for some time to come. +However, I would affirm what has been affirmed by me for these two +years back, the only consistency that I can promise is submission to +the Spirit that is guiding me, whatever may be the external +appearance or superficial consequences to others. . . . + +"How our astonishment should be excited to perceive that we have been +in such a long sleep, and that even now we see but dimly. Let us each +ask ourselves in whose business we are employed. Is it our Father's, +or is it not? If not, let us immediately turn to the business of our +Father, the only object of our life. Let us submit wholly to the +guidance of Love." + +"TO MRS. CATHERINE J. HECKER. Concord, May 31, 1844.--You speak of my +situation as pleasant, and so it is to me. Though the house is +situated on the street of a village, the street is beautifully arched +with trees for some distance, and my room is very pleasant. One +window is wholly shaded by sweet honeysuckle, which is now in +blossom, filling the room with its mild fragrance. The little +humming-birds visit its flowers frequently without being disturbed by +my presence." + +The diary, which runs side by side with these letters, was, as usual, +the recipient of more intimate self-communings than could be shared +with any friend. It shows that although he was now well-nigh +convinced of the truth of Catholicity, yet that he still felt a +lingering indecision, produced, perhaps, by a haunting memory of the +stern front of "discipline" he had encountered in Bishop Hughes. This +seemed like a phantom of terror to the young social reformer, whose +love of liberty, though rational, was then and ever afterwards one of +the passions of his soul. Yet we rarely find now in these pages any +statement of specific reasons for and against Catholicity such as +were plentiful during the period preceding his acquaintance with Mr. +Haight, Dr. Seabury, and Mr. Norris. He seems to shudder as he stands +on the bank and looks upon the flowing and cleansing stream; but his +hesitancy is caused not so much by any unanswered difficulties of his +reason as by his sensibilities, by vague feelings of alarm for the +integrity of his manhood. He feared lest the waters might cleanse him +by skinning him alive. Catholicity, as typified in Bishop Hughes, her +Celtic-American champion, seemed to him "a fortified city, and a +pillar of iron, and a wall of brass against the whole land." + +Now, Isaac Hecker was built for a missionary, and the extreme view of +the primary value of highly-wrought discipline which he encountered +everywhere among Catholics, though not enough to blind him to the +essential liberty of the Church, was enough to delay him in his +progress to her. There can be little doubt that multitudes of men and +women of less discernment and feebler will than his, have been and +still are kept entirely out of the Church by the same cause. + +Only at long intervals, as we near the last pages of the large and +closely-written book containing the first volume of his diary, do we +meet with those agonizing complaints of dryness, the distress of +doubt, the weary burden of insoluble difficulties, so common +heretofore. He seems, indeed, no longer battling; be victory is won; +but it remains to know what are the spoils and where they are to be +gathered. Of course there are interludes of his irrepressible +philosophizing on moral questions. And at the very end, under date of +May 23, 1844, we find the following: + +"This afternoon brings me to the close of this book. How different +are the emotions with which I close it from those with which I opened +it at Brook Farm, now little more (a month) than a year ago! How +fruitful has this year been to me! How strangely mysterious and +beautiful! And now my soul foreshadows more the next year than ever +it presaged before. My life is beyond my grasp, and bears me on +will-lessly to its destined haven. Like a rich fountain it overflows +on every side; from within flows unceasingly the noiseless tide. The +many changes and unlooked-for results and circumstances, within and +without, of the coming year I would no more venture to anticipate +than to count the stars. It is to me now as if I had just been born, +and I live in the Sabbath of creation. Every thing that I see I feel +called on to give a name; it has a new meaning to me. Should this +life grow--what? It is a singular fact that, although conscious of a +more interior and potent force at work within, I am now more quiet +and will-less than I was when it at first affected me. I feel like a +child, full of joy and pliability; and all ambition of every +character seems to have left me. I see where I was heretofore, and +the degree of externality which was mixed with the influences that I +co-operated with, an externality from which I now feel that I have +been freed. It does seem to me that all worldly prospect that ever +was before me is gone, and as if I were weak, very weak, in the sight +of the world; so I really am. I feel no more potency than a babe. Yet +I have a will-less power of love which will conquer through me, and +which, O gracious Lord, I never dreamt of before." + +In the middle of the above entry he thus notes an interruption, and +records a lesson taught by the late New England spring: "George and +Burrill Curtis came in, and I have just returned from a walk in the +woods with them. May the buds within blossom, and may their fruit +ripen in my prayers to God." + +He was now, indeed, very near his goal, though even yet he did not +clearly see it. And once more all his active powers deserted him. +Study became impossible. His mind was drawn so strongly in upon +itself that neither work nor play, neither books nor the renewed +intercourse which at this period he sought with his old friends in +Boston and at Brook Farm, could any longer fasten his attention. He +opens his new diary with a record of the trial he has just made in +order to discover "whether in mixing with the world I should not be +somewhat influenced by their life and brought into new relations with +my studies. But it was to no purpose that I went. . . . There was no +inducement that I could imagine strong enough to keep me from +returning. Ole Bull, whom I very much wished to hear again, was to +play the next evening; and Parley Pratt, a friend whom I had not met +for a great length of time, and whom I did wish to see, was to be in +town the next day. There were many other things to keep me, but none +of them had the least effect. I could no more keep myself there than +a man could sink himself in the Dead Sea, and so I had to come home. + +"I feel a strong inclination to doze and slumber, and more and more +in these slumbers the dim shadows that appear in my waking state +become clearer, and my conversation is more real and pleasant to me. +I feel a double consciousness in this state, and think, 'Now, is not +this real? I will recollect it all, what I saw and what I said'; but +it flies and is lost when I awake. . . . I call this sleeping, but +sleep it is not; for in this state I am more awake than at any other +time." + +A few days later, on June 5, he notes that + +"Although my meals are made of unleavened bread and figs, and my +drink is water, and I eat no more than supports my body, yet do I +feel sinfully self-indulgent." + +He resolves, moreover, to trouble himself no more about the fact that +he cannot continue his studies. On this subject, and on the passivity +to which he was now compelled, he had written as explicitly as he +could to his friend Brownson, and on June 7 he received a response +which had such an immediate result upon his future that we transcribe +it entire: + +"Mt. Bellingham, June 6, 1844.--My dear Isaac: I thank you for your +letter, and the frankness with which you speak of your present +interior state. You ask for my advice, but I hardly know what advice +to give. There is much in your present state to approve, also much +which is dangerous. The dreamy luxury of indulging one's thoughts and +ranging at ease through the whole spirit-world is so captivating, and +when frequently indulged in acquires such power over us, that we +cease to be free men. The power to control your thoughts and feelings +and to fix them on what object you choose is of the last necessity, +as it is the highest aim of spiritual culture. Be careful that you do +not mistake a mental habit into which you have fallen for the +guidance of the All-wise. Is it not the very sacrifice you are +appointed to make, to overcome this spiritual luxury and to become +able to do that which is disagreeable? Where is the sacrifice in +following what the natural tendencies and fixed habits of our mind +dispose us to do? What victory have you acquired, what power to +conquer in the struggle for sanctity do you possess, when you cannot +so far control your thoughts and feelings as to be able to apply +yourself to studies which you feel are necessary? Here is your +warfare. You have not won the victory till you have become as able to +drudge at Latin or Greek as to give up worldly wealth, pleasures, +honors, or distinctions. + +"But, my dear Isaac, you cannot gain this victory alone, nor by mere +private meditation and prayer. You can obtain it only through the +grace of God, and the grace of God only through its appointed +channels. You are wrong. You do not begin right. Do you really +believe the Gospel? Do you really believe the Holy Catholic Church? +If so, you must put yourself under the direction of the Church. I +have commenced my preparations for uniting myself with the Catholic +Church. I do not as yet belong to the family of Christ. I feel it. I +can be an alien no longer, and without the Church I know, by my own +past experience, that I cannot attain to purity and sanctity of life. +I need the counsels, the aids, the chastisements, and the +consolations of the Church. It is the appointed medium of salvation, +and how can we hope for any good except through it? Our first +business is to submit to it, that we may receive a maternal blessing. +Then we may start fair. + +"You doubtless feel a repugnance to joining the Church. But we ought +not to be ashamed of Christ; and the Church opens a sphere for you, +and you especially. You are not to dream your life away. Your +devotion must be regulated and directed by the discipline of the +Church. You know that there is a large Roman Catholic population in +our country, especially in Wisconsin. The bishop of that Territory is +a German. Now, here is your work--to serve this German population. +And you can do it without feeling yourself among foreigners. Here is +the cross you are to take up. Your cross is to resist this tendency +to mysticism, to sentimental luxury, which is really enfeebling your +soul and preventing you from attaining to true spiritual blessedness. + +"I think you would better give up Greek, but command yourself +sufficiently to master the Latin; that you need, and cannot do +without. Get the Latin, and with that and the English, French, and +German which you already know, you can get along very well. But don't +be discouraged. + +"I want you to come and see our good bishop. He is an excellent +man--learned, polite, easy, affable, affectionate, and exceedingly +warm-hearted. I spent two hours with him immediately after parting +with you in Washington Street, and a couple of hours yesterday. I +like him very much. + +"I have made up my mind, and I shall enter the Church if she will +receive me. There is no use in resisting. You cannot be an Anglican, +you must be a Catholic or a mystic. If you enter the Church at all, +it must be the Catholic. There is nothing else. So let me beg you, my +dear Isaac, to begin by owning the Church and receiving her blessing. + +"My health is very good, the family are all very well; I hope you are +well. Let me hear from you often. Forgive me if I have said anything +harsh or unkind in this letter, for all is meant in kindness, and be +assured of my sincere and earnest affection. + +"Yours truly, + +"O. A. BROWNSON." + +________________________ + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +AT THE DOOR OF THE CHURCH + +THE first effect of Brownson's letter was to throw its recipient into +a state of great though brief perplexity. That final struggle, +strange and painful, in which the soul for the last time contends +against its happiness; in which it is drawn by an invincible +attraction, knowing that it will yield yet striving still to resist; +is one that must remain but half-comprehended by most of those to +whom Catholic truth is an inheritance. And yet there is an +explanation which Father Hecker himself would possibly have given. +"Do you know what God is?" he said to the present writer in 1882, in +that abrupt fashion with which he often put the deepest questions. +"That is not what I mean," he went on, after getting a conventional +reply: "I'll tell you what God is. _He is the eternal Lover of the +soul."_ That shudder of blind aversion which is a part of the +experience of so many converts, is an instinctive testimony that the +call to the truth is more than natural, while the overpowering +attraction which attends it witnesses that nature must needs obey or +perish. The Church, too, is not heard by the soul merely as the +collective voice of many men and ages of men agreed upon the truth, +but as a mystic personality which makes her the imperative +ambassadress of Christ. For she is the Spouse of the Lamb, and in her +the Incarnate Word obtains a voice which is no less single in its +personality than multitudinous in its tones. + +Much as Isaac Hecker had considered the matter, studying, reading, +praying, assuring himself from time to time that if any church were +true this was the one, and that to enter it was probably his duty, +now that Brownson's weight was likewise thrown into the scale and it +went down with a warning thud, he thrilled through with apprehension. +"I feel like throwing all up," he wrote in the diary on the day the +letter reached him. "Some cannot rest. _How much better would it have +been could I have remained in quietness at my daily pursuits, and not +been led to where I now find myself."_ + +Then he questions himself: "What have I against the Catholic Church? +At this moment I cannot say that I have anything that is essential. +And she meets my wants on every side. + +"Oh, this is the deepest event of my life! I would have united myself +to any one of the Protestant sects if I had found any that would have +answered the demands of my nature. Why should I now hesitate when I +find the Catholic Church will do so? Is not this the self-will which +revolts against the involuntary will of the Spirit? + +"The fundamental question is, Am I willing to submit my will to the +guidance and direction of the Church? If she is the body of Christ; +if she is the channel of the Holy Ghost; if she is the inspired body +illumined by Christ's Spirit; in a word, if she _is_ the Catholic +Church; if I would serve God and humanity; if I would secure the +favor of God, and heaven hereafter; why should I not submit to her?" + +But however painful this final indecision may have been, it was of +short duration. Brownson's letter reached Concord on Friday morning, +and on Saturday Isaac Hecker went into Boston to see Bishop Fenwick +and put himself under instruction. That done, his peace not merely +returned, but he felt that it rested on more solid grounds than +heretofore. Yet, curiously enough, it is at this point we come upon +almost the first trace of his stopping seriously to consider the +adverse sentiments of others with regard to any proposed action on +his part. Now that he means to range himself, he turns to look back +at the disorderly host which he is quitting, not so much, or at least +not primarily for the sake of the order and regularity and solidity +of that to which it is opposed, but because a true instinct has +taught him that unity is the external mark of truth, as equilibrium +is the test of a just balance. In his diary of June 11, 1844, after +recording that he has just returned from Boston, where he has seen +the bishop and his coadjutor, Bishop John Bernard Fitzpatrick, and +received from the latter a note of introduction to the president of +Holy Cross College, at Worcester, Mass., he adds: + +"I intend to stay there as long as it seems pleasant to me, and then +go on to New York and there unite myself with the Church. + +"I sigh, and feel that this step is the most important of my life. My +highest convictions, my deepest wants, lead me to it; and should I +not obey them? There is no room to harbor a doubt about it. My +friends will look upon it with astonishment, and probably use the +common epithets, delusion, fanaticism, and blindness. But so I wish +to appear to minds like theirs; otherwise this would be +unsatisfactory to me. Men call that superstition which they have not +the feeling to appreciate, and that fanaticism which they have not +the spiritual perception to perceive. The Protestant world admires, +extols, and flatters him who will write and speak high-sounding and +heroic words; who will assert that he will follow truth wherever it +leads, at all sacrifices and hazards; but no sooner does he do so +than it slanders and persecutes him for being what he professed to +be. Verily it _has_ separated faith from works. + +"This is a heavy task; it is a great undertaking, a serious, sacred, +sincere, and solemn step; it is the most vital and eternal act, and +as such do I feel it in all its importance, weight, and power. O God! +Thou who hast led me by Thy heavenly messengers, by Thy divine grace, +to make this new, unforeseen, and religious act of duty, support me +in the day of trial. Support me, O Lord, in my confessions; give me +strength and purity to speak freely the whole truth without any +equivocation or attempt at justification. O Lord, help Thy servant +when he is feeble and would fall. + +"One thing that gives me much peace and joy is that all worldly +inducements, all temptations toward self-gratification whatever, are +in favor of the Anglican Church and in opposition to the Catholic +Church. And on this account my conscience feels free from any +unworthy motive in joining it. The Roman Catholic Church is the most +despised, the poorest, and, according to the world, the least +respectable of any; this on account of the class of foreigners of +which it is chiefly composed in this country. In this respect it +presents to me no difficulty of any sort, nor demands the least +sacrifice. But the new relations in which it will place me, and the +new duties which will be required of me, are strange to me, and hence +I shall feel all their weight at once." + +His premonitions were speedily fulfilled, though probably not in the +extreme form which he anticipated. The spirit of courtesy which +prevailed throughout his family doubtless prevented any but the +mildest criticism on his action. But even that had hitherto been +spared him. There had been anxiety and much questioning about his +final course, but that it would end in this way does not seem to have +been seriously apprehended. On the same day on which he made the +entry just quoted he wrote the following letter to them: + +"June 11, 1844.--On Saturday last I went into Boston and did not +return until this morning (Tuesday). . . . My purpose in going was to +see Bishop Fenwick of the Roman Catholic Church, to learn what are +the preliminaries necessary for one who wishes to be united to the +Church. I saw the bishop and his coadjutor, men of remarkable +goodness, candor, and frankness. I was chiefly interested with his +coadjutor, and spent some hours with him on Monday. And this is the +result to which I have come: That soon, probably next week, I shall +go from here to Worcester, where there is a Catholic college, and +stay there for a few days, perhaps a fortnight, to see the place, +become acquainted with their practical religious life and their +system of intellectual instruction. From there I shall go on home to +New York, and, after having gone through the requisite preliminaries, +be united to the Roman Catholic Church in our city. . . . Before I +make any unalterable step, I wish to see you all and commune with you +concerning this movement on my part. . . . + +"Whatever theories and speculations may be indulged in and cherished +by those opposed to the Roman Catholic Church, their influence, +however important they may seem, is not sufficiently vital to prevent +me from being united to it. It satisfies and meets my deepest wants; +and on this ground, setting aside any other for the moment, I feel +like affirming, in the spirit of the man whom Christ made to see.* I +know not whether this Church be or be not what certain men call it, +but this I know: it has the life my heart is thirsting for, and of +which my spirit is in great need. + +[* John 9:24: We know this man is a sinner. He said therefore to +them: If he be a sinner, I know not; one thing I know, that whereas I +was blind, now I see.] + +"A case in point: The sermon of Dr. Seabury on the lamented death of +Arthur Carey is as far from satisfying my heartfelt longings as +Platonism would be to the Christian. Read the doctrine of the +Catholic Church on the Communion of Saints in the Catechism of the +Council of Trent attentively and devoutly, and you will see and feel +the wide difference in doctrine and life between it and that held +even by the high-church Anglican. It may be said in excuse for Dr. +Seabury, that he has to be prudent and cautious on account of the +state of mind of those whom he has to speak to. Well enough; but why +should one go to a weak and almost dried-up spring when there is one +equally near, fresh, always flowing and full of life? . . . There may +be those, and I do not question there are many such good persons, who +do not feel the deep demands of the spiritual nature as profoundly as +others do, and that the Anglican Church fully satisfes all their +needs. But even in her bosom there are many who think that if the +Oxford tendencies are Anglican, she is very idolatrous and +exceedingly superstitious, because they feel no need for so much +discipline and ceremony, and such faith in the invisible . . . all +reasons that can tempt one in my position are in favor of the +Anglican Church, and it is a source of much joy that there is no +conceivable inducement of a worldly or mixed nature for me to +join the Roman Catholic Church. If there were I should distrust +myself . . . It seems to me that the difference between my embracing +the Roman Catholic Church and any other is the same as the difference +between remaining as I am, and selling all that I have and following +Christ." + +His deference for his friends' opinions, though he made their views +no condition of his action, is beautifully shown by the following +words: "John, and all who feel like giving me advice, you will not +hesitate in giving it freely and frankly. There are many reasons for +my present course; it is impossible for me to put them all on paper. +But when I return home and meet you all again, we will in love speak +of this in common communion: until then I will not take any decisive +step. I suppose you feel as little inclined to speak to others of the +decision I have come to as I do to have it prematurely known." + +To the brother whose heart was most his own he devotes the concluding +words of the letter: + +"What is brother George's mind respecting the need of receiving this +diviner life in order to bring us into a closer communion with God +and make us inhabitants of heaven? George, shall we go arm-in-arm in +our heavenly journey as we have done in our earthly one?" + +While awaiting an answer to this letter he began another, in which he +summarizes more explicitly such of his reasons for becoming a +Catholic as might appeal on ordinary grounds of controversy to his +mother and his brother John, the latter of whom had recently become +an Episcopalian. Our extracts, however, will be made from the +passages more strictly personal and characteristic: + +"Concord, June 14, 1844.--Until I hear from you I cannot say how you +may view my resolution or feel regarding the decision I have come to, +and therefore I am at a loss what to say to you respecting it. One +thing must strike you as inexplicable: that I relinquish my studies +here so suddenly. This arises from the fact that I have not kept you +perfectly informed concerning the change my mind has for some time +been undergoing with regard to the object and end of study, its +office and its benefits. I kept silent, thinking that my views might +be but temporary, and that it was unnecessary to trouble you with +them. My simple faith is, in a few words, that we must first seek the +kingdom of God, and then all necessary things will be given us. And +this kingdom is not found through nature, philosophy, science, art, +or by any other method than that of the Gospel: the perfect surrender +of the whole heart to God." + +We stop here to remark that such expressions as these are neither to +be taken as evidences of a passing disgust for the drudgery of +text-book tasks, nor as signs of an indolent disposition. They are +the assertion of a principle which Father Hecker maintained +throughout his life. He never felt the least interest in studies not +undertaken as a result of some supernatural impulse, or pursued in +view of some supernatural aim. He looked with the coldest unconcern +upon such investigations of science as promise nothing toward solving +the problems which perplex humanity on the moral side, or which do +not contribute to the natural well-being of men. With the pursuit of +any science which does promise such results he was in the fullest +sympathy, and was himself an unwearied student. It was anything but +intellectual indolence which caused him to put away his books. He was +naturally of a busy temperament: if men who knew him but slightly +might think him visionary, no man could know him at all and consider +him a sluggard. We shall see in the sequel how, under extremely +critical circumstances, the assertion of this principle was wrung +from him by the constraining force of his interior guide. Much of +what follows illustrates this trait of character. + +The letter last quoted from had not yet been sent when the answer to +his announcement of June 11 reached him, and he added a postscript. +The only point in it to which he alludes or makes any direct reply is +the gentle expression of his mother's disapprobation of his purpose: + +"Your letter and draft, brother George, came this morning. You say +mother would prefer my joining the Anglican Church. The reasons why +she prefers this are such as would doubtless govern me if I did not +feel still deeper and stronger reasons to overcome them. . . . My +present convictions are deeper far than any I have ever experienced, +and are not hastily decided upon." + +Turning now to the diary, the entries made at this time seem +especially characteristic: + +"June 13, 1844.--I feel very cheerful and at ease since I have +consented to join the Catholic Church. Never have I felt the +quietness, the immovableness, and the permanent rest that I do now. +It is inexpressible. I feel that essential and interior permanence +which nothing exterior can disturb, and no act which it calls on me +to perform will move in the least. It is with a perfect ease and +gracefulness that I never dreamed of that I shall unite with the +Church. It will not change but fix my life. No external relations, +events, or objects can disturb this unreachable quietness or break +the deep repose in which I am. + +"The exoteric eye is double; the esoteric eye is single. + +"The external world is divisional; the internal world is unity. + +"The esoteric includes the exoteric, but the exoteric excludes the +esoteric. + +"The man can move all faculties, organs, limbs; but they cannot move +the man. + +"The Creator moves the creature, and the creature moves the created. + +"We know God by looking towards Him with the single eye. + +"To-morrow I go with R. W. Emerson to Harvard to see Lane and Alcott, +and shall stay until Sunday. We shall not meet each other, for I can +meet him on no other grounds than those of love. We may talk +intellectually together, and remark, and reply, and remark again." + +We give the reader from the diary the following estimate of a +transcendentalist, mainly to serve as a background for the picture +which Isaac Hecker drew of his own mind in the succeeding pages: + +"June 14.--A transcendentalist is one who has keen sight but little +warmth of heart; who has fine conceits but is destitute of the rich +glow of love. He is _en rapport_ with the spiritual world, +unconscious of the celestial one. He is all nerve and no +blood--colorless. He talks of self-reliance, but fears to trust +himself to love. He never abandons himself to love, but is always on +the lookout for some new fact. His nerves are always tight-stretched, +like the string of a bow; his life is all effort. In a short period +he loses his tone. Behold him sitting on a chair; he is not sitting, +but braced upon its angles, as if his bones were of iron and his +nerves steel; every nerve is drawn, his hands are closed like a +miser's--it is his lips and head that speak, not his tongue and +heart. He prefers talking about love to possessing it, as he prefers +Socrates to Jesus. Nature is his church, and he is his own god. He is +a dissecting critic--heartless, cold. What would excite love and +sympathy in another, excites in him curiosity and interest. He would +have written an essay on the power of the soul at the foot of the +Cross. . . . + +"That the shaping of events is not wholly in our own hands my present +unanticipated movement has clearly demonstrated to me. . . I know of +no act that I could make which would have more influence to shape my +destiny than my union with the Catholic Church. . . . It is very +certain to me that my life is now as it never has been. It seems that +I live, feel, and act from my heart. That reads, talks, hears, sees, +smells, and all. All is unity with me, all love. Instead of exciting +thoughts and ideas, as all things have done heretofore, they now +excite love, cheerful emotion, and gladness of heart. + +"To the Spirit within I address myself: So long as I struggled +against Thee I had pain, sorrow, anguish, doubt, weeping, and +distress of soul. Again and again have I submitted to Thee, though +ever reluctantly; yet was it always in the end for my good. Oh! how +full of love and goodness art Thou to suffer in us and for us, that +we may be benefited and made happy. It is from Thy own pure love for +us, for Thy happiness cannot be increased or diminished, that Thou +takest upon Thee all the suffering of the children. + +"Lord, if I would or could give myself wholly up to Thee, nothing but +pure joy, complete happiness, and exquisite pleasure would fill all +my spirit, soul, and body. The Lord desires our whole happiness; it +is we who hinder Him from causing it by our struggles against His +love-working Spirit. + +"Who is the Lord? Is He not our nearest friend? Is any closer to us +than He when we are good? Is any further from us when we are wicked? +His simple presence is blessedness. Our marriage with the Lord should +be so complete that nothing could attract our attention from Him. + +"We shall speak best to men when we do not reflect on whom we are +talking to. Speak always as if in the presence of God, where you must +be if you would speak to benefit your neighbor. + +"If we are pure before God the eyes of men will never make us ashamed. + +"We must be blind to all things and have our single eye turned toward +God when we would act in any manner upon earth--when we would +heavenize it." + +Here ends the contemporary record of his life in Concord. The next +letters are dated at Worcester; the next entry in the diary at New +York. There remain, however, some interesting allusions to it in the +articles in this magazine of 1887 concerning Dr. Brownson, and some +conversations, still more graphic, in the pages of the memoranda. + +________________________ + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +AT THE DOOR OF THE CHURCH--CONTINUED + +THE first Bishop of Boston, John Louis de Cheverus, who left that +diocese to become successively the Bishop of Montauban and the +Cardinal-Archbishop of Bordeaux, was, in the strictest sense, a +missionary during his American episcopate. Thoroughly French in +blood, in training, in manners, and in zeal, his penetrating +intelligence not less than his saintly life and his tireless charity +recommended him to men of all creeds and of none. His departure from +Boston was regarded by all its citizens as a public misfortune, and +by himself as cause for profound personal sorrow. He had learned +there a lesson of liberty which he found it hard to forget when he +went away. One of his biographers records that Charles X., whose +offer to make him Minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs Cheverus had +declined, once questioned him concerning the liberty enjoyed by the +Church in the United States. "There," said the archbishop in reply. +"I could have established missions in every church, founded +seminaries in every quarter, and confided them to the care of Jesuits +without any one thinking or saying aught against my proceedings; all +opposition to them would have been regarded as an act of despotism +and a violation of right." "That people understand liberty, at +least," returned the king; "when will it be understood among us?" + +We have spoken of Bishop Cheverus because, at the time of Isaac +Hecker's acquaintance with his successors, his influence was still +felt in Boston. + +His immediate successor was Benedict Joseph Fenwick, a Marylander, +descended in direct line from one of the original English Catholic +pilgrims who founded that colony under Lord Baltimore. During his +episcopate the diocese grew amazingly. When he went to it, in 1826, +although it comprised the whole of New England, it contained but two +churches fit for divine service, and only two priests besides +himself. When he died, in 1846, he left behind him two bishoprics +where there had been but one; while in that of Boston alone there +were then fifty churches, served by as many priests. Although +conversions had not been rare, the increase was mainly due to +immigration, which the great famine in Ireland was speedily to +increase. The efforts of Bishop Fenwick and those of his coadjutor +and successor were, in the nature of things, conservative rather +than aggressive. + +Bishop Fitzpatrick, also, was American by birth and training. A +native of Boston, he was reared in its public grammar and Latin +schools until the age of seventeen, when he began his studies for the +priesthood, which he finished in France. Both of these prelates +continued the tradition of Cheverus so far as their own persons were +concerned. But while they easily won and retained the respect of +their more intelligent Protestant fellow-citizens, the confidence +they inspired as men was not ample enough to protect the Church over +which they ruled when once it began to show signs of solid +prosperity. Cheverus was not wrong in counting with assurance upon +American love for and understanding of true liberty, but he doubtless +owed more than he thought at the time to the insignificance and +scanty numbers of his flock. There came a period, even in the career +of his immediate successor, when liberty itself seemed but a feeble +sapling which a strong wind of stupid bigotry might avail to root out +and cast away; while the chronicle of Bishop Fitzpatrick's episcopate +contains the record of convents invaded under forms of law, and of +both convents and churches sacked and burned by "Native American" +mobs, who were secure of their immunity from punishment. Such +outrages, witnessed by the second and third Bishops of Boston, and +the incessant conflict to which they were compelled with the bigotry +which caused them and which protected their perpetrators, predisposed +both them and their clergy to a distrustful attitude toward converts +like Brownson and Hecker, in whom American traits of character were +very conspicuous. Dr. Brownson has recorded in _The Convert,_ p. 374, +the fact that his entrance into the Church was delayed for months by +his fear of explaining to Bishop Fitzpatrick the precise road by +which he had approached it. He says: + +"I really thought that I had made some philosophical discoveries +which would be of value even to Catholic theologians in convincing +and converting unbelievers, and I dreaded to have them rejected by +the Catholic bishop. But I perceived almost instantly that he either +was ignorant of my doctrine of life or placed no confidence in it; +and I felt that he was far more likely, bred as he had been in a +different philosophical school from myself, to oppose than to accept. +I had, indeed, however highly I esteemed the doctrine, no special +attachment to it for its own sake, and could, so far as it was +concerned, give it up at a word without a single regret; but, if I +rejected or waived it, what reason had I for regarding the Church as +authoritative for natural reason, or for recognizing any authority in +the bishop himself to teach me? Here was the difficulty. . . . My +trouble was great, and the bishop could not relieve me, for I dared +not disclose to him its source." + +The reader will understand that we do not compare the course of +Bishop Fitzpatrick in Brownson's case with that taken by him toward +Isaac Hecker. The latter was a young man, unknown to the bishop save +by what he may have said of his own antecedents, while Brownson was a +well-known publicist, concerning whom some reserve was natural and +prudent. + +With Bishop Fenwick, who was already in failing health, the new +candidate for admission to the fold seems to have had very little +intercourse. As we have seen, the journal makes only a passing +reference to him, but is more explicit with regard to his coadjutor. +Certain points in their interview which remained ever fresh in his +memory were, at the time, cast into the shade by his deep +preoccupation with what may, perhaps, be called the spiritual as +distinguished from the intellectual side of the Church. That in her +which makes her the tender and bountiful mother of the simple was +what chiefly attracted him, just as others are mainly drawn to her as +the adequate teacher and guide of the intellect. If he found the door +at which he was knocking something hard in turning on its hinges; if +the vestibule into which he was ushered seemed a trifle narrower than +he had expected at the entrance of a temple so world-wide; his +satisfaction at having determined upon entrance made all other +considerations for the moment dwindle. But that the impressions he +received were permanent, in their suggestiveness at least, is +witnessed by an article in this magazine for April, 1887, entitled +"Dr. Brownson and Bishop Fitzpatrick," as well as by the several +references to this period which occur in the memoranda. + +In the article just named Father Hecker threw into a paragraph or +two, which we subjoin, the substance of his first, and perhaps at +this time his only, interview with Bishop Fitzpatrick: + +"It was always difficult to detect how much of conviction and how +much of banter there was in his treatment of men engaged in the +actual intellectual movement of our times. I found such to be the +case in my own intercourse with him. He always attacked me in a +bantering way, but, I thought, half in earnest too. Hence I never +found it advisable to enter into argument with him. How can you argue +with a man, a brilliant wit and an accomplished theologian, who +continually flashes back and forth between first principles and +witticisms? When I would undertake to grapple with him on first +principles he would throw me off with a joke, and while I was +parrying the joke he was back again upon first principles. + +"An illustration of his way of treating men and questions was his +reception of me when I presented myself to him, some months before +Dr. Brownson did, for reception into the Church. 'What truths were +the stepping-stones that led you here?' he would have asked if he had +had the temperament of the apostle. But instead of searching for +truth in me he began to search for error. I had lived with the Brook +Farm Community and with the Fruitlands Community, and before that had +been a member of a Workingman's party in New York City, in all which +organizations the right of private ownership of property had been a +prime question. . . . But, as for my part, at the time Bishop +Fitzpatrick wanted me to purge myself of communism, I had settled the +question in my own mind, and on principles which I afterwards found +to be Catholic. The study and settlement of the question of ownership +was one of the things that led me into the Church, and I am not a +little surprised that what was a door to lead me into the Church +seems at this day to be a door to lead some others out. But when the +bishop attacked me about it, it was no longer with me an actual +question. I had settled the question of private ownership in harmony +with Catholic principles, or I should not have dared to present +myself as a convert. But I mention this because it illustrates Bishop +Fitzpatrick's character. + +"His was, indeed, a first-class mind both in natural gifts and +acquired cultivation, but his habitual bearing was that of suspicion +of error; as man and prelate he had a joyful readiness to search it +out and correct it from his own point of view. He was a type of mind +common then and not uncommon now--the embodiment of a purpose to +refute error, and to refute it by condemnation direct, authoritative +even if argumentative: the other type of mind would seek for truth +amidst the error, establish its existence, applaud it, and endeavor +to make it a basis for further truth and a fulcrum for the overthrow +of the error connected with it. + +"It will be seen, then, what kind of man Dr. Brownson first met as +the official exponent of Catholicity, one hardly capable of properly +understanding and dealing with a mind like his; for he was one who +had come into the possession of the full truth not so much from +hatred of error as from love of truth. Brownson's soul was intensely +faithful to its personal convictions, faithful unto heroism--for that +is the temper of men who seek the whole truth free from cowardice, or +narrowness, or bias. He has admitted that the effect of his +intercourse with the bishop was not fortunate. He confesses that he +forced him to adopt a line of public controversy foreign to his +genius, and one which had not brought him into the Church, and +perhaps could not have done so." + +The memoranda contain a more familiar account of this interview: + +"I presented myself for instruction and reception into the Church at +the episcopal residence, and was received by the old bishop, Fenwick. +He questioned me on the essential doctrines and found me as I was; +that is, firm as a rock and perfectly clear in my belief. Then he +said, 'You had better see Bishop John.' I did so. He tried to get me +started on questions of modern theology such as he suspected I might +be (as he would doubtless think, knowing my antecedents) unsound on; +for example, rights of property, etc. I refused to speak my +sentiments on them. I said I had no difficulties about anything to +submit to him. I knew the Catholic faith and wished to be received +into the Church at once. I had come seeking the means to save my +soul, and I wanted nothing from him but to be prepared for baptism." + +More interesting than either of these narrations is the following +conversation, recorded on July 4, 1884. Besides furnishing a very +explicit answer to a question which may occur to some minds, as to +why a man who always took such a hopeful view of human nature as +Isaac Hecker did, should not have been repelled from Catholicity by +the doctrine of original sin, it adds some further particulars to the +meagre array of facts in our possession: + +"Suppose," he was asked, "that the deliverances of the Council of +Trent on original sin, and the theories of Bellarmine on that +doctrine, had been offered you during your transition period: what +would you have thought of them?" + +"I would have received them readily enough. Why, the book I took to +Concord to study was the Catechism of the Council of Trent, which has +the strongest kind of statement of that doctrine. Bellarmine's +formula of _nudus_ and _nudatus_ would have opened my eyes amazingly +to a solution of the whole difficulty."* + +[* Reference is here made to a very famous saying of Bellarmine's in +explanation of a prevalent teaching on original sin. According to +that teaching, if Adam had been originally constituted in a state of +pure nature, devoid of supernatural gifts and graces, his spiritual +condition might be described as naked--_nudus._ On the other hand, +man as now born is _nudatus,_ stripped of those gifts and graces, +suffering the penal privation of them on account of Adam's sin. + +"The corruption of nature," says Bellarmine, "does not come from the +want of any natural gift, or from the accession of any evil quality, +but simply from the loss of a supernatural gift on account of Adam's +sin."] + +The Catechism of the Council of Trent, to which Father Hecker so +often refers, was the very best book he could have had for learning +just what Catholicity is in doctrine and practice. It is unique in +Catholic literature, being the only authoritative expression of the +Church, in extended form, on matters of pastoral theology. Outside +the dogmatic circle of doctrinal definition it enjoys the fullest and +most distinct authorization. The express command of the council +caused it to be prepared by a special congregation of prelates and +divines, and it was promulgated to the episcopate to be translated +into the language of the people and expounded to them by all pastors. +It may be said of it that it is the only book which has the Catholic +Church for its author. It is a book which never can grow old; and in +witness of that perennial quality, it may be mentioned that Cardinal +Newman said that he never preached without using it in preparation. +It is an exponent of Catholic truth absolutely free from the danger +of private, or national, or racial, or traditional bias--the very +book Isaac Hecker was in need of. Its plentiful use of Scripture; its +confident appeal to antiquity; its perfect clearness; its +completeness; its tone of conviction no less than its attitude of +authority; make it to such minds as his the very all-sufficient organ +of truth. Furthermore, the entire system of doctrine and morals known +to revealed religion finds here its adequate exposition. We are glad +of an occasion to say these words, not merely to chronicle the +usefulness of the book to Father Hecker, but also to recommend its +restoration to its proper place, which both by merit and by authority +is the first in the moral and pastoral literature of the Church. + +"The truth is," continue the memoranda, "that original sin _as taught +by the Church_ would never have been a great difficulty to me: of +course the Calvinistic doctrine is quite a different affair. + +"I was led, after I got to work at the Catechism of the Council of +Trent, in a way quite positive. For example, one thing I wanted was a +satisfaction of that feeling and sentiment which has made so many +persons Spiritualists. I found that in the Church there was no +impassable barrier dividing the living from the departed. That was an +intense delight to me.* The doctrine of penance, and the forgiveness +of sins in the Sacrament of Penance, had a wonderful beauty as soon +as I found them. To be taught that God had somehow given men power to +dispense His graces and mercies made me say, Oh, how delightful a +doctrine that is, if I only could believe it! The doctrine of the +Communion of Saints and that of the Sacrament of Penance were very +pleasing to me. Hence, I soon saw that what I already had of truth +and light; what my best nature and conscience and my clearest natural +knowledge told me was truth; was but elevated and lifted up beyond +all conception by these and other doctrines of the Church. From this +I was soon in a position to appreciate the Church's claim to +authoritative teaching. If she, and she alone, had taught such +things, she must possess God's teaching authority. + +[* Reference is here made to the Catholic doctrine of the Communion +of Saints.] + +"When, therefore, I went into Boston and saw Bishop Fitzpatrick (who +is now, I hope, in the kingdom of heaven), he had little to do with +me in the way of instruction. The Trinity and other fundamental +doctrines I accepted readily on the authority of the Church. He was +very anxious to argue with me about socialistic theories, on account +of my having been at Brook Farm and Fruitlands. But I told him I had +no such difficulties as he supposed; that I had only gone to these +places in search of truth, not because I had formed any such theories +as they generally held. He then asked me whether I would not prefer +to be received into the Church in New York, where my friends were. I +said I did not care; if he would give me a letter I would present it. +He gave me one to Bishop McCloskey, who was then coadjutor in this +city." + +The reader may be interested in the terms in which the Catechism of +the Council of Trent expresses the doctrine of the Communion of +Saints. So far as that doctrine concerns the spiritual side of man it +is expounded in these words: + +"For the unity of the Spirit, by which the Church is governed, +establishes among all her members a community of spiritual blessings, +whereas the fruit of all the sacraments is common to all the +faithful, and these sacraments, particularly baptism, the door, as it +were, by which we are admitted into the Church, are so many +connecting links which bind and unite them to Jesus Christ." + +That it extends to the mystical and miraculous gifts so dear to +Father Hecker, was thus explained to him: + +"But the gifts which justify and endear us to God are not alone +common: 'graces gratuitously granted,' such as knowledge, prophecy, +the gifts of tongues and of miracles, and others of the same sort, +are common also, and are granted even to the wicked; not, however, +for their own, but for the general good; for the building up of the +Church of God." + +That the doctrine is the foundation of a real though not a legal +community of material goods, was evident to our young social reformer +from the following: + +"In fine, every true Christian possesses nothing which he should not +consider common to all others with himself, and should therefore be +prepared promptly to relieve an indigent fellow-creature; for he that +is blessed with worldly goods, and sees his brother in want, and will +not assist him, is at once convicted of not having the love of God +within him." + +Besides giving him a letter to Bishop McCloskey, Bishop Fitzpatrick +also furnished the young catechumen with one to the president of Holy +Cross College, an institution which had been established at +Worcester, Mass., in 1843 by Bishop Fenwick, and presented by him to +the Society of Jesus, of which he had been a member. The following +letter was written by Isaac to his family after he had arrived there; +his stay was not long: + +"Worcester, Mass., June, '44--Respecting the purpose which leads me +to New York I have scarcely a word to say. Quietly, without +excitement, I come with an immovable determination to be joined to +the Roman Catholic Church. There is a conviction which lies deeper +than all thought or speech, which moves me with an irresistible +influence to take this step, which arguments cannot reach, nor any +visible power make to falter. Words are powerless against it and +inexpressive of it; to attempt to explain, or give to the intellectual +mind the reasons why and wherefore, would be as impossible as to +paint the heavens or to utter the eternal Word, the centre of all +existence. It would be like asking, 'Wherefore is that which is?' the +finite questioning the infinite; an impossibility. . . . + +"No man by his own wisdom can find out God; and it is only by the +grace of Heaven that we come to, and by the heart perceive, the true +Church of Jesus Christ. Grace teaches us to feel and know that which +before was unfelt, unknown, invisible. Perfect submission to His love +breaks open all seals, unlocks all mysteries, and unfolds all +difficulties. . . . + +"No external event of any kind or character induces me to take this +step. If what does is delusion, what to name my former life I am at a +loss to know. . . + +"The heads of the college here appear to be men of good character, +devoted to the Church, innocent of the Protestant world of +literature, philosophy, etc. The president is a very social, frank, +warm-hearted man, of more extensive acquaintance in the world of +letters." + +________________________ + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +ACROSS THE THRESHOLD + +FROM Worcester Isaac went on to New York, stopping on the way to make +a brief visit to the Fourierite community in New Jersey, known as the +North American Phalanx. He probably had some personal acquaintances +there whom he hoped to inoculate with his newly-found certitude. He +reached home June 20, 1844, and five days later presented his letter +to Bishop McCloskey. Concerning the acquaintance then begun, which, +on the bishop's part, soon took the form of a discerning and wise +direction, and eventually deepened into a life-long friendship, we +shall have more to say hereafter. The diary chronicles their first +meeting and gives the reason of the brief delay which ensued before +Isaac was admitted to conditional baptism. The bulk of the entries +made between this date and that of his formal reception into the +Church, the first of August, contains spiritual doctrine of a kind so +eminently characteristic of Father Hecker throughout his life that we +continue to make extracts from it: + +"New York, June 25, 1844.--This morning I went to see Bishop +McCloskey. I found him a man of fine character, mild disposition, and +of a broader education than any of the Catholics I have had the +pleasure of meeting. He was acquainted with Brownson's writings and +Emerson's, and personally knew Mr. Channing, whom he had met at Rome. +He loaned me some books on matters pertaining to the Church. He is to +be gone for a fortnight from New York, and I am to wait until he +comes back before I take any further steps toward being united with +the Church." + +"July 5, 1844.--It is the duty of every man to do that which +expresses the divine life which stirs within him, and to do nothing +which is inconformable to it. So far as he falls short of this, so +far he falls short of his duty, his perfection, and divine beauty. I +think we may say with very great certainty that this is the only way +to obtain happiness in this world and eternal felicity in the world +to come. It is to this God calls us, but we--no, not truly we, but +the Man of Sin--flatter ourselves, as he did Eve, that if we follow +him we shall not die but become as gods. We, to-day, have the same +temptation to overcome that Eve had. + +"Oh, how much greater God would have us be than we are, and we will +not! We must cast out the Man of Sin and submit to the Paradisiacal +Man. This we are enabled to do, blessed be Heaven, by the grace of +God through Jesus Christ. + +"What are the temptations which hold men back from following God and +leading a divine life? In one word, the World. Pride, love of praise, +riches, self-indulgence, all that refers and looks to time instead of +eternity, heaven, God. + +"We should encourage all that gives us an impulse heavenward, and +deny all that tends to draw us down more into the body, sense, time. +Man, alas! is weak, powerless, and unable to perform any good deed +which will raise him to God without the free gift, the blessed grace +of God the Holy Spirit. We all fail to act up to the divine grace +which is given us. O Lord! forgive my manifold transgressions, and +empower me to be more and more obedient to thy Holy Spirit. My inward +man desires to follow Thy Spirit, but the appetites of my members +ever war against and often subdue him. Strengthen him, O Lord! and +enable him to govern my whole three-sphered nature. Send down Thy +celestial love into my heart and quicken all my heavenly powers. + +"It is very true that no man can serve two masters. Between God and +Mammon there is no compromise, no mediator. Lord, make me fully +sensible of this, and strengthen my resolution to follow Thee. I do +look to the Church of Christ for help. Oh, may I find in it that +which the Apostles found in Jesus!" + +We cannot refrain from reminding the reader of the immature age, and +almost total lack of education--in the ordinary meaning of the +term--of the man who wrote these lofty and inspiring sentences. He +was ignorant of everything but the most rudimentary truths of +Catholicity; had never read an ascetic work; had never spoken on +ascetical subjects with Catholics; had never read the life of a +saint; and had no experience to draw from except his own. Yet mark +the absolute certainty of his propositions and their uniform +correctness. It should also be made known that these doctrines and +sentiments, though written with the most evident haste, follow each +other, page after page, without an erasure or a correction. The +truths which had dropped upon his mind were, indeed, rudimentary, but +so well adapted was the soil to receive the seed that the fruit was +instant and mature. Seldom has spontaneity so well approved itself by +its utterances. + +"July 6.-The immediate effect of Christianity upon humanity has been +to increase man's sensibility to the objects of the spiritual world. +Poetry, music, the fine arts, are ennobling and spiritualizing only +so far as they appeal to the nature of man divinized by the influence +of the Divinity. Previous to the coming of Christ the tendency of the +arts was, on the whole, rather to encourage licentiousness and sin +than to elevate and refine human nature. The tendency of Christianity +was to restore man to his primitive gracefulness, excellence, and +beauty. Hence the expression of man in art--or, rather, of the divinity +in man--became purer and more beautiful in its character. . . . + +"In affirming Jesus to be the basis and life of modern civilization, +nothing is detracted from the great and good men who preceded Him; +nor" [is it denied] "that they have left traces of their genius upon +modern society. + +"When we speak of Jesus as God, we affirm Him to be the Source of all +inspiration, from whom all, ancient and modern, have derived their +life, genius, goodness, and divine beauty. + +"Jesus quickened the spiritual powers of the soul which were deadened +by the fall, and man again saw heaven, and angels descending and +ascending to the throne of ineffable Love. + +"All the promises of Jesus refer to gifts of spiritual power over +inanimate matter, the animal creation, and the Man of Sin. + +"Jesus came to give a spiritual life which would generate all +knowledge and physical well-being. He came, not to teach a system of +philosophy, however useful that might be; not to direct man how to +procure food for his physical existence with the least possible +exercise of physical strength, however necessary this might seem. But +He came to give man a new nature which shall more than do all this; +which will not only secure his well-being here, but his eternal +felicity hereafter. + +"As we rise above our _time_ nature, and are united with our _eternal_ +nature, we feel more and more our indebtedness to Christ. It was to +this He called us in all His words, and now calls us in the +Spirit. . . . + +"So long as low appetites are cherished, and selfish passions +harbored, and vanity allowed a seat in our bosoms, so long will men +be slaves to their stomachs, backs, and business. Every quickening of +our sensibility toward love, heaven, equity, will lead us to change +our circumstances so as to make them conformable to our new inward +life. + +"It is for us to be true to God, however unlike the world we may +seem. It is in silence, in private, alone, that deeds can be done +which shall outstrip those of the Alexanders and Napoleons in their +eternal effects." + +"July 7.--All that we contend for is that man should obey God, and +co-operate in His work _with his will_ and _not against it._ Interior +submission to the Love Spirit is the answer to all questions +concerning man's welfare, here and hereafter. Whatever a man is led +to do in obedience to it is well done and godlike, though it lead him +to offer up his only dear son. + +"We do say, with great emphasis, that nothing under heaven should +prevent a man from following God. Unless a man can give up all and +follow Christ, he is none of His." + +"Every _true_ man is a genius. + +"All genius is religious. + +"The objective forms of genius are the expressions of the beautiful, +the good, and the true; in one word--God. + +"He is a genius in whom the beautiful, the good, and the true +permanently inhabit. . . + +"The genius in every work of art is religious, whatever the subject +may be. + +"We repeat that every man is called to give expression to the +highest, best, divinest in him; and to this, and to this only is he +called. + +"We add that the Catholic Church is the medium of this divine life, +and that she has nurtured and encouraged men of genius in her bosom +as a fond mother. + +"We do not mean to say that the Church has converted men of ordinary +stamp into geniuses, but that she has given the highest inspiration +to the inborn capacity of genius, and so, to men thus gifted, has +been the means by which they have become more than they could have +been without her: so, also, with the most ordinary men. + +"We affirm that the influence of Protestantism upon the business +world has been to make it much more unchristian than it was in the +middle ages under the influence of Catholicism." + +At this period, when Isaac Hecker's search had ceased, but when he +had not yet entered into complete and formal possession of the truth, +we find him looking back at his past almost as if it were a thing in +which his interest was but curious and impersonal. The thought of +writing a history of it occurred to him, and he jotted down some +brief notes, and made a partial collection of such letters and other +memoranda, apart from the diary, as he found to have been preserved +by his family. But this scheme was merely one of the occupations with +which he beguiled the necessary delay imposed on him by Bishop +McCloskey's absence. One can easily believe that the plan he proposed +to himself has deeply interested the present writer, who, though +regretting that it was not followed out by Isaac Hecker himself, has +yet been enabled by the diary and the letters to measurably fulfil +its purpose. He divided it into five periods, and, with a +reminiscence of _Wilhelm Meister,_ called it his _Wanderjahr:_ + +"The first should be named Youth, and give the ideal and the actual +in youth. + +"The second should be the struggle between the ideal and the actual. + +"The third should be the mastery and supremacy of the ideal over the +actual and material. + +"The fourth should give the absolute union of the ideal and the +eternal-absolute in their unconditioned existence. + +"The fifth should give the eventual one-ness of the ideal-absolute +with humanity and nature. + +"Under these five heads I have in mind materials sufficient to make +a volume, but lack the close application necessary to connect them. I +do not say it would be readable when done. It would be the esoteric +and exoteric history of my own life for ten years. . . + +"I would open the first chapter thus: Let men say what they will, God +above us, the human soul, and all surrounding nature, are great +realities, eternal, solemn, joyous facts of human experience." + +In the fine passage that follows we have an anticipation of the +prominent modern conception of Christianity, as a developing force in +the history of man--closing an epoch and introducing a new species; +or, as Father Hecker would have said in later years, raising man from +his natural position as a creature of God to true sonship with Him +through affiliation with Jesus Christ. The thought, as it stands in +the diary, is eminently characteristic of Isaac Hecker, who always +felt, in a measure beyond what is ordinary, his solidarity with all +his kind, and a longing to keep in step with them on the line of +their direct advance: + +"July 12.--We make no question that God gave to all nations, previous +to the birth of Jesus Christ, His beloved and only Son, dispensations +of light and love in their great men, and led them from time to time +to the stage of civilization to which they arrived. The Christian +affirms that God is the Parent of humanity, the Father of every human +being.* It would be in direct contradiction to his faith to deny +this. But Jesus Christ came to introduce a new life, whose light and +love should so surpass all that had been before Him as to make it +appear as darkness by contrast. This life makes no war against the +good and true that already existed in men, but it embraces, includes, +and fulfils it all, and then adds more than men had dared to dream +before His coming. That Christianity is of this high character, not +only did its Author show by the example of His life and death, but it +has shown itself to be so wherever it has come in contact with any of +the older forms of religious faith and doctrine. It has exhibited a +power that is superior to, and which overcomes, all that arrays +itself against it. We do not deny that Zoroaster, Pythagoras, Plato, +Socrates, Zeno, Cato, etc., were good, great, and religious men, +above the age in which they lived, and inspired be a life not only +superior to that of their time but above that of a great part of +Christendom, so-called. But we say that Christ gave to the world a +life infinitely above theirs, and that, had they been His +contemporaries, or ours, they would have been as far superior to +their actual selves as the inspiration of Christianity is superior to +that under which they lived." + +[* "As some also of your own poets said: For we are also His +offspring. Being, therefore, the offspring of God, we must not +suppose the Divinity to be like unto gold or silver or stone, the +graving of art and the device of man." (Acts 17:28, 29)] + +Although there is authority for saying that the business partnership +between Isaac Hecker and his brothers was not formally dissolved +until he went away to Belgium in 1849, he seems never to have resumed +any active share in it after his return from Concord. Now and again +the old scruples about this apparent inactivity returned upon him, +and we find him contracting his personal needs within a compass so +narrow that his support shall be felt as the least possible burden. +Thus he writes, on July 13, that his present state of suspension from +all outward engagements cannot and should not be of long continuance. +He adds: + +"It is a clear and bounden duty that every one should in some way or +other compensate the world for that which he consumes from its store. +But I do not see how I can do this consistently with the present +state of my mind. To be sure I have contracted my wants as respects +eating as far as seems possible to me; somewhat in dress, but not as +far as I should and can do. As for pleasures and many other causes of +expenditure, I trust I am not immoderate. In this part of the world I +do not see any prepared, congenial conditions. If I were in Europe, I +should find in the Catholic Church institutions which I could enter +for a time, until this period of my life would either fix itself +permanently, or give place to another in which I could see my way +more clearly. But here I am, and not in Europe. Some thoughts have +arisen in my mind, and I will state them, as to what may come at some +future time within the range of the possible: + +"If I am joined to the Catholic Church, and there is such an +institution in Europe, may I not go there and live for a time? Ah! is +this possible? + +"If we owned a spot of ground, I would be willing to go on it and +engage as much of my time as possible in cultivating and improving it. + +"Lastly, I do not know what effect the advice and influence of the +Catholic Church may have upon my mind, and do have a slight hope that +I may find the exact remedy that I need in my union with her. + +"I feel the assurance that if I follow the Spirit of God, and place +all my confidence in it, it will do for me what I dare not hope to do +for myself." + +A day or two later he jots down, casually as it were, one of those +profound observations which are like pointers to his whole career. +Occurring at this early period, when, as the reader may see +hereafter, the germs of all his later thought and work were beginning +to unfold, they are like rifts in the darkness which seemed to +himself to lie about his future, and show plainly to the student of +his life how straight and secure his path was amidst it all. He had +been counselling himself to patience and entire reliance upon God's +providence while waiting the opportunity "to create or procure the +circumstances" necessary to the expression of his own individuality. +He felt that this was the especial task to which all men were called. +To use his own words: + +"It is for this we are created; that we may give a new and individual +expression of the absolute in our own peculiar character. As soon as +the new is but the re-expression of the old, God ceases to live. Ever +the mystery is revealed in each new birth. So must it be to eternity. +The Eternal-Absolute is ever creating new forms of expressing itself." + +In the next chapter we shall have occasion to give Father Hecker's +choice of an epitaph for Dr. Brownson. We think that the sentences +just quoted are worthy to be his own. + +In the middle of July Bishop McCloskey returned to New York, and +Isaac waited upon him without delay. Their first long conversation +made it plain to the bishop that the young man had very little need +of further preliminary instruction, and it was settled that +conditional baptism should be administered to him within a fortnight. +That the nature of Isaac Hecker's vocation also revealed itself to +this prudent adviser is also evident from this entry, made in the +diary as soon as the visit was ended: + +"He said that my life would lead me to contemplation, and that in +this country the Church was so situated as to require them all to be +active. I did not speak further on this subject with him. He asked +whether I felt like devoting myself to the order of the priesthood, +and undergoing their discipline, self-denial, etc., and becoming a +missionary. I answered that all I could say was that I wished to live +the life given me, and felt like sacrificing all things to this; but +could not say that the priesthood would be the proper place for me. + +"I feel that if, for a certain length of time, and under the +discipline of the Church, I could have the conditions for leading the +life of contemplation, it would be what the Spirit now demands. +Whether I shall not be compelled back to this if I attempt to follow +some other way, I am not perfectly sure. The bishop intimated that in +Europe there were brotherhoods congenial to the state of mind that I +am in. If so, and I could remain there for a certain length of time, +why should I not go? I will inquire further about it when next I +speak with the bishop. + +"There is a college at Fordham where there is to be a commencement +to-morrow, which the bishop invited me to go and see. Perhaps I shall +find this place to be suitable, and may be led to examine and try it. +The Lord knows all; into His hands I resign myself." + +His impressions of the Catholic college at Fordham he does not +record. The next entry in the diary is, as usual, taken up with the +large topics which for the most part excluded particular incidents +from mention. What his strict abstinence from permitted pleasures, +and the rigorous self-discipline which he had so long practised, +meant to himself, may be partly gathered from the extract we are +about to give. He says he does not call such denial, + +"in strict language, the denial of our true, God-created, immortal +self, but the denial of that which is not myself, but which has +usurped the place of my true, eternal, heavenly, Adamic being. It is +the restoration of that defaced image of God to its primitive divine +beauty, grace, and sweetness. We must feel and possess the love and +light from above before we have the disposition and power to deny the +body and the wisdom of this world. If we have the Christ-spirit, we +will fulfil the Christ-commands. + +"Thus was it with man prior to his spiritual death, his fall. He +lived in and enjoyed God, and was in communion and society with +angels, not knowing good and evil. His life was spontaneous; his +wisdom intuitive; he was unconscious of it, even as we would be of +light were there no darkness. We should see it and be recipients of +all its blessings without knowing its existence. But darkness came, +and man knew. Alas! in knowing he lost all that he possessed before. + +"Jesus came to restore man to that eternal day from which Adam fell." + +About this time he mentions having spent a day in the woods with some +friends, at Fort Lee; it is the only allusion we find to any sort of +recreation or companionship with others. He sat alone for an hour, he +says, in a pleasant spot which overlooked the Hudson and the high +Palisade rocks, and "seemed to be in communion with the infinite +invisible all around in all the deep avenues of the soul." + +Four days before his baptism comes this anticipation of it: + +"New York, July 27, '44.--I have commenced acting. My union with the +Catholic Church is my first real, true act. And it is no doubt the +forerunner of many more--of an active life. Heretofore I did not see +or feel in me the grounds upon which I could act with permanence and +security. I now do; and on this basis my future life will be built. +What my actions may be, I care not. It was this deep eternal +certainty within I did wish to feel, and I am now conscious that the +lack of it was the reason for my inactivity. + +"With this guide I ask no other, nor do I feel the need of the +support of friends, or kindred, or the world. Alone it is sufficient +for me, though it contradicts the advice of my friends and all my +former life. It certainly seems to me absolute: if any error arises +it will be from my disobedience." + +"July 30.--The inward voice becomes more and more audible. It says: +'I am--obey!' + +"The new clothes itself in new dress. + +"What proof does a man give that _he is_ if he does only what has +been done? + +"Can a man repeat the past with genius? + +"One true act opens the passage to ten more. + +"Man is left to his own destiny; religion but sanctifies it." + +When the day comes at last, the Sacrament itself gets only the +briefest chronicle. The door seems but a door. Passing through it, he +finds himself at home, and apparently without one quickening of the +pulse, or any cessation of his desire to penetrate all its secret +chambers. The explanation of this is to be looked for in the +presumption that his baptism in infancy had been valid. It was +conferred by a Lutheran minister who must have been trained in +Germany, and whose methodical adherence to the proper form might be +counted on. In the sight of God, doubtless, he had never since been +outside the Church. He was like a child stolen from the cradle, but +in whom racial and family traits had been superior to an uncongenial +environment. + +"Friday, August 1, 1844, 1 P.M.--This morning we were baptized by +Bishop McCloskey. To-morrow we attend the tribunal of confession." + +Then he mentions a curious fact which recalls a similar experience of +St. Catherine of Genoa: "We know not why it is we feel an internal +necessity of using the plural pronoun instead of the singular." + +But if conditional baptism left him silent, the Sacrament he +certainly received the following day opened the flood-gates of his +speech: + +"August 2.--Penance! joy! unbounded love! Sweet Jesus, Thy love is +infinite! Blessed faith! sweet love! I possess an internal glory, a +glowing flame of love! Let my whole life be one act of penance! O +dear Jesus, the life-giver! Oh, what a sweet thing it is to be in the +way of loveful grace! Jesus, keep me near Thee! Oh, how great a +condescension, Jesus is my Friend! Oh! who has the conception of +Jesus being his _Friend?_ O ancient faith, how dear, how good is God +in giving us sinners thee! Blessed is the grace of God that leadeth +sinners to thee! Oh, how thou hast comforted the soul! It would turn +from thee, but thou strengthenest it. The cup was bitter, but +infinitely more sweet is the joy thou givest. My soul is clothed in +brightness; its youth is restored. O blessed, ever-blessed, +unfathomable, divine faith! O faith of apostles, martyrs, confessors, +and saints! Holy Mother of Jesus, thou art my mother. I feel in my +heart thy tender love. O holy Mother, thou hast beheld me! Bless me, +Virgin Mother of Jesus!" + +________________________ + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +NEW INFLUENCES + +BISHOP McCLOSKEY, afterwards the first American Cardinal, was +coadjutor to Bishop Hughes from 1844 to 1847. He was living at the +old Cathedral when Isaac Hecker first called upon him. He was still a +young man, less than ten years separating him from the youthful +catechumen. In temperament they were very different. The bishop, a +man of routine in method and of no original views of principles, was +so, nevertheless, by mental predisposition rather than by positive +choice. He was a man of finished education; a dignified speaker, whose +words read as impressively as they sounded. Although the two men were +so unlike, the bishop could, at least after brief hesitation, fully +appreciate Isaac Hecker; nay, could love him, could further his +plans, and stand by him in his difficulties. Before we are done with +this Life, the reader will see this more in detail. + +Nor was Bishop McCloskey without light as a judge in spiritual +matters. By nature calm and self-poised, and readily obedient to +reason, the grace of his high office, his wide knowledge of men, his +extensive reading, were doubtless supplemented by a special infusion +of heavenly wisdom, due to his upright purpose and his spotless life. +Though not timid, he was not conspicuous for courage; his refuge in +difficulty was a high order of prudence, never cowardice; nor did he +err either by precipitancy, by cruelty, or by rigidity of adherence +to abstract rules of law. Father Hecker knew him thoroughly well, and +admired him; more, he profited by his guidance, and that not only at +this earliest period of their intercourse. It was by him that Isaac +Hecker's vocation was, though not revealed, yet most wisely directed. +Brownson told the young man that he ought to devote himself to the +Germans in this country; Bishop Hughes advised him to go to St. +Sulpice and study for the secular priesthood; Bishop McCloskey told +him to become a religious. + +Hitherto Isaac Hecker's environment had been entirely non-Catholic; +the ebbing and flowing of a sea of doubt and inquiry upon which +floated small boats and rafts which had been cast off from the good +ship of Christ. Now that he was on board the ship itself, he found +its crew and passengers sailing straight on toward their destined +haven, paying small regard, as a rule, to the small craft and the +shipwrecked sailors tossing on the wild waves around them, and only +surprised when one or another hailed their vessel and asked to be +taken on board. Nor did the attitude of non-Catholics, taking them +generally, invite anything else. Isaac Hecker, passing into the +Church, not only came into contact with its members, but was to be +for some years exclusively in their company. But, though carried +beyond the Ripleys, the Alcotts, the Lanes, the Emersons, and beyond +the theories they in some sort stand for and represent, he had +learned them and their lesson, and never lost his aptitude for +returning to their company with a Catholic message. His farewell to +that class did not involve loss of affectionate interest, for in mind +he continually reverted to them. He knew that their peculiar traits +were significant of the most imperative invitation of Providence to +missionary work. He thought it was to that class, or, rather, to the +multitude to whom they were prophets, that the exponent of +Catholicity should first address himself. They possessed the highest +activity of the natural faculties; they were all but the only class +of Americans who loved truth for its own sake, that trait which is +the peculiarity of the Catholic mind, and the first requisite for +real conversion. + +It may have been the latent strength of this conviction that, within +a year after his reception into the Church, permanently affected the +influence which Brownson had so long exerted over him. It ceased now +to be in any sense controlling, and at no future time regained force +enough to be directive. They found the Church together, went together +into its vestibule, and were received nearly at the same time. And +then the wide liberties of a universal religion gave ample scope and +large suggestion for the accentuation and development of their native +differences. Brownson was a publicist and remained so; Isaac Hecker +was a mystic and remained so. To the mysticism of the latter was +added an external apostolate; the public activity of the former was, +indeed, apostolic, but upon a field not only different from any he +would himself have spontaneously chosen, but quite unlike. Our reader +already knows how grievous a loss to the public exposition of the +Church in America this defection of Brownson's genius from its true +direction seemed to Father Hecker. He never ceased to deplore it as a +needless calamity, overruled in great measure, indeed, by the good +Providence of God, but not wholly repaired. + +Father Hecker's affection for Dr. Brownson never wavered, and his +gratitude towards him was only deepened and made more efficacious +with the lapse of time and the growth of his own spiritual +experience. If they did not always agree, either in principles or in +questions of policy, they always loved each other. The memoranda +furnish an interesting proof of this abiding affection on the part of +Father Hecker. He was asked: + +"Don't you think we might have a memorial tablet to Dr. Brownson in +our church?" + +"Yes! Of all the men I ever knew, he had most influence over me." + +"When you were in early life?" + +"Yes, of course. Oh! in after life no man has had influence with me, +but only God." + +This meant, of course, the influence of master upon disciple, and not +that of lawful authority or of fraternal love, to both of which +Father Hecker was ever very sensitive. + +Speaking at another time of Brownson, he quoted this sentence from +_The Convert_ as so perfect an epitome of the man that it should be +put on his monument: + +"I had one principle, and only one, to which, since throwing up +Universalism, I had been faithful; a principle to which I had, +perhaps, made some sacrifices--that of following my own honest +convictions whithersoever they should lead me." + +And just here is found one of those points of essential difference +which it is interesting to note between these two men, so closely +drawn together by Divine Providence at one period, and in such a +relation that to the elder the function of guidance seemed to have +been appointed. In unswerving fidelity to conviction they were on a +par, but in native clearness of vision and instinctive aversion from +error they were far less closely matched. Brownson in early life had +tried, accepted, and preached various forms of aberration from true +doctrine. One might say of him, that, having found himself outside +the highway at his start, he gathered accretions from hedge and ditch +as he struggled toward the true road, and went through an after +process of sloughing them one by one. Perhaps that process ended in +making him over-timid. It was otherwise with Isaac Hecker. He, too, +had stopped to consider many doctrines which purported to be true; +more than that, he had recognized in each the modicum of truth which +it possessed. But the falsity with which this was overloaded was +powerful enough to repel him, in spite of the truth he knew to be +contained in it. He carried in himself the touchstone to which all +that was akin to it beyond him responded of necessity. The Light +which lights every man who comes into the world had not only never +been darkened in him by sinful courses, but it seemed to burn with a +crystal clearness which threw up into hideous and repellant +proportions all that was offensive to it. Many voices had called him +from without, but he had refused obedience unto any. He never +submitted until his submission was full and not to be withdrawn. So, +once in the Church, and enjoying her divine guarantee of external +authority, he had few if any disquieting recollections of error to +breed distrust of the light that shone within him. His soul was of +that order to which truth speaks authoritatively and at first hand; +of that soil from which institutions which are to stand spring by a +true process of development, because it is the soil which first +received their germs. Always it is the soul of man which is inspired, +the mind of man that is enlightened. Then the teaching comes as +record of the fact and the doctrine; then the institution solidifies +about them, a perpetual witness that to many men and ages of men the +same message has been handed down by its first recipients and has +produced in them its proper results. The race of such souls has not +died out in the Christian Church. The one truth, spoken once for all +by the Incarnate Word, takes on for them new aspects and new tones. +They are the pioneers of great movements. Nurtured in the Church, +their ardor burns away mere conventionalities; born outside the +Church, the light she carries is a beacon, and the voice she utters +is felt as that of the true Mother. To adapt once more a pregnant +sentence from young Hecker, of the truth of which he was himself an +example: "It is God in them which believes in God." + +But to return to Brownson. An entry in the journal, made nearly a +year later, sums up the total impression which Brownson had made upon +his young disciple: + +"June 22, 1845.--0. A. B. is here. He arrived this morning. Though he +is a friend to me, and the most critical periods of my experience +have been known to him, and he has frequently given me advice and +sympathy, yet he never moves my heart. He has been of inestimable use +to me in my intellectual development. He is, too, a man of heart. But +he is so strong, and so intellectually active, that all his energy is +consumed in thought. He is an intellectual athlete. He thinks for a +dozen men. He does not take time to realize in heart for himself. No +man reads or thinks more than he. But he is greater as a writer than +as a person. There are men who never wrote a line, but whose +influence is deeper and more extensive than that of others who have +written heavy tomes. + +"It is too late for Brownson to give himself to contemplation and +interior recollection. He is a controversialist; a doctor. The last +he will be before long. Some have wondered why I should have +contracted such a friendship for one whom they imagine to be so harsh +and dictatorial. I have not felt this. His presence does not change +me; nor do I find myself where I was not after having met him. He has +not the temperament of a genius, but that of a rhetorician and +declaimer. He arrives at his truths by a regular and consecutive +system of logic. His mind is of a historical more than of a poetical +mould. + +"As a man, I have never known one so conscientious and +self-sacrificing. This is natural to him. His love of right is +supreme, and the thing he detests most is bad logic. It makes him +peevish and often riles his temper. He defeats, but will never +convince an opponent. This is bad. No one loves to break a lance with +him, because he cuts such ungentlemanly gashes. He is strong, and he +knows it. There is more of the Indian chief than of the Christian +knight in his composition. But he has something of both, though +nothing of the modern scholar, so called. His art is logic, but he +never aims at art. By nature he is a most genuine and true man; none +so much so. By no means E----" [Emerson?] "who ever prates about this +thing. If he attempts embellishment, you see at once it is borrowed; +it is not in his nature. There is a pure and genuine vein of poetry +running through him, but it is not sufficient to tincture the whole +flow of his life. He is a man of the thirteenth or fourteenth century +rather than of the nineteenth. He is an anomaly among its scholars, +writers, and divines. He is not thorough on any one subject though at +home on all. What a finished collegiate education would have done for +him I am baffled to conjecture. He is genuine, and I love him for +that; it is the crown of all virtues. But I must stop. I only +intended to mention that he is here." + +The reader may well suppose that Father Hecker fully appreciated +Brownson's literary genius. The English language in his grasp was a +weapon to slay and a talisman to raise to life. Never was +argumentation made more delightful reading; never did a master +instruct more exclusively by the aid of his disciple's highest +faculties than did Brownson. Habituated his whole life long to the +ardent study of the greatest topics of the human understanding, he +was able to teach all, as he had taught young Hecker, how to think, +discern, judge, penetrate, decide about them with matchless power; +and he clothes his conclusions in language as adequate to express +them as human language well can be. Clearness, precision, force, +purity, vividness, loftiness are terms applicable to Dr. Brownson's +literary style. It may be that the general reading public will not +study his works merely for the sake of his literary merits; the +pleasures of the imagination and of narrative are not to be found in +Dr. Brownson. But he certainly will win his way to the suffrages of +the higher class of students of fine writing. And let one have any +shadow of interest in the great questions he treats, and every page +displays a style which is the rarest of literary gifts. The very fact +that his writing is untinted by those lesser beauties which catch the +eye but to impede its deepest glances, is in itself an excellence all +the greater in proportion to the gravity of his topics. Absolutely +free from the least obscurity, his diction is a magnetic medium +uniting the master's personality, the disciple's understanding, and +the essence of the subject under consideration. Cardinal Newman, some +may believe, possessed this supreme rhetoric in perhaps even a higher +degree than Brownson, but so much can be said of few other writers of +English prose. George Ripley, whom Father Hecker deemed the best +judge of literature in our country or elsewhere, assured him that +there were passages in Dr. Brownson which could not be surpassed in +the whole range of English literature. + +________________________ + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +YEARNINGS AFTER CONTEMPLATION + +"COULD I but give up all my time to contemplation, study, reading, +and reflection!" + +Upon this aspiration as a background the whole matter of Isaac +Hecker's vocation must be considered. In substance we have met with +it very frequently already; in the shape just given it confronts us +on the first page of the new diary begun a few days before his +baptism. And as our reader accompanies us through the records he made +during the year that still elapsed before he entered the Redemptorist +Order, nothing, we think, will become more evident than that he was +called to something beyond adhesion to the Church, the worthy +reception of the sacraments, or even the ordinary sacerdotal state. + +To make this still plainer at the start, it may be useful to describe +briefly the special grounds whereon Isaac Hecker fought his life-long +battles. These were, first: The validity of those natural aspirations +which are called religious, and which embrace the veracity of reason +in its essential affirmations. Second: Whether man be by nature +guileless or totally depraved: Third, Whether religion be or be not +intrinsically and primarily an elevating influence whose end is to +raise men to real union with God. + +To many inquirers after the true religion such preliminary doubts +have been already settled, either by natural bent of mind or docility +to previous training; and they pass on to consider apostolical +succession, the primacy of Peter, the nature and number of the +sacraments, and other matters wherein heresy errs by denial or by +defect. But to Isaac Hecker all such points as these were, in a +sense, subsidiary. He had asked admission into the Church because he +found it to be the only teaching society on earth whose doctrines +gave complete and adequate satisfaction to that fundamental craving +of his nature which prompted his questions. She accredited herself to +him as fully by that fact as she must have done to many a philosophic +pagan among those who were the first disciples to the new faith +preached by St. John or St. Paul. All else he accepted with an +implicit, child-like confidence not different from that which moves +the loyal descendant of ages of Catholic ancestors. It was clear to +him that these accompanying doctrines and institutions must have been +enfolded within the original germ, and must be received on the same +authority, not by an analytic process and on their merits, one by one. + +What he wanted was, in the first place, sustenance for what he +invariably calls "the life" given him; and next, light to see in what +way he was to put to use the strength so gained. The first effect of +the sacraments was what one might call the natural one of making more +visible the shadows which enveloped his path, as well as stimulating +his instinctive efforts to pierce through them. After the rapturous +joy which succeeded confession and absolution, a period of desolation +and dryness heavier than he had ever known at once set in. Perhaps he +had expected the very reverse of this. At all events, it was not many +days before it drew from him the complaint that in leaving Concord he +had also left behind him the great interior sweetness which had +buoyed him up. On August 11 he writes: + +"How hard it has been for me to go through with all these solemn +mysteries and ceremonies without experiencing any of those great +delights which I have [before] felt. Why is this? Is it to try my +faith? O Lord! how long shall I be tried in this season of +desolation? Are these [delights] never to return? Have I acted +unworthily? What shall I do to receive these blessings again?" + +Then he resolves to make a novena, fasting the while on bread and +water, to entreat their renewal. But at once a better mood sets in +and he adds: + +"The highest state of perfection is to be content to be nothing. +Lord, give me strength not to ask of Thee anything that is pleasant +to me. I renounce what I have just asked for, and will try to do all +without the hope of recompense. If Thou triest my soul, let it not go +until it has paid the uttermost farthing." + +"August 15, 1844.--To-day is the holyday of the Assumption of the +dear, Blessed Mary, Mother of our Lord and Saviour Jesus. Oh! may I +be found worthy of her regard and love." + +"He that has not learned the bitterness of the drops of woe has not +learned to live. One hour of deep agony teaches man more love and +wisdom than a whole long life of happiness. . . + +"In many faces I see passing through the crowded streets there seems +a veiled beauty, an angel quickening me with purer life as I go by +them in anxious haste. Do we not see the hidden worth, glory, and +beauty of others as our own becomes revealed to us? Would the Son of +God have been needed to ransom man if he were not of incomparable +value?" + +One of the dreams that at this time occupied Isaac's mind was that of +undertaking a pilgrimage to Rome. He wrote to Henry Thoreau, +proposing that they should go in company, and felt regret when his +invitation was not accepted. His notion was to "work, beg, and travel +on foot, so far as land goes, to Rome. I know of no pleasanter, +better way, both for soul and body, than to make such a pilgrimage in +the old, middle-age fashion; to suffer hunger, storm, cold, heat--all +that can affect the body of flesh. If we receive hard usage, so much +the better will it be for us. Why thump one's own flesh here? Let it +be done for us by others, our soul, meanwhile, looking at higher +objects. . . . I feel that I have the stuff to do it in me. I would +love to work and beg my way to Rome if it cost me ten or fifteen +years of my life." + +Thoreau replied to this proposal that such a tour had been one of his +own early dreams, but that he had outlived it. He had now "retired +from all external activity in disgust, and his life was more +Brahminical, Artesian-well, Inner-Temple like." So the scheme, which +had secured Bishop McCloskey's approbation, although he had forcibly +represented to young Hecker that to go absolutely destitute of money, +and dependent for all things upon alms, would be impossible, was +presently shelved. It was but one of the diversions with which +certain souls, not yet enlightened as to their true course, nor +arrived at the abandonment of themselves to Divine Providence, are +amused. Their inactivity seems idleness to them, and they mistake the +restless impulse which bids them be up and doing for the voice of +conscience or the inspiration of heavenly wisdom; but it is neither. +Sometimes it is a superfluity of natural energy seeking an outlet; +sometimes it is the result of the strain placed upon nature by a very +powerful influx of grace. The infusion of power from above is often +greatly in excess of the light necessary for guidance in its use. +This last rarely comes entirely from the inner touch of the Holy +Spirit. In the lives of the Fathers of the Desert we read of a +certain young brother, Ptolemy, who went astray from sound +spirituality. When admonished he asserted that he need learn the +spiritual life from none save the Holy Ghost, of whose inspirations +any man of good will could be certain. He was told by the old monks +that the inspiration of the Holy Ghost and the understanding of the +same are two distinct things, and that this understanding is +disclosed only to him whose will has been purified by the practice of +obedience and humility. In truth, it is rarely that the inner voice +of God does not call for an external interpreter, which, if it does +no more than furnish a divinely authorized test and criterion, is +none the less necessary. Moreover, the inner voice seldom provides +ways and means for its own purposes. Father Hecker was ever a +strenuous defender of this inner and outer unity of the Divine +guidance, and his vocation was an illustration of it. However +masterful the inner voice of God which called him away from the +world, he was helpless till he heard its tones harmonized by the +counsel of Bishop McCloskey. When he found that even with this +backing secured, the external obstacles to his plan proved +invincible, he was once more nonplussed. "If not this, what?" he +asks himself. + +"I feel deeply and strongly that the circle of family happiness is +not sufficient for my nature, but what I can profitably do outside of +this I have not the ability to say. + +"That our real wishes are presentiments of our capabilities is a very +true proverb, no doubt; but are we not most ignorant of what these +are? It seems as though we are all unconsciously educated for unknown +ends and purposes. + +"I look upon myself as belonging to that class of decidedly +unfortunate beings who have no marked talent for any particular +pursuit. The words talent, genius, have for me no application +whatever. I stand on the confines of both worlds, not feeling the +necessity nor having the true valor to decide for either sphere. + +"O heaven! why was this deep, ever-burning life given me, unless it +be that I might be slowly and painfully consumed by it? All greatness +is in the actor, not in the act. He whom God has blessed with an end +in life, can earnestly labor to accomplish that end. But alas for +that poor mortal whose existence only serves to fill up space in the +world! How excruciating to him to be conscious of this! O Prometheus! + +"Simply to be what God would have us, is to be greater than to have +the applause of the whole world otherwise. All such statements as +this are necessarily one-sided. Because there are always good and +virtuous men in the world whose approbation is that of God. + +"There is an instinct in man which draws him to danger, as in +battle-fields; as there is also in the fly, drawing it to the flame +of light. It is the desire of the spirit within, seeking for release." + +"August 20, 1844.--Scarce do I know what to say of myself. If I +accuse myself by the light given me, it would lead me to leave all +around me. My conscience thus accuses me. And in partaking of worldly +things and going into the company around me, my interior self has no +pleasure, and I feel afterwards that the labor and time have been +misspent. How to live a life which shall be conformable to the life +wlthin and not separate from the persons and circumstances around me, +I cannot conceive. I am now like one who tastes a little of this and +then a little of that dish, while his time is wasted and his mind +distracted from that pure enjoyment which is a foretaste of the bliss +of the angels. I feel my primitive instincts and unvitiated tastes +daily becoming more sensible to inspirations from above, from the +invisible. The ideal world, the soul world, the kingdom of heaven +within, I feel as if I were more a friend and citizen of O Lord! my +heart would break forth in praise of the riches of the life given +within! It seems that in this that we enjoy all, know all, and +possess all. If we have Thee, O Lord! if Thou hast taken up Thy +dwelling in us, we enjoy heaven within and paradise without!" + +"August 21, 1844. The object of education should be to place each +individual mind in vital union with the One Universal Educator. . . . + +"The only pleasure for man is his union with _a priori_ principles." + +"August 23, 1844.--If the animal passions are indulged, of course you +must pay the cost. If you get a large family of children about you, +and please your animal appetites with all sorts of luxury, and +indulge your pride in all the foolish fashions of show, do not wonder +that it cost all your time to uphold such an expensive life. This is +necessary, unless you cheat some one else out of the hard-earned +value of his labor. I cannot conceive how a Christian, under the +present arrangements, can become wealthy without violating repeatedly +the precepts of his religion. . . ." + +"Where shall we find God? Within. + +"How shall we hear the voices of angels? Listen with the inward ear. + +"When are we with God? When we are no more with ourselves. + +"When do we hear the music of heaven? When we are entirely silent. + +"What is the effect of sin? Confusion. + +"Where does God dwell? In silence. + +"Who loves God? He who knows nothing and loves nothing of himself. + +"What is prayer? The breath of silence. + +"What is love? The motion of the pure will. + +"What is light? The shadow of love. + +"What is force? The power of love. + +"Where does God dwell? Where there is peace. + +"Who is most like God? He who knows he is the least like Him. + +"What is the innermost of all? Stillness. + +"Who is the purest? He who is most beyond temptation. + +"What is the personality of man? The absolute negation of +God. + +"What is God? The absolute affirmation in man. + +"What is it to know? It is to be ignorant. + +"What should we desire? Not to desire. + +"What is the most positive answer? Silence. + +"What is the truest? That which cannot be proven." + +"August 25, 1844.--In silence, suffering without murmuring. An +eternal thirst, enduring without being quenched. Infinite longings +without being met. Heart ever burning, never refreshed. Void within +and mystery all around. Ever escaping that which we would reach. +Tortured incessantly without relief. Alone--bereft of God, angels, +men--all. Hopes gone, fears vanished, and love dead within. These, +and more than these, must man suffer." + +"August 28, 1844.--Is it not because I have been too much engaged in +reading and paid too little attention to the centre that I have lost +myself, as it were? My position here distracts my attention and I +lose the delight, intimate knowledge, and sweet consciousness of my +interior life. How can this be remedied? I am constantly called of to +matters in which I have no relish; and if I retreat for a short time, +they rest on me like a load, so that I cannot call myself free at any +moment. I see the case as it stands, and feel I am losing my interior +life from the false position in which I am placed. + +"The human ties and the material conditions in which I am should +unquestionably be sacrificed to the divine interior relation to the +One, the Love-Spirit, which, alas! I have so sensibly felt. Can a man +live in the world and follow Christ? I know not; but, as for me, I +find it impossible. I feel more and more the necessity of leaving the +society and the distracting cares of a city business for a silent and +peaceful retreat, to the end that I may restore the life I fear I am +losing. Our natural interests should be subject to our human ties; +our human ties to our spiritual relations; and who is he who brings +all these into divine harmony? + +"How shall I make the sacrifice which shall accomplish the sole end I +have, and should have, in view? Thrice have I left home for this +purpose, and each time have returned unavoidably so, at least, it +seems to me. Once more, I trust, will prove a permanent and immovable +trial." + +To some, a most striking incidental proof of his inaptitude for the +ordinary layman's life, is found in the subjoined extract from the +memoranda. Speaking of this period, Father Hecker said: + +"Some time after my reception into the Church, I went to Bishop +McCloskey and told him I had scruples against renting a seat in the +Cathedral in Mott Street. 'If I do,' I said, 'I shall feel sore at +the thought that I have set apart for me in the house of God a seat +which a poor man cannot use.' I told him that for this reason I had +knelt down near the doorway, among the crowd of transient poor +people. Oh, how he eased my spirit by sympathizing with my sentiment, +and satisfied me by declaring that the renting of pews was only from +necessity, and he wished we could get along without it." + +His relations with some of his former friends at Brook Farm still +continued, though in a somewhat attenuated condition. From a long and +appreciative letter sent him by Burrill Curtis, we make an extract, +followed by Isaac's comments on it: + +"October 13, 1844.--Your preparedness for any fate has been one of +the chief attractions of your character to me, for I believe it is +deeper than a mere state of mind. But, for all that, your +restlessness is uppermost just now; not as a contradictory element, +for it is not; but as a discovering power." + +Isaac's journal, just at this time, was chiefly devoted to what he +calls "the many smaller, venial sins which beset my path and keep me +down to earth. Also to prescribe such remedies as may seem to me best +for these thorns in the flesh." On October 26 he notes that he has +received the letter just quoted, and remarks: + +"It showed more regard for me than I thought he had. The truth is, I +do not feel myself worthy to be the friend of any one, and would pass +my life in being a friend to all, without recognizing their +friendship towards me. + +"To-day I have felt more humanly tender than ever. The past has come +up before me with much emotion. ----- has been much in my thoughts. + +"I have experienced those unnatural feelings which I have felt +heretofore. I feel that the spirit world is near and glimmering all +around me. The nervous shocks I have been subject to, but which I +have not experienced for some time back, recurred this evening. I am +known to spirits, or else I apprehend them." + +He had taken up Latin and Greek again, and seems to have entered a +class of young men under the tutorship of a Mr. Owen. The entry just +quoted from goes on as follows: + +"I do not devote as much time to study as I should, or as I might. I +fear I shall never make anything of my studies. I do not endeavor +with all my might. This study has thrown me into another sphere. I +like it not. I feel apprehensive of something, of somewhat. Ten years +from now will fix my destiny, if I have any." + +Much good as he continued to receive from the sacrament of penance, +he found a not altogether usual difficulty in preparing for it. +Perhaps it was in the counsel he received there that he got courage +to gird himself for his renewed attack upon the languages, for his +delinquencies in this respect have the air of being the most tangible +of the matters on his conscience. + +"I must prepare for confession this week," he writes on November 5, +1844. "Oh! would that I could accuse myself as I should. Man is not +what he should be so long as he is not an angel. Oh, dear God! give +me Thy aid, and help me in my weaknesses. What sins can I accuse +myself of now? First--oh, Love! give me light to accuse myself--to +see my sins. _This is my greatest sin; that I cannot accuse myself +and am so wicked._ + +"Each day I omit a hundred duties that I should not. Lord, give me +Thy Spirit, that I may be humble, meek, and sweet in all my walk and +conversation. Fill my heart with Thy love." + +In a little while he found himself able to study more diligently, and +though he continually regrets the inroad this makes upon his interior +life, he seems not only to have persevered, but to have taken +considerable interest and an active part in the debates got up at +regular intervals by the class he had joined. He notes that he has +serious doubts whether it will be wise for him to express his full +mind on some of the subjects brought up. His fellow-pupils were all +Protestants, and some of them well-informed and talented young men. +His views would be new to them, and so would many of his authorities +for his statements of fact, and he thought it not unlikely that a +commotion might sometimes be raised which would not at all commend +itself to the teacher of the institution. He concluded, however, to +throw prudence to the winds, and on controverted points to express +his sentiments freely and frankly. There were some animated +discussions, no doubt. + +He was endeavoring at this time to retrench his hours of sleep to the +narrowest dimensions compatible with health, and found it, we may +note, the most difficult of his austerities. In other respects they +remained severe, as this entry may witness: + +"November 27, 1844.--I am sorely perplexed what to eat. Nuts, apples, +and bread seem not a diet wholly suitable, and what to add I know +not. Potatoes are not good; I think they were the cause of my illness +last week. I do not wish to partake of anything that comes even +remotely from an animal. Cooking, also, I wish, as far as possible, +to dispense with. I would I could dispense with the whole digestive +apparatus! Cheese, butter, eggs, milk, are for many reasons not a +part of my diet." + +The balance of this fourth volume of his diary, begun September 9, +1844, and ended January 2, 1845, is mainly occupied with addresses to +his guardian angel. He was, as those who knew him will remember, +always extremely devout to the angelic choirs. On his birthday this +year he writes as follows: + +"December 18, 1844.--Let me look back for a few moments and see where +I stood last year this time (an incomprehensible length), and where I +now stand. Then my path was dim, unfixed, unsettled. Then I was not +so disentangled from the body and its desires as, I hope in God, I +now am. In all I feel a consciousness that since then I have +spiritually grown--been transformed. For my present I cannot speak. +For my future, it seems I dare not speak. + +"Dreams of the future! Exalted visions! Beautiful, unspeakable hopes! +Deep, inarticulate longings that fill the conscious soul! Ah! so +sweet, so harmonious, so delightful, like an angel, like the bride of +the pure and bright soul adorned for the nuptials, do I see the +future beckoning me with a clear, transparent smile onward to her +presence. 'Ah!' my soul would say, 'we will meet, for I am in thy +presence, and faithful in God may heaven grant me to be.' The beauty, +the grace, the love, the sweetness that attract me, are beyond all +comparison. Ah! thou eternal, ever-blooming virgin, the Future, shall +I ever embrace thee? Shall I ever see thee nearer to my heart? I look +at myself and I am bowed down low in grief; but when I cast my eyes +up to thee, in seeing thee I am lost. The grace and beauty I see in +thee passes into my soul, and I am all that thou art. I am then +wedded to thee, and I would that it were an eternal union. But ah! my +eyes, when turned upon myself, lose all sight of thee, and meet +nothing but my own spots and blemishes. How canst thou love me? I +say; and for thy pure love I am melted into thee as one." + +He continues: + +"Lord, let me speak of my many and grievous sins; but oh! when I +would do so, my mouth speaks nothing forth but Thy praises. + +"I would offer my whole soul afresh to all that is, for the sake of +the love of God. . . . Lord, I am Thine, for Thou dost teach me this +be Thy unutterable, ever-present love." + +"January 3.--Last Saturday my confessor was not at home when I +called. I have waited until this morning, the Saturday following. It +is sad to me to wait to partake of the Blessed Sacrament. How much +joy, love, and sweetness it is to the soul! I feel my soul to glow +again with renewed love when I have partaken of the blessed communion +of Christ. This is my spiritual food. It is the goodness, mercy, and +love of God which keeps me from sadness." + +________________________ + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +FROM NEW YORK TO ST. TROND + +ISAAC HECKER'S zeal for social reform lent force to his strictly +personal cravings for a more religious life; he longed for wider +scope than individual effort could possibly bestow, and also for a +supernatural point of vantage. "If we would do humanity any good," he +writes in his diary while considering his vocation, "we must act from +grounds higher than humanity; our standpoint must be above the race, +otherwise how can we act _upon_ humanity?" He also speaks of the +fundamental necessity of "an impulse of divine love" actuating the +reformer of social evils. He addresses himself thus: "If thou wouldst +move the race to greater good and higher virtue, lose thyself in the +Universal. Be so great as to give thyself to something nobler than +thyself if thou wouldst be ennobled, immortalized." In many pages of +the last two volumes of his diary these notes of sympathetic love for +his fellow-men are mingled with yearnings for solitude. "This book," +he writes on the last page of one of them, "has answered some little +purpose; for when I wanted to speak to some one and yet was alone, it +cost me no labor to scribble in it. It would give me great pleasure +if I had a friend who would exchange such thoughts with me." He was +soon to enter into that spiritual heritage which among its other +treasures bestows the beatitude of the sage, "Blessed is the man who +hath found a true friend." + +Little by little a distinctly penitential mood came over him, and it +occupies nearly the whole of the last volume of the diary with the +most unreserved expressions of grief for sin, or, rather, for a state +of sinfulness, since the specific mention of sins is nearly +altogether wanting. We meet with page after page of self-accusation +in general terms: "I am in want of greater love for those around me; +I perform my spiritual duties too negligently; too little of my time +is devoted to spiritual exercises. I feel all over sick with sin! +Here is my difficulty, O Lord, and do Thou direct me: I am always in +doubt, when I do not think of Thee alone, that I am sinning and that +my time is misspent." + +His protestations of sorrow are extremely fervent and very numerous; +and as the Lent of 1845 approached he records his purpose of +restricting himself to one meal a day. As he never ate meat, nor any +"product of animal life," and drank only water, his "nuts, bread, and +apples" once a day must have been his diet all through the +penitential season. The reader will remember _ein herrliches Essen_ +at Concord: "bread, maple-sugar, and apples." + +In the middle of February he opened his mind more fully to Bishop +McCloskey, whom he continually calls his spiritual director. He had +now to reveal the discoveries of holy penance, and to add to his +other motives for leaving the world the dread of falling into mortal +sin. He had, he tells us, misgivings as to whether he was ambitious +or not. One of his spiritual states he thus alludes to: + +"I will ask my confessor how it is--if it is so with others, that +they feel no sense of things, no joy, no reality, no emotion, no +impulse, nothing positive within or around," but only the +consciousness of the need of a terrible atonement. This is +accompanied by frantic prayers to God, invocations of the Blessed +Virgin, St. Francis of Assisi and other saints. And he says that he +has been told that he is scrupulous, and complains that at confession +he can only accuse himself in general terms. + +Complete abandonment to the divine will seems to have been the +outcome of a season of much distress of soul, and bodily +mortification. On April 2 he writes: "The last time I saw my director +he spoke to me concerning the sacred ministry, and this is a subject +I feel an unspeakable difficulty about. I told him that I desired to +place myself wholly in his hands and should do whatever he directed. +I do not wish to be any more than nothing. I give myself up. So far +the Lord seems to be with me, and I hope that He will not forsake me +in the future." + +As might have been anticipated, Bishop McCloskey's advice was wise. +Plainly, his own hope was that young Hecker should enter the secular +priesthood, but there is no evidence in the numerous references to +the matter in the diary, that this caused him to do more than make +his young friend fully acquainted with that state of life. He had him +call at the newly-opened diocesan seminary at Fordham and become +acquainted with the professors. Bishop Hughes, whom he also +consulted, urged him to go to St. Sulpice in Paris, and to the +Propaganda in Rome, and make his studies for the secular priesthood. +But they failed to win him to their opinion, and were too enlightened +to seek to influence him except by argument. Father Hecker ever held +the very highest views on the dignity of the priesthood, considering +its vocation second to none. But while he was irresistibly inclined +to a state of retirement quite incompatible with the duties of the +secular priesthood in America, he also felt the most urgent need of +constant advice and companionship for guidance in his interior life. +These seemingly contradictory requirements he hoped to find united in +a religious community, and Bishop McCloskey emphatically assured him +that his anticipations would not be disappointed. In addition to +this, Isaac Hecker had at least some premonitions of an apostolic +vocation calling for a wider range of activity than can be usually +compassed by the diocesan clergy. But we have often heard him say +that the immediate impulse which induced his application to be made a +Redemptorist was need of "intimate and careful spiritual guidance." + +His director therefore became satisfied that he should become a +religious, and turned his attention to the Society of Jesus, giving +him the lives of St. Ignatius and St. Francis Xavier to read, and, +doubtless, answered his inquiries about that order. "But," he said in +after years, "I had no vocation to teach young boys and felt unfitted +for a student's life"; added to this was the certainty of the +postponement of any public activity on his part for many years if he +became a Jesuit. + +After mentioning that he had read the life of St. Francis Xavier, he +says that an acquaintance had written him that a German priest, +living in Third Street, wanted to see him. This was one of the +Redemptorist Fathers who were newly established in the city. This +priest, whose name is not given, undertook to assume direction of +Isaac, and was very urgent with him to make a spiritual retreat with +a view to deciding his vocation. "He is a very zealous person--too +much so it seems to me," is the comment in the diary, and the answer +was a refusal. But what he saw in the community pleased and attracted +Isaac, for everything was poor and plain, and there was an air of +solitude. However, he would by no means change his spiritual adviser, +writing, "I strive to follow my spiritual director or else I should +be fearful of my state. All my difficulties, sins, and temptations I +make him acquainted with. . . . Though the world has no particular +hold upon me, I give it up once and for all. It gives me pain to feel +my perfect want of faith in myself as being in any way useful." + +Meantime, on Trinity Sunday, he had been confirmed with his brother +George, whose entrance into the Church is here first indicated; no +other member of the family became a Catholic. Isaac took the +additional name of Thomas on receiving this sacrament, in honor of +St. Thomas Aquinas. + +Again he writes: + +"I have tried to study to-day, but I cannot. Is it not the business +of man to save his own soul, and this before all things? Does the +study of Greek and Latin help a soul towards its salvation? Is it not +quite a different thing from grace? Sometimes I feel strongly +inclined to set aside all study, all reading, as superficial and not +so important as contemplation and silence." + +The time was coming when the Holy Spirit would do this in spite of +him and in a way the reverse of pleasant. Meantime he worked away at +his books and attended his classes at Cornelius Institute, which was +the name of the private school he had been attending, till July 16, +the commencement day. In recording his impressions of the school and +the acquaintances there made, he says that with one possible +exception the young men were of little interest to him, lacking +earnestness of character. He does not name the teachers or give the +location of the school. Yet he says his experience there had been +useful "and chastened my hopes. I have seen by means of it much more +clearly into the workings of Protestantism, its want of deep +spirituality, its superficiality, and its inevitable tendency to +no-religion." + +As may be supposed, his visits to Third Street became frequent, and +his acquaintance with the Fathers better established. This was +especially true with regard to Father Rumpler, who was rector of the +house, a learned and able man and one of mature spirituality. He was +a German born and bred, with the hard ideas of discipline peculiar to +a class of his countrymen though foreign to the genuine German +character. He impressed young Hecker as a sedate man, wise and firm. +The friendship then begun was maintained until Father Rumpler was +deprived of his reason by an attack of acute mania several years +later. But more than the friendship of Rumpler, as far as immediate +results were concerned, was the providential circumstance of two +other young Americans having applied to join the Redemptorists. To +Isaac this was a stimulant of no ordinary power. Like himself, they +were converts and very fervent ones; but, unlike him, they had come +into the Church from Episcopalianism. Clarence A. Walworth, son of +the Chancellor of the State of New York, was a graduate of Union +College. He studied law in Albany and practised his profession for a +short time, but finally undertook the ministry. After three years in +the Episcopal seminary he became a Catholic. Those who know him now +can see the tall and graceful youth, pleasing and kindly, with the +face and voice and soul of an orator; for the force and charm of +youth have not been weakened in receiving the dignity of old age. + +James A. McMaster was of Pennsylvania Scotch-Irish parentage. His +name is familiar to our readers as editor of the _Freeman's Journal._ +Those qualities of aggressive zeal which made McMaster so well known +to Catholics of our day were not wholly undeveloped in the tall, +angular youth, still a catechumen, and intoxicated with the new wine +of Catholic fervor. Young Mr. Walworth had been made a Catholic but a +short time before, and McMaster was received into the Church by the +Redemptorists in Third Street, his two young friends being present. +While he was kneeling at the altar, candle in hand, piously reading +his profession of faith to Father Rumpler, he accidentally set fire +to Father Tschenhens' hair, one of the fathers assisting at the +ceremony. Walking together afterwards in the little garden of the +convent, Father Rumpler said to him: "Mr. McMaster, you begin +well--setting fire to a priest." "Oh," answered he, "if I don't set +fire to something more than that it will be a pity." These new +friends of Isaac had applied to enter the Redemptorist novitiate and +they had been accepted. This meant a voyage to Europe, for the +congregation had not yet established a novitiate in America. + +One Friday, then, during the last days of July--the exact date we +have not been able to discover--Isaac Hecker was informed by Father +Rumpler that Walworth and McMaster would sail for Belgium the evening +of the next day. "I decided to join them," he said when relating the +circumstances afterwards. "Father Rumpler was favorable, but puzzled. +And I must first present myself to the Provincial, Father de Held, +who was in Baltimore. I arrived in Baltimore at four o'clock in the +morning on Saturday, travelling all night. Father de Held looked at +me, as I presented myself, and said that he must take time to +consider. I explained about the departure of the others that day. He +ordered Brother Michael to get me a bowl of coffee from the kitchen, +and me to hear his Mass. I heard the Mass and after that he examined +me a little--asked me to read out of the _Following of Christ_ in +Latin, which I did. He gave me my acceptance, and I rushed back to +New York by the half-past eight o'clock morning train. George had +packed my trunk, and I sailed that day with the others." + +The picturesqueness of the group was certainly not lessened by the +accession of Isaac Hecker, whose leap to and from Baltimore, though +hardly to be expected from a contemplative, was in accord with the +sudden energy of his nature. One who saw him at the time says that +"he had the general make-up of a transcendentalist, not excepting his +long hair flowing down on his neck." + +The ship was an American one named the _Argo,_ and she was bound for +London. The voyage was every way pleasant, lasting but twenty-five +days from land to land, with bright skies, quiet sea, and fair winds. +Their berths were in the waist of the ship, in the second cabin, all +the places in the first cabin having been taken; this pleased them +well, for they loved the poor man's lot. Isaac's passage money was +paid by his brothers, and he was supplied by them and his mother with +all sorts of conveniences; and these, of course, he made to conduce +to the comfort of the entire party. The lower and larger berth of +their little state-room was occupied by Walworth and McMaster, and +Isaac took the upper and smaller one. None of them suffered from +sea-sickness. + +The young pilgrims were overflowing with happiness, as if they were +going to the enjoyment of a rich heritage, as, indeed, in a spiritual +sense they were. It was a first voyage to the Old World for all of +them and they found everything interesting. They made friends with +the crew, who were nearly all Yankee sailors, and who struck them as +exactly like themselves, except that they were not religious; and +they sought entertainment with such of the passengers as were +congenial, though in this Isaac Hecker was more ready than his +companions. Father Walworth tells an incident characteristic of both +himself and his transcendental companion. He was admonishing young +Hecker to be more reticent among the crew and was asked why. "You +wouldn't like to kneel down and kiss the deck before all those +sailors," said Walworth. "Why not?" was the reply. "Then do it." And +down dropped Hecker to the deck and kissed it in all simplicity. + +They had many topics of interest to occupy their time; Isaac favored +such as were philosophical and social, his companions were absorbed +by the Tractarian movement, its phases of thought and variety of +persons, and all must have had much to tell of friends and relatives +whom they hoped soon to see members of the Church. One night the +harmony with their fellow-passengers was threatened with rupture. +They were much annoyed by a violent dispute about the Trinity carried +on in the adjoining cabin far into the night. McMaster finally lost +patience, sprang out of bed, rushed among the disputants, and smote +the table with a tremendous blow and shouted _"Silence!"_ His remedy +was efficacious; the theologians scattered and went to bed. + +There was a marked difference between Isaac and his companions in +controversial views. All three used their reason with the utmost +activity, but he had travelled into the Church by the road of +philosophy and they by that of history and Scripture. Their +conversation must have been the exchange of intellectual commodities +of very different kinds and for that reason expediting a busy +commerce. They could profit by his bold and original views of +principle and he was in need of their idea of the external integrity +of organized religion. Then, too, they had much to say of the future, +chiefly by way of conjecture, for no member of the order accompanied +them. No one was superior and no superior was needed. As to +devotional exercises each suited himself, kneeling down and saying +his prayers night and morning and at other times, in his own way and +words. + +There was also difference in matters of devotion, for Isaac Hecker +had little or no religious training, and as to the traditional forms +of religious practice he was very backward. The others had long since +familiarized themselves with all Catholic usages. Young Walworth +taught young Hecker how to say the rosary and initiated him, +doubtless, into other common practices, which he assumed with the +simplicity and docility of the child of guileless nature that he was. + +The ship, as we have said, was bound to London, but our party were +too impatient to wait till the end of the voyage and left her at +Portsmouth in the pilot's boat; the sea was running high, but so were +their spirits, and although the boat was tossed about in a way to +scare a landsman, they gladly went ashore and took the cars to +London. We have before us a letter from Isaac Hecker to his brothers, +dated the 29th of August, saying that they had been in London three +days after a pleasant voyage, and expressing deep joy at nearing the +place of retirement and prayer for which he had been longing. He asks +them to write to Brownson and especially to assure his mother of his +happiness. + +McMaster insisted on visiting Newman at Littlemore, and afterwards +gave a glowing account of his visit. He had been received by the +great man, who did not enter the Church till a few months later, with +the utmost kindness. He found him standing in his library, reading a +book. He asked many questions about the tendency of men's minds in +America, and was especially interested in Arthur Carey, with whose +influence among American Episcopalians and early death the reader has +been made acquainted. They lodged at a decent little inn over a +pastry cook's shop and did not go sight-seeing to any extent. +McMaster's companions did not wait for his return from Oxford, but +when the packet sailed for Antwerp, which was Sunday, the 30th of +August, they went down to Folkestone and took passage. They arrived +the following morning, and, armed with a letter from Father Rumpler +to a Madame Marchand, a warm friend of the congregation, they went +straight to the nearest Church to inquire the way to her house. It +happened to be the Jesuit church, and one of the fathers kindly +guided them to the lady's house. She was delighted to serve them; +gave them an excellent dinner, and, after they had visited Rubens' +great picture, the Descent from the Cross, set them forth on their +journey; but the "yea, yea and nay, nay" of Scripture, or rather +_jah, jah, nein, nein,_ was their only conversation with the good +lady, for although young Walworth could speak French and Isaac +German, she knew nothing but Flemish. Distances are not great in +little Belgium, and so before night they were at St. Trond, a little +city about thirty-five miles southeast of Antwerp and twenty miles +from Liege. Here they were soon joined by Mr. McMaster, and their +novitiate began. Isaac Hecker was now twenty-five years and nine +months old. + +________________________ + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +BROTHER HECKER + +THE Redemptorist novitiate at St. Trond, as well as the house of +studies at Wittem, Holland, had been established be the immediate +disciples of St. Clement Hofbauer. That great servant of God had +introduced the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer into Austria +and other parts of Germany several years before the time of which we +write. A saint himself, and of wonderful missionary gifts, he was +worthy of the title of second founder of the order of St. Alphonsus +Liguori. St. Clement was the son of a Moravian peasant, and in early +life had been a baker by trade. St. Alphonsus was still alive when +Clement, while on a pilgrimage to Rome, was enrolled there in the +Redemptorist novitiate. This event was auspicious of the future of +the entire community, since his apostolate was the means of +propagating the order among the northern nations, and giving to it +some of its present dominant characteristics of Teutonic discipline; +whereas in the land of its origin it has never fully recovered from +the disasters which befell it during the lifetime of its founder. In +Germany and the Low Countries, on the other hand, the children of St. +Alphonsus and St. Clement were, at the time when the three Americans +joined them, the most powerful preachers in the Church. Their +vocation called them to give missions--spiritual exercises lasting +from a week to a month--to the faithful in every part of Catholic +Europe, not excepting France. Their fame was established as the +foremost preachers of penance and of the Redeemer's love for sinners. + +St. Trond was the novitiate of the Belgian Province, which embraced +Belgium and Holland as well as the newly established convents in +England and America. The Provincial was Father de Held, whom we saw +in Baltimore while he was there on a tour of inspection of the +American houses. He was an Austrian German, a man of noble presence, +matured spirituality and an accomplished missionary. Father Hecker +knew him well in after years, and always counted him as one who +understood his spirit and approved his aspirations. + +The convent in St. Trond was in a narrow street of the quaint little +city; so narrow, indeed, that one almost fancied that he could touch +both walls by stretching out his arms. It was a solid old structure, +built in the first half of the fifteenth century by St. Colette for +her Poor Clares, an ample guarantee of its conformity to the ideas of +religious poverty. It was not architecturally fine, but was a curious +and interesting building. Isaac in one of his letters home says that +the house was very roomy, with long corridors having cells on each +side. It abutted on a church which was open to the public and served +by the fathers; a window in the convent chapel looked into the +sanctuary. Attached to the house was a garden of three or four acres. + +The country around the town is a typical Flemish landscape, flat, +fertile, thickly dotted with farm buildings, and highly cultivated. +The people are wholly Catholic. The town is an old one, and in its +time has had some military importance. Our young novices often walked +upon the ramparts which encircled it. In the neighborhood are +structures which were built before the Christian era; quite near by +was one of Caesar's round towers, as well as the deserted ruins of an +ancient city named Leo. Curious old churches and monasteries might +often be seen by the novices on their long walks into the country. +All this antiquity was the more pleasing to the American novices +because in their own land the forests, the rivers, and the +everlasting hills are all that represent the distant past. + +Besides twenty novices there were ten or twelve fathers at St. Trond, +who either served the church or went about on missions; and there +were also a number of lay brothers. By nationality the greater +portion of the novices were Belgians and Hollanders, the others being +mostly Germans. The language of the house was French, though Latin +was sometimes used. Of course this was an added difficulty to Brother +Hecker, as he was now called, for he knew practically nothing of that +language, though he had studied it a little. But he attacked it +resolutely and, as one of his companions said, learned it heels over +head. He never feared to make mistakes, nor dreaded a smile at his +expense, and as a consequence was soon able to talk to any one. But +his French was always curious, and when he took his turn at reading +during meals he gave the community some hearty laughs. + +All the new-comers were invested with the Redemptorist habit about +three weeks after their arrival, in September, 1845. "You can scarce +imagine the happiness I felt on my arrival here," he writes to his +mother in his first letter home. "For three days my heart was filled +with joy and gladness. I was like one who had been transported to a +lovelier, a purer, and a better world." He tells her that he had +waited for a fortnight before writing, to learn the place, and then, +after expressing his satisfaction with everything in such sentences +as the above, he fills the rest of the letter with arguments in favor +of the Catholic Church and exhortations to join it. Such was the +burden of all of his letters home from both St. Trond and Wittem. We +have ten written from the novitiate. An exception must be made as to +one which describes in detail the daily order of life in the +novitiate. It is addressed to his mother. + +He tells her that the first bell rings at half-past four in the +morning and the last at half-past nine at night. The time is divided +between various common and private devotional exercises, including +Mass, meditations, recitation of the office in common, study of the +rule of the order, spiritual conferences, spiritual reading, and the +like. Silence is broken only for an hour after dinner and another +hour after supper. About an hour of out-door exercise is taken every +day, and a long walk once a week and on feast-days. All of Thursday +in each week and the more important feasts of the year are days of +recreation, when silence need not be observed during the greater part +of the day, and much relaxation is otherwise allowed. All Fridays are +days of total silence and special devotion. The letter fails to +mention the discipline, or flagellation, which was taken twice a week. + +He ends thus: "The time of the novitiate is one year, and its object +is to prove our vocation, and form the religious character--the +heart. The exercises may seem too many to you, but to us they are +quite otherwise. Their frequent changes prevent them from being +monotonous, and their variety makes them agreeable. Our time passes +without our taking count of it, and our joy is that of a pure +conscience, and our happiness that of a clean heart." + +It might seem a matter of peculiar difficulty for a free nature like +Isaac Hecker's to conform to the stiff rules of such a system. But +this was not the case, and a closer look into the matter shows that +such a regimen is of much use to an earnest man, however free his +character, at the outset of his spiritual career. Experience proves +that one test of the genuineness of the interior disposition to serve +God perfectly is readiness to surrender exterior peculiarities. There +is nothing in the special graces of God which should hinder a placid +acceptance of the routine of a novitiate. The merging of individual +conduct into the common custom is the contribution which community +life must exact from every member. If a man is to be a hermit he may +act from individual impulses alone, though, even so, rarely without +counsel. But if one would live and work with others, special graces +and individual traits of character must not be allowed to interfere +with a certain degree of uniformity. On the other hand, that +uniformity should not be allowed to cripple the spontaneous action of +natural independence, and the inspiration of graces which are +personal. + +It must be granted that with many souls a novitiate will tend to a +routine use of religious aids. Yet it cannot be denied that its +discipline forcibly concentrates the scattered purposes of life into +one powerful stream. It contributes to symmetry of character. It +furnishes efficacious tests of sincerity. It drills disorderly +natures into regularity. It acquaints the beginner with the +literature of his holy profession, and herein it is of priceless +worth. And finally, it provides advisers of approved wisdom during +the period of the spiritual life when counsel is most needed, as well +as most gratefully accepted. But if it fails in each of these +particulars, as no doubt it sometimes does, the novitiate may be said +never to fail in detecting an inaptitude for the common life, if such +exists; that is to say, a serious lack of the qualities which fit one +to get along in peace with the brethren. + +Into the novitiates of the religious orders, and into the seminaries +which hold their place for the secular priesthood, the noblest men of +our race have entered joyfully; some to be wedded to the Divine +Spouse in the quiet seclusion of holy contemplation, and others, of +the more militant orders, to be trained to follow worthily the +standards of the apostolic warfare against vice and error. + +The novice-master was puzzled by his three Americans, though Brother +McMaster was easily comprehended--an over-frank temperament, +impulsive, and demonstrative. Not only were his banners always +hanging on the outward wall, but his plan of campaign also. The other +two were a study, and Brother Hecker was a curiosity. Yet both were +cheerful, obedient, earnest, courageous. The novice-master was +annoyed at the Americans' incessant demand for the reason why of all +things permitted, and the reason why not of all things prohibited; +until at last Brother Walworth was named Brother Pourquoi. As to +Brother Hecker, besides showing the same stand-and-deliver +propensity, he occupied much of the time of conversation in +philosophizing, plunging into the obscurest depths of metaphysical +and ethical problems, using terms which were often quite unfamiliar +to strictly orthodox ears, and exhibiting a fearless independence of +thought generally conceded among Catholics only to practised +theologians. Yet the novice-master was well pleased with both, though +we shall see that his journey with Brother Hecker was for some time +in the dark. + +When the Fourth of July came around he learned that it was the great +American holiday, and he called the three Americans to him and asked, +"How do you celebrate your national holiday at home?" "By shooting +off fire-crackers," they answered with a twinkle. This being out of +the question, and the grand military parade which was next suggested +also impracticable, Brothers Walworth and Hecker both exclaimed, +"Ginger-bread!" "Take all you want," was the answer, "and go off on a +long walk, and spend the day by yourselves." And of they went to +wander among the ruins of the outposts of the old Roman republic, and +make Fourth of July speeches in honor of the great new Republic +beyond the sea. Those who have been novices themselves will not be +surprised at the boyishness of these three manly characters under the +circumstances. + +Isaac Hecker's spirit was not anywise cramped by the routine +exercises of the novitiate; he made them easily and well. He always +seemed to his companions what he actually was, and what he described +himself to be in his letters to New York, a cheerful and contented +novice. But, as one of them since expressed it, he was not a "dude" +novice, not the very pink of external perfection, and had a long +period of interior trial. He did not exhibit at any time the least +hesitancy about his vocation, for his mind was made up. Yet once, +when he took a walk with Brother Walworth to visit a house of +Recollects, Franciscans of the strict observance, both he and his +companion were greatly struck by that charming poverty which the poor +man of Assisi has bequeathed to his children; they did ask each other +whether they had not made a mistake. This question, however, was but +the expression of a shadowy doubt, vanishing as suddenly as it had +come. + +The novice-master was Father Othmann, and he was by universal +testimony entirely competent for his place. He was himself the +novitiate. Its austerities, and they were not trifling, its long and +frequent prayer, its total seclusion from the world, all were refined +and adjusted to each one by passing through his soul and being +dispensed by his wisdom. Father Hecker regarded him as a very +remarkable man. He was a student of character, and wise and sagacious +in varying the application of religious influences according to +temperament and spiritual gifts. Under him the danger of formalism, +which occurs to one's mind immediately as the incessant round of +exercises is mentioned, was rendered remote; for he gave his +instructions, and especially used the chapter of faults, in a way to +infuse into the souls of the novices the ever-recurring freshness of +individual initiative. His model (after St. Alphonsus) was St. +Francis de Sales. He followed him constantly in his doctrine and +methods, and often spoke of him and quoted him. Of other methods and +their advocates he spoke respectfully, but, however much they were in +vogue, he did not follow them. Brother Hecker was a faithful student +in his school and learned much from Father Othmann. The latter +especially insisted on the principle of accepting Providence as the +chief dispenser of mortifications. He had no objection to +self-imposed spiritual exercises, but he did not positively favor +them. He taught his young men that the traditional practices of +devout souls as embraced in the routine of the novitiate, were good +mainly to break the resistance of corrupt nature and render their +souls pliant subjects of the Divine guidance in the interior life, as +well as submissive to the order of God in the events of His external +Providence. + +The assistant novice-master, who took Father Othmann's place during +his absence, was a Walloon. His name we have been unable to discover, +but he was a holy priest, held up to the novices as their model and +esteemed by them as the saint of the novitiate. He was a very +pleasant man withal, and no doubt added in every way to the fruits of +the long year of spiritual trial. + +When Isaac Hecker presented himself as a novice he took his place +among the youths learning the A, B, C of the spiritual life, while he +himself had experienced for many months the most rare dealings of the +Holy Ghost with the soul. This could not fail to come to the +knowledge of Father Othmann, and, taken with the other peculiarities +of his subject, to elicit his most skilful treatment. "Pere Othmann, +my novice-master," said Father Hecker, in after years, "had a right +to be puzzled by me, and so he watched me more than he did the +others." He watched and studied him and gradually applied the two +sovereign tests of genuine spirituality, obedience and humiliation. +These were all the more efficacious in this case, because Brother +Hecker was a man of great native independence of character and +naturally of an extremely sensitive disposition. + +Such was the common austerity of the life that it took some ingenuity +to inflict on a novice a mortification which had not grown stale by +use in the case of one or more of the others. But in searching the +interior of the soul the director could find tender places into which +his weapon would be plunged to the bone. But it is more than probable +that he misunderstood Brother Hecker, and that for a time he even +suspected him of being under delusions. For several months, at any +rate, he treated him at his weekly confession with the utmost rigor, +producing indescribable mental agony. Many years afterwards, and when +near his death, Father Hecker once said to the writer: "While I was +kneeling among the novices, outside Pere Othmann's room, waiting to +go to confession, I often begged of God that it might be His will +that I should die before my turn came, so dreadful an ordeal had +confession become on account of the severity of the novice-master." +Yet, as recorded in the memoranda, the victim was eager for the +sacrifice when the knife was not actually lifted over him. "I begged +the novice-master," he said on another occasion, "to watch me +carefully, and when he saw me bent on anything to thwart me. I did +not know any other way of overcoming my nature. He took me at my +word, too. For example, once a week only we had a walk, a good long +one, and we enjoyed it, and it was necessary for us. I enjoyed it +very much indeed. So, sometimes when we were starting out, my +thoughts bounding with the anticipated pleasure, he would stop me +midway on the stairs: 'Frere Hecker,' he would say, 'please remain at +home, and instead of the walk wash and clean the stair-way.' It would +nearly kill me to obey, such was my disappointment, grief, +humiliation." + +In conjunction with these trials from without came a recurrence of +resistless interior impulses. "During my novitiate," he is recorded +as saying in 1885, "I found myself under impulses of grace which it +seemed to me impossible to resist. One was to conquer the tendency to +sleep. I slept on boards or on the floor. After a while I was able to +do with five hours sleep, and often with only three, in the +twenty-four. Pere Othmann was not unwilling for me to follow these +impulses as soon as he became convinced of their imperative strength. +Yet I now see that such practices were in a certain sense mistaken. +They necessarily consumed in mortification vitality that I could now +use, if I had it, in a more useful way. Still, how could I help it?" + +The end of this period of his humiliations, which was not far from +the end of his noviceship, is thus described: "One day after +Communion I was making my half-hour thanksgiving in my room, when +Pere Othmann came in and examined me about my form of prayer. Oh! it +was just then that I had reached the passive state of prayer: _I_ did +nothing, _Another_ did everything in my prayer. From that time, +having put me down in the gutter, the novice-master raised me up to +the pinnacle, whereas I should have been in neither place." On +another occasion he told how the change of prayer had happened: "I +was on my knees one day after Communion, making a regular +thanksgiving, when suddenly God stopped me, and I was told not to +pray that way any more. Question: How were you told--what words were +spoken to you? Answer: Cease your activity. I have no need of your +words when I possess your will. 'Tis I, not you, who should act. My +action in you is more important than your thanks. I cease to act when +you begin, and begin to act when you cease. Be still--tranquil-- +listen--suffer me to act. Abandon yourself to me, and I will take +care of you." + +When in Rome, in the winter of 1857-8, he was compelled by +circumstances, which will be told in their place, to make a written +summary of his spiritual experience. In it he says: "My novitiate was +one of sore trials, for the master of novices seemed not to +understand me, and the manifestation of my interior to him was a +source of the greatest pain. After about nine or ten months he +appeared to recognize the hand of God in my direction in a special +manner, conceived a great esteem (for me), and placed unusual +confidence in me, and allowed me without asking it, though greatly +desired, daily Communion. During my whole novitiate no amount of +austerity could appease my desire for mortification, and several gifts +in the way of prayer were bestowed on me." + +On March 6, 1886, while in a state of almost utter physical +prostration, he communicated to the writer the following: "Forty +years ago, in my novitiate, God told me that I was to suffer in every +fibre of my being." "Perhaps," was remarked, "you have not suffered +all yet." Answer: "Perhaps not, but God has kept His promise in every +limb, member, and function of my body." It may become necessary to +refer again to these interior experiences. We leave them with the +remark that his novitiate was characterized by a continuance of +Divine interferences similar to those which had occurred at intervals +from the time he was driven from home and business to seek the +fulfilment of his aspirations. + +The following is the record of a brave soul's failure to become a +Redemptorist. It is given in a letter dated September 14, 1846: +"Brother McMaster, who returns to the U.S., gives me the opportunity +of writing a few lines to you," etc. It was a profound disappointment +for Mr. McMaster to be obliged to return home a layman, and it +shocked his companions. It is a little singular that Father Othmann +told him that his vocation was not to be a religious, but an editor. +He carried with him Brother Hecker's messages of affection to his +friends and relatives, and rosaries of Isaac's own making for his +mother and his brother George. + +Writing to the latter, on August 26, 1846, after some tender and +affectionate words, he says: "I have now nearly eight weeks until the +time of taking the vows. Oh that it were but eight minutes, nay, +eight seconds, when I shall be permitted, with the favor and grace of +God, to consecrate my whole being and life to His sole service! +Millions of worlds put on top of one another could not purchase from +me my vocation. We make fifteen days' retreat before we take the +vows. You must recommend me very particularly to the Rt. Rev. Bishop +McCloskey; tell him the time of my taking the vows (Feast of St. +Teresa, October 15), and give him my humble request to remember me at +that time in his prayers." + +On the feast of St. Teresa, October 15, 1846, therefore, the two +American novices took their vows, and became members of the +Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer. On the very morning of that +event, at half-past eight, Brother Hecker wrote a letter to his +mother, in which he goes over all of his trials and experiences in +following the Divine guidance since he first quitted business. He +breathes intense affection in every word, and writes in a solemn +mood. We would give the letter to the reader entire, but that he has +already learned what it narrates. It ends thus: "Dear mother, in half +an hour I go to the chapel to consecrate my whole being for ever to +God and His service. What peace, what happiness this gives me! To +live alone for His love, and to love all for His love, in His love, +and with His love!" + +After the ceremony was over he wrote as follows to his brother John: + +"DEAR BROTHER JOHN: This day, with the special grace of God, I have +taken the holy vows of the Catholic religion, which are obedience, +poverty, chastity, and final perseverance. These vows bind me to the +Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer for my natural life, and the +Congregation in the same manner to me. Thanks to God for His kind +Providence. My vocation is once for all, for ever settled, firmly +fixed. During the year and more of my novitiate I have not had any +temptation against my vocation, nor any desire on my part to return +to the world. + +"As you were not certain whether I would return after the novitiate +or not, I suppose you left my name in connection with yours and +brother George's in the firm. But now that this (separation) is +certain, would it not be best for you to destroy that agreement we +made with each other some time ago, that no future difficulty can or +may arise? All this I leave to your judgments; and as for me, dear +brothers John and George, in respect to the business, you may regard +me as though I had never been connected with it, nor had any title or +claim upon it whatever. I am simply your dear brother Isaac, who +loves you from the depth of his heart. This love, be assured, will +never be diminished by any event; whatever happens will only give me +new motives to love you the more. My conduct is under your +inspection, yours especially, dear John, as being the eldest of us +three, and I trust your sincere love for me will not let any word or +action of mine pass unnoticed which may be the least unpleasant to +you. + +"My love, my gratitude, and my prayers to and for you all. Remember +me to all my friends. + +"Your brother, ISAAC. + +"St. Trond, October 15, 1846. + +"I have forgotten to say that if you have not already made use of the +things that I left, such as clothing, you should do so." + +In bidding adieu to the novitiate we think Father Hecker's +last meeting with his old novice-master, as we find it recorded +in the memoranda, will be of interest: "Pere Othmann was one +of my best friends. Shortly before he died I happened to be in +France (this was after leaving the Redemptorists), and I heard +that he was extremely ill at the Redemptorist house at Nancy. +I wrote to him that if he wished I would call and see him. He +answered me at once, begging me to come immediately, as he +desired above all things to see me before he died. So I made a +journey to Nancy, and we had some hours of pleasant conference +together, and I bade him farewell." + +________________________ + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +HOW BROTHER HECKER MADE HIS STUDIES AND WAS ORDAINED PRIEST + +THE day after the taking of the vows, Brothers Hecker and Walworth +started by stage-coach for the house of studies, at Wittem in Dutch +Limburg. The route lay nearly east through a country pleasant on +account of the fertility of its soil and the industry of its +inhabitants, and interesting from its churches, monasteries, and +curious old villages. The travellers crossed the Meuse at Maestricht +and reached their destination before nightfall. Wittem is a small +town, thirty miles east of St. Trond and about ten west of +Aix-la-chapelle. This part of Holland is entirely Catholic, and its +people possess a fervor which has sent missionaries to the ends of +the earth. Everywhere shrines were to be seen by the roadsides. The +country is not so level as that west of the Meuse, and the +Redemptorist students often made excursions among the hills, our +young Americans admiring the shepherds guarding their flocks, with +their crooks and their dogs. + +The house of studies was an old Capuchin monastery, large and plain +and very interesting. The friars had buried their dead under the +ground floor, which enabled the students to dig up an abundant supply +of skulls as _memento moris_ till the rector forbade it. The students +were more numerous at Wittem than the novices had been at St. Trond. +They were mostly Dutchmen, with a sprinkling of Belgians and a few +Germans; but the language of the house was French or Latin. We have +not been able to make quite sure of the name of the Rector; possibly +it was Father Heilig, who certainly was there at this time, either in +charge of the house or as one of the professors. The Master of +Studies was Father L'hoir, who soon became one of Brother Hecker's +dearest friends. + +The two Americans found their fellow-students men of fine character +and every way lovable, being earnest and devoted religious. They +admired their thorough proficiency in all classical and literary +studies, the result of old-world method and application. Mentally and +physically they were splendid men. The whole race of Flemings and +Dutch was found by our young recruits to be a grave and powerful +people, although exceptional cases of mercurial temperament were not +rare. Some curious individuals were to be found among them, as is +more the case in European nationalities in general than in our own. +Both Americans were much liked and respected by all their new-found +brethren, though Brother Hecker, for reasons soon to be told, was +sometimes ridiculed in a way that distressed him. Brother Walworth, +having studied much before entering the order, was placed at once in +the theological department and Brother Hecker in the philosophical. +The former was even dispensed from one year of his theology, taking +but two years of the three which formed the full course. The +difference of studies separated the two companions almost wholly from +each other, members of the two departments not being allowed even to +speak together except on extraordinary occasions. + +All went smoothly with Brother Walworth. Not so with Brother Hecker, +who was expected to make two years of philosophy and meantime to +increase his stock of Latin. But his faculties had been subjected to +spiritual experiences of so absorbing a nature that he found study +impossible. And when Brother Walworth was in due course ordained +priest, in August, 1848, his companion was stuck fast where he had +begun. It need not be said that so earnest a soul made every effort +to study, but all was in vain. In the statement made in Rome ten +years later, and referred to before, we find the following: + +"My wish was to make a thorough course (of studies) and begin with +philosophy. This the superior granted. My intellect in all scientific +(scholastic) matters seemed stupid, it was with great difficulty that +its attention could be kept on them for a few moments, and my memory +retained of these things nothing. At the close of the first year (at +Wittem) all ability to pursue my studies had altogether departed. +This state of things perplexed my superiors, and on being asked what +they could do with me, my answer was, 'One of three things: make me a +lay brother; send me to a contemplative order which does not require +scientific (scholastic) studies; or allow me to pursue, at my free +moments, my studies by myself.' Instead of either of these they gave +me charge of the sick, which was my sole (regular) occupation for the +whole year following. During this year my stupidity augmented and +reduced me to a state next to folly, and it was my delight to be +treated as a fool. One day, when my fellow-students were treating me +as such, and throwing earth at me, an ancient father, venerated for +his gifts and virtues, suddenly turned around to them and with +emotion exclaimed, 'You treat him as a fool and despise him; the day +will come when you will think it an honor to kiss his hand.' At the +expiration of the second year (at Wittem) the question came up again, +what was to be done with me. My superior put this question to me, and +demanded of me under obedience to tell him in writing how, in my +belief, God intended to employ me in the future. Though the answer to +this question was no secret to me, yet to express it while in a +condition of such utter helplessness required me to make an act of +great mortification. There was no escape, and my reply was as follows: +It seemed to me in looking back at my career before becoming a +Catholic that Divine Providence had led me, as it were by the hand, +through the different ways of error and made me personally acquainted +with the different classes of persons and their wants, of which the +people of the United States is composed, in order that after having +made known to me the truth, He might employ me the better to point +out to them the way to His Church. That, therefore, my vocation was +to labor for the conversion of my non-Catholic fellow-countrymen. +This work, it seemed to me at first, was to be accomplished by means +of acquired science, but now it had been made plain that God would +have it done principally by the aid of His grace, and if (I were) +left to study at such moments as my mind was free, it would not take +a long time for me to acquire sufficient knowledge to be ordained a +priest. This plan was adopted." + +A more explicit statement of the supernatural influences by means of +which God informed him of his mission was made in after years to +various persons, singly and in common. It was to the effect that the +Holy Spirit gave him a distinct and unmistakable intimation that he +was set apart to undertake, in some leading and conspicuous way, the +conversion of this country. That this intimation came to him while he +was at Wittem is also certain; but it is equally so that he had +premonitions of it during the novitiate. It was the incongruity of +such a persuasion being united to a helpless inactivity of mind in +matters of study that made Isaac Hecker a puzzle to his very self, to +say nothing of those who had to decide his place in the order. Father +Othmann, in bidding him farewell at St. Trond, had told him to become +_"un saint fou,"_ a holy fool; a direction based upon his excessive +abstraction of mind towards mystical things, and his consequent +incapacity for mental effort in ordinary affairs. Once, at least, +during those two eventful years at Wittem, Father Othmann visited the +place, and when he saw Brother Hecker he embraced him and exclaimed, +"O here is the spouse of the Canticles!" His farewell injunction on +parting at St. Trond had been perforce complied with. + +It must have taken more than ordinary penetration to perceive +anything but a kind of grandiose folly in Brother Hecker. The impulse +to talk about the conversion of America, to plan it and advocate it, +to proclaim it possible and prove it so, and to philosophize on the +profoundest questions of the human reason, was irrepressible. This he +did with an air of matured conviction and with the impact of +conscious moral authority, but in terms as strikingly eccentric as +the thoughts were lofty and inspiring, and in execrable French, the +declaimer being known as _minus habens_ in his studies and utterly +incapable. All this was the very make-up of folly; and Brother Hecker +was no doubt thought a fool. But how holy a fool he was his superiors +soon discovered. We find the following among the memoranda: + +"Pere L'hoir was my superior in the studentate. He was a holy man and +a good friend, but he was surprised at my state of prayer. He asked +me how it could happen that I, a convert of only a few years, should +have a state of prayer he had not attained though in the Church all +his life and striving for perfection. I told him that it was God's +will to set apart some men for a certain work and specially prepare +them for it, and cause them, as He had me, to be brought under the +influence of special Divine graces from boyhood. L'hoir then began to +send anybody with difficulties to me, and God gave me grace to settle +them. Then murmurs arose that he was too much under my influence, and +he was removed from his position over the studies. But afterwards +they replaced him; he was very efficient in his place." + +The confidence of his superiors in Brother Hecker was shown by their +causing him to receive tonsure and minor orders at the end of his +first year at Wittem, though he had made no progress whatever in his +studies. + +The following notes are found in the memoranda: + +"The time in my whole life when I felt I had gained the greatest +victory by self-exertion was when, after weeks of labor, I was able +to recite the _Pater Noster_ in Latin. + +"My memory finally failed me in my studies to that degree that at +last I took all my books up-stairs to the library and told the +prefect of studies I could do no more to acquire knowledge by study. + +"_Question._ How long were you unable to study? _Answer._ Two years +in Holland and one year in England. I never went to class those +years. I was a kind of a scandal, of course, in the house. When I got +a lucid interval of memory I studied, though much of the time I +hadn't a book in my room. Yet, when they came to ordain me, I knew +enough and was sent at once to the work of the ministry." + +That his stupidity was not blameworthy is shown by the sympathy of +Isaac's superiors; that it was not natural is known to our readers by +their acquaintance with his native ability exhibited in his journals +and letters. The difficulty was confined almost wholly to study; to +fix his attention on the matter in the text-books, or to grasp it and +hold it in memory, was beyond his power. Meantime his letters to his +friends in New York and elsewhere were full of life. He kept a copy +of a carefully written one, addressed to an old-time friend of the +Brook Farm community. It is a model of brief statement of great +truths, and proves that the social difficulty can only be fully +remedied by the Catholic Church, which has an elevating force +incomparably more powerful than any other known to humanity. The +method used and the choice of arguments are peculiarly Isaac Hecker's +own, and the tone, though affectionate, is one of authority, as that +of an exponent of evident truth. His letters to his mother and his +brothers are full of controversy, abounding in appeals to Scripture, +to the voice of conscience, to the dictates of reason; and although +the tone is one of deep affection, the attacks on Protestantism are +keen, and the use of facts and persons as illustrations full of +intelligence. Most of the letters which we have found were addressed +to his mother, for whose conversion he had an ardent longing. With +one of them he sends her a little manuscript treatise on true Bible +Christianity which he had himself prepared. We give the reader +extracts from two letters, the first from one to his brother John and +the second from one to his mother: + +"Your lamentation, dear John, on my separation from you, excites in +me a great astonishment. To justify this separation it seems to me +that you have only to open a page of the Gospels of Christ, and to +read it with a sincere belief in the words and a generous love of the +Saviour. As for me, I regret nothing so much as that I have not a +thousand lives to sacrifice to His service and love. Yes, I love you +all more than I ever did, and I would count nothing as a cost for +your present and eternal good. Yet, by the grace of God, I love my +Saviour infinitely, infinitely, infinitely more. Alas! when will +those who profess to be Christians learn the significance of Christ's +Gospels and His blessed example. I am not ignorant nor insensible of +the love we owe to our parents and relatives--no, I am not insensible +of this love; but in me it is all in Christ, as I would wish yours +were. . . . I embrace you, dear brother, in the love of our crucified +Lord." + +"DEAR MOTHER: There have been times when, considering the wickedness +of the world, sensible of its miseries and my own, and at the same +time beholding obscurely and as it were tasting the things of heaven, +I have longed and wished to be separated from the body. But when +coming back to myself, and thinking that with the aid of grace I can +still increase in God's love and hence love Him still more in +consequence for all eternity, I feel willing to love and suffer until +the last day, if by this I should acquire but one drop more of Divine +love in my heart. And so it is, as St. Paul declares, that we should +count the trials here as nothing compared with the glory that awaits +us. Now, all these considerations, dear mother, join together to +increase my desire to see you in the communion of the Holy Catholic +Church, to which God has singularly given so many means of growing in +grace," etc., etc. + +Notwithstanding these marks of active intelligence, Brother Hecker +could not study, except by fits and starts. Often he could not get +through the common prayers, and in ordinary conversation his tongue +would sometimes be tangled among the words of a sentence before he +was half through with it. The reader has already learned that the +penalties of utter stupidity were not unknown to the unwritten law of +the Wittem studentate, notwithstanding that the young men were devout +religious; and hence Brother Hecker must have had many hours of +anguish. But we cannot suppose that his native cheerfulness was quite +suppressed. His dulness of mind was accompanied, or rather was the +result of, the close embraces of Divine love. It was the bitter part +of that intimate communion with God which is granted to chosen souls. +No doubt he was profoundly humiliated by the disgrace involved in his +failure to study, but he was willing to suffer that external +degradation which was the complement of and the means of emphasizing, +the teaching of the Holy Spirit in his interior, as well as the means +of purifying his soul more and more perfectly. In after years he +related an instance of his lightness of heart, a natural quality +which he shared with his companion, Brother Walworth. The bishop of +some neighboring diocese, Aix-la-chapelle, if we remember rightly, +happening to visit the house at Wittem, was told of the two American +students. He conversed with them in the recreation, the language +being French. Then he said: "I know how to read English, but I have +never heard it spoken; can you not speak a little piece for me?" +"Certainly," was the answer. After a moment's consultation the two +young men in all seriousness recited together "Peter Piper picked a +peck of pickled peppers," etc. No wonder that the prelate was +astonished at the peculiar sound of English. Then he asked them for a +song. "Oh of course," was the answer, and they sang in unison "The +Carrion Crow," with full chorus and imitations. + +Besides taking care of the sick, for which he was admirably fitted by +nature, Brother Hecker made himself generally useful about the house. +He spent much time working among the brothers in the kitchen, and the +writer has heard him say that for nearly the whole of his stay in +Wittem he baked the bread of the entire community. He also carried in +the fuel for the house, using a crate or hod hoisted on his back. + +In August, 1848, Brother Walworth was ordained priest, and it was +decided that he and Brother Hecker, together with two young Belgian +priests, Fathers Teunis and Lefevre, should proceed to England, the +Redemptorists having been recently introduced there. As the cassock +is not worn in the streets in England they were sent from Wittem to +Liege and there equipped with clerical suits, the tailor being +cautioned not to be too ecclesiastical in the cut of the garments. He +produced a ridiculous compromise between a fashionable frock-coat and +a cassock, the waist being high and tight and the tails full and +flowing, and flopping about the young clerics' heels. As they +journeyed from Liege to Amsterdam, and thence to London, people +stopped and stared at them in their stylish array, and some laughed +at them. In this instance Brother Hecker's chagrin was not overcome +by his sense of the ludicrous, for he was naturally very sensitive of +personal unbecomingness, and although not precisely a martinet for +clerical exactness, he had strict notions of propriety. + +The new Redemptorist foundation was at Clapham, three miles south of +London Bridge. The house was a large, old-fashioned mansion and had +been owned by Lord Teignmouth, a notorious anti-Catholic bigot. Some +of the larger rooms had been thrown together into one, and this was +used temporarily as a public chapel. Just as the young Redemptorists +arrived, Father Petcherine was preaching to the congregation. He was +a Russian convert, and the new-comers were astonished at his good +English and his eloquence. He was one of the many extraordinary men +who adorned the order at that time. He was master not only of his +native tongue, but of English, German, Italian, French, and modern +Greek, and could preach well in all of these languages. Clapham was +reached on September 23, 1848, and shortly afterwards Father Walworth +was sent to do missionary as well as parish work in Worcestershire, +and remained there the greater part of the two years which were spent +by our Americans in England. + +From Clapham Brother Hecker wrote, on September 27, 1848: + +"I am at present, dear mother, in a newly-established house in the +city of London, having come here by order of my superiors to continue +and finish my studies. Bodily I am nearer to you than I was, and +naturally speaking I am much more at home here than I was on the +Continent. But this is of little or no moment, for a good religious +should find his home where he can best execute the will of his Divine +Master. And would you not, dear mother, rather see me in China than +in the United States if, by being there, I should be more agreeable +to our Blessed Saviour, who left the house of His Father to save us +poor abandoned sinners upon the earth? Our house here is situated +somewhat out of the dense and busy part of the city, at Clapham; a +fine garden is attached to it, and even in a worldly view I could not +desire it to be more agreeable. And did not our Lord promise to give +those who would leave all to follow Him, 'a hundred fold more in this +world and life everlasting in the world to come'? Alas! how many +profess to believe in the Bible and have no faith in the words which +our Lord spoke," etc., etc. + +The difficulties of Wittem were not abated at Clapham; rather they +were aggravated by Brother Hecker having to deal with new superiors. +"I remember seeing Hecker at Clapham, looking hopelessly into his +moral theology," said Father Walworth to the writer. Father Frederick +de Held, whom we left in Baltimore, had returned to Europe, being +Provincial of the Belgian Province, which at that time included the +English as well as the American missions. It must have seemed strange +to him that Brother Hecker had been sent to England; he had no house +of studies to put him into and could give him no regular course of +instruction. We cannot even surmise what word was sent to Father de +Held about this curious young man, whom early one summer's morning +three years before he had seen flitting into Baltimore and out of it, +taking with him the Provincial's leave to enter the novitiate. +Perhaps the case had been sent to him because it was too perplexing +for any authority less than his to settle. At any rate, it placed him +in an awkward position, to decide the case of this lone applicant for +orders, who had made no studies and could make none, and yet who was +of so marked a character, so full of life, so zealous, working +willingly about the church, eagerly working in the kitchen, talking +deep philosophy and forming plans for the conversion of nations. His +case was peculiar. The difficulty was not confined to the question of +divinity studies. Brother Hecker's general education was scant, and +his English [sic] was still faulty. And yet he was silently asking +ordination in a preaching order, for which a thorough education is a +prerequisite. Father de Held, therefore, is not to be condemned for +his harshness as wanting in sympathy or in judgment of character. +Gold is tried by fire, and fire is an active agent and a painful one. +But Brother Hecker soon found both solace and assistance in a new +friend. + +We quote from the memoranda: + +"Father de Held was superior at Clapham and for a year he treated me +as Henry Suso says a dog treats a rag--he took me in his teeth and +shook me. At last I went to him and begged him to settle my case one +way or the other: ordain me, or make a lay brother of me, or take off +my habit and dismiss me to another order; though I told him that +would be like taking off my skin. Father de Buggenoms then went my +surety. He had been my confessor at Clapham and was then absent. But +he wrote to De Held that he would guarantee my conduct if ordained. +De Held then changed and became my fast and constant friend." + +This is the first mention we find of Father de Buggenoms. Father +Hecker ever venerated him and cherished his memory as that of a +saintly friend and benefactor. + +On another occasion we find a fuller account of the same events: + +"Only for Father de Buggenoms I should not have been ordained at all." + +"Who was De Buggenoms?" + +"A Belgian, and my confessor while I was at Clapham. I was there, not +ordained, nor yet making my studies. I had been forced to give them +up; I could not go on with them. De Held did not know what to make of +me, and he treated me harshly and cruelly. Finally I went to him and +told him my thoughts; I said I was absolutely certain I had a +religious vocation; that he might compel me to take of the habit, but +it would be like taking off my skin; and so on. After that interview +De Held changed toward me and was ever after my warm friend. He was a +very prominent member of the Congregation. You know he came within a +few votes of being Rector-major. He was very warm in his sympathy +with us during our trouble in Rome. Well, Heilig, a German, was about +coming over to England as superior. He had been my director for two +years. Before he came he wrote me a letter that gave me indescribable +pain. He wrote that I must change--that I was all wrong, and so on. I +answered that it was too late to change; that he had been my director +for two years, knew me well, and had been cognizant of my state. If +he wanted me changed he must do it for me, for I did not see how to +do it for myself. When he came, De Buggenoms told him to have me +ordained, set me to work at anything, and he (De Buggenoms) would be +responsible for me in every respect. Heilig complied. I asked him +afterwards why he wrote that letter. 'Because,' said he, 'I thought +you needed to be tried some more.' 'Why,' said I, 'I have had nothing +but trial ever since I came.'" + +From this it would seem that the case was finally settled by Father +Heilig after Father de Held's departure for the Continent, which took +place, as well as we can discover, some time in the summer of 1849. +Father Heilig's letter, written from Liege, is before us; it is dated +the 24th of March, 1849. It is a complete arraignment of Isaac +Hecker's spiritual condition. It is gentle, considerate, choice of +terms, but condenses all that could be said to show that his young +friend had been deluded by a visionary temperament, applying to +himself what he had read in mystical treatises and the lives of the +saints. The letter was indeed a deadly blow. Father Heilig had been +Brother Hecker's confessor for two years at Wittem, and had at least +tacitly approved his spirit; and now came his condemnation. No wonder +that Isaac was profoundly distressed by it. Yet his conviction of the +validity of his inner life was not shaken for an instant. Nor was the +trial of long duration. We have found a letter from Father Heilig +dated two months later than the one we have been considering, and it +is full of messages of reassurance and encouragement. The +intervention of De Buggenoms completed the work. It is possible that +Father Heilig had not simply a desire to test Brother Hecker's +humility, but, by studying the effect of the trial imposed, to remove +doubts still lingering in his own mind. Some words in both the +letters referred to lead us to this inference. + +Father L'hoir had not forgotten his young friend, who received a +letter from him a couple of months after leaving Wittem, which +breathes in every word the tenderest utterance of friendship; and a +year after, another one similarly affectionate, congratulating him on +his ordination. This Father L'hoir must have been a noble soul to +write so lovingly; we wish that space permitted us to give his +letters to the reader. + +Amongst the papers left by Father Hecker we found one carefully +preserved, bearing date at St. Mary's, Clapham, the feast of St. +Raphael (Oct. 24) 1848, a month after his arrival there. It is a +manuscript of thirty-nine closely-written pages of letter-paper. It +is an account of conscience made, no doubt, to Father de Held, though +its preparation may have occupied some of his time before leaving +Wittem. We will make some extracts. It begins thus: + +"Before commencing what is to follow, I cannot resist making the +confession of my feebleness and incapacity to express even +conveniently those things which I feel it my duty to relate, that I +may walk with greater security and quicker step in the way of God. It +would not surprise me if one who has not taken the pains to +investigate this matter sufficiently should doubt indeed whether such +singular graces, seeing the faults I daily commit and my many +imperfections, had really been given to such an individual. A similar +remark to this was made by my last director. But this is a cause of +much joy and consolation to me; (that is to say) that my interior +life is hid and unknown to others except those who direct me. All +that I can adduce in behalf of its truth and credibility are these +words of sacred Scripture: Spiritus ubi vult spirat (the Spirit +breatheth where He will); and, ubi autem abundavit delictum, +superabundavit gratia (but where sin abounded there did grace more +abound.) + +. . . . . . . . + +"At that time (towards the end of the novitiate) I felt a special +attraction and devotion toward Our Blessed Lord in the Holy Sacrament +and an almost irresistible desire of receiving the blessed Communion +of Divine love. This desire so far from having abated has greatly +increased, so that I have a constant hunger and thirst for Our Lord +in the sacrament of His body and blood. If it were possible I would +desire to receive no other food than this, for it is the only +nourishment that I have a real appetite for. I cannot consider it +other than the source and substance of my whole spiritual and +interior life. The day on which I have been deprived of it I have +experienced a debility and want of both material and spiritual life +like one who is nearly famished. The doctrine of the real presence of +our Lord seems to be with me a matter of conviction arising more from +actual experience than from faith. At times, when I would make my +visit, I am seized with such a violent love towards the Blessed +Sacrament that I am forced to break off immediately, being unable to +support the attraction of the Spouse, the Beloved, the Only One of my +soul. For some time back, wherever I may be, or on whatever side I +turn, I seem to feel the presence of Our Lord in the Sacrament in the +tabernacle. It seems as though I were in the same sphere as our Lord +in the sacrament, where there appears no time nor space, yet both are. + +. . . . . . . . + +"At times, especially during the great retreat before making the +vows, I was as it were inebriated with love, so that I scarcely knew +what I said or did. + +. . . . . . . . + +"This was the stage of my interior life on entering the house of +studies at Wittem, October, 1846. Here the principal acts in all my +spiritual exercises were those of resignation and conformity to the +will of God, an entire fidelity to the inspirations and attractions +of the Holy Spirit, and a total abandonment of myself to the conduct +of Divine Providence. God seemed always engaged in my soul by means +of His grace in repressing my own activity. The end of my proper +activity, I said to myself, is its destruction. God commands a total +and entire abandonment of the soul to Him in order that He may with +his grace destroy and annihilate all that He finds in it against His +designs and will. God at times seemed to demand of me a frightful and +heroic abandonment of my soul to His good pleasure. God alone knows +how to exercise the soul in virtue, and the Holy Spirit is its only +true master in the spiritual life. Not only did the spirit of God +excite and elicit in me voluntary acts of self-abandonment, but often +my soul was as if stripped of all support, and placed, as it were, +over a dark and unfathomable abyss, and thus I was made to see that +my only hope was to give myself up wholly to Him. The words of Job +well express this purgation of the soul when he says: 'The arrows of +the Lord are in me, the rage whereof drinketh up my spirit, and the +terrors of the Lord war against me.' (Here follow other quotations +from the book of Job.) Sometimes these pains penetrate into the +remotest and most secret chambers of the soul. The faculties are in +such an intensive purgation that from the excessive pain which this +subtile and purifying fire causes they are suspended from their +ordinary activity, and the soul, incapable of receiving any relief or +escaping from its suffering, has nothing left but to resign itself to +the will and good pleasure of God. Though enveloped with an unseen +but no less real fire, suffering in every part, limb, and fibre from +indescribable pains, fixed like one who should be forced to look the +sun constantly in the face at midday, she is nevertheless content, +for she has a secret consciousness that God is the cause of all her +sufferings, and not only content--she would suffer still more for His +love." + +[Here follows an account of the mortifications to which this interior +pressure drove him, shortening of sleep, wearing hair-shirts, severe +discipline, abstinence and fasting, and the like.] + +. . . . . . . . + +"There were no penances that I have read of that seemed to me +impossible. The vilest habits and other things that I was allowed to +wear and to use gave me the greatest pleasure. The thought of not +having wherewith to cover my nakedness, to be contemned, ridiculed, +and spit upon, gave me an extreme joy. My delight consisted in +wanting that which is considered necessary . . . all this I did not +only do without reluctance, difficulty, and pain, but with great +pleasure, ease, and joy. They seemed as nothing, and I was as though +I had scarcely need of a body in order to live, or, in other words, +it seemed that I lived for the most part independent of the body. + +"It was about this period that God gave me the grace which I had long +desired and sighed after: to be able to act and suffer without the +idea of any recompense. I call it a gift, for although I had so long +wished and demanded of God the power to act and to love Him +disinterestedly, still I was unable to do so. I felt myself a slave +and hireling in the service of God, and this mortified me and made me +much ashamed of myself. But when this grace was given, which happened +unexpectedly, I could not forbear going immediately to my director to +express my joy of the favor I had received, and the freedom and +magnanimity of soul which it inspired me with. I do not mean to say +that the soul has no idea of any recompense, for she has it tacitly, +but this is not her formal intention in her actions; for she is to +such a degree animated to act for the good pleasure and sole glory of +God, that she quasi forgets all else. . . . + +"Sometimes I have felt singularly present and in intimate communion +with certain of the saints, such as St. Francis of Assisi, St. +Bonaventure, St. Thomas, St. Peter of Alcantara, our holy father +Alphonsus, etc. During this time--and sometimes it is for many +days--the life, the virtues, the spirit with which the saint acted +occupies almost exclusively my mind. I seem to feel their presence +much more intimately and really than that of those who are around me. +I understand and comprehend them better, and experience a more +salutary influence from them than perhaps I would have done had I +lived and been with them in their time. . . . Twice I remember having +experienced in this manner the presence of Our Blessed Lord. While +this lasted I felt myself altogether another person. His heroic +virtues, His greatness, tenderness, and love seemed to inspire me +with such a desire to follow Him and imitate His example that I lost +sight of all things else. His presence excited in me a greater love +and esteem for the Christian virtues than I could have acquired +otherwise in years and years. . . . + +"About the commencement of the second year of studies, during some +weeks my faculties were drawn and concentrated to such a degree +towards the centre of my soul that I was as one bereft of his +exterior senses and activity. Before the vacation I had desired to +pass that time in solitude and retreat, but it was not allowed." + +We have omitted much of this singular document, including detailed +accounts of supernatural occurrences, and also quotations from the +works of Goerres, St. Teresa, St. John of the Cross, St. Bonaventure, +Father Rigoleu, Richard of St. Victor, Scaramelli's _Directorium +Mysticum,_ and other mystical writings. These references he had +collected to certify to the reality of his experience. + +Throughout all these three years of trial he had employed what he +calls his "lucid intervals" of mental power in studying in his own +way, God aiding him in _His_ own way to the destined end, as He had +hindered him from choosing any other way. These intervals seemed so +slight in his memory that the reader has seen his statement that he +had not studied at all. When he had been a year at Clapham he was +found, on examination, to be well enough prepared, as he had promised +he would be. Having been ordained sub-deacon and deacon at old Hall +College, by Bishop Wiseman, he was ordained priest by the same +prelate in his private chapel in London. The event took place on the +23d of October, 1849, the feast of the Most Holy Redeemer. Father +Hecker said his first Mass the following day at Clapham, that being +the feast of St. Raphael the Archangel: one year from the date of his +account of conscience written out and given to his superiors. + +The following is from a letter to his mother announcing his +ordination: + +"DEAR MOTHER: You have been doubly blessed by Almighty God within the +past few weeks. Your youngest son has been ordained priest in God's +one, holy, Catholic Church, and prays for you daily when he offers up +to God the precious body and blood of His beloved Son, our Lord; and +besides you have received, by the marriage of another of your sons +[George], a new daughter, who, being also a child of the Holy Church, +must be kind, dutiful, pious, fearing God, and loving above all +things our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Are not these, dear +mother, blessings? Do they not convey to your heart joy and +consolation? They ought and surely do. Your latter days dear mother, +will be your happiest." + +The remainder of the letter is filled with exhortations to enter the +Church, and arguments drawn from Scripture. + +We may mention a letter written to Father Hecker by Father Heilig on +the eve of the former's departure for America; a message full of +affectionate good wishes and claims of friendship and union in prayer +with the singular young pilgrim from the Western World. + +The following extracts from the memoranda may be of interest as +embodying Father Hecker's views of how to study divinity, resulting +from his own experience in preparing for the priesthood: + +"March, 1884.--I told Father Hecker, in course of conversation, about +my reading the life of the Cure of Ars. He said: 'A saintly man +indeed, and one gifted with a supernatural character to an +extraordinary degree. But it seems to me that his biographer +misunderstood him somewhat. He seems to admit that the Cure of Ars +had a naturally stupid mind, because he had so much difficulty in +getting through his studies for the priesthood. The truth, probably, +was that just at that time the supernatural action of the Holy Spirit +came upon him and incapacitated him for his studies. But everything +about his after life shows that, though a rustic man, he had a good +mind, a keen native wit, quick and clear perception. I had something +the same difficulty myself. + +"During my novitiate and studies one of my great troubles was the +relation between infused knowledge and acquired knowledge; how much +one's education should be by prayer and how much by study; the +relation between the Holy Ghost and professors. + +"In the novitiate they were all too much on the passive side-- +unbroken devotional and ascetic routine. In the studentate, too much +on the active side--leaving nothing for infused science and prayer as +a part of the method of study. They soon broke me down. I told them +so. If I went on studying I would have been driven mad. Let me alone, +I said. Let me take my own way and I will warrant that I will know +enough to be ordained when the time comes. They said I was a scandal. +Then they sent me to England to De Held. I am persuaded that in the +study of divinity not enough room is given to prayer and not enough +account made of infused science." + +________________________ + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +A REDEMPTORIST MISSIONARY + +"I WOULD not have become a priest had I lived in Europe, for I never +had or could have any strong attrait for sacerdotal functions. But I +felt that the Church in America was in need of all the help that +could be given by her children for the work of the priesthood." +Father Hecker said this when near his end, and a full knowledge of +his character bore him out in it. The sacerdotal, the ecclesiastical, +were qualities which he had assumed with full consciousness of their +sanctity, yet they united with his other characteristics in a way to +leave traces of the point of contact. He was certainly an edifying +priest, and to hear his Mass was to be spiritually elevated by his +joyous fervor. But you would never say of him "he is a thorough +ecclesiastic, he is a typical priest." The external aids of religion +he imparted with a reverence which displayed his faith in his +priestly character as a dispenser of the sacramental mysteries of +God. But the other mysteries of God which are hidden in his +providential guidance of men, he could expound with the instinctive +familiarity of a native gift; the voice of God in nature, in reason, +and in conscience, and its response in revelation, he could elicit +with a power and unction rarely met with. He has left the following +words on record: "After my ordination the duties of the sacred +ministry appeared to me most natural; the hearing of confessions and +the direction of souls was as if it had been a thing practised from +my childhood, and was a source of great consolation." + +The year spent in England after ordination was occupied by Father +Hecker mainly in parochial duties at Clapham and some neighboring +stations attended by the Redemptorists of that house. Father Walworth +enjoyed some missionary experience with Fathers Pecherine and +Buggenoms, but Father Hecker had only been at one or two small +retreats--one at Scott-Murray's estate in company with Father Ludwig +and another at that of Weld-Blundells in Lancashire; but in neither +of these had he preached or given any instructions, serving only in +the confessional and in hunting up obstinate sinners. He certainly +did preach once before leaving England, perhaps only once, and that +was at Great Marlowe, near London, in the church built by the +Hornihold family. It was on Easter Sunday, 1850, and was well +remembered by Father Hecker and referred to in after years. He +thought the sermon a good one as a beginning, but it seems to have +given him no encouragement, and we venture to think that if it +profited his hearers somewhat it also amused them a little. He needed +a teacher, and he found one in Father Bernard, the newly appointed +provincial of the American province. + +In 1850 Father Bernard Joseph Hafkenscheid* was made Provincial of +the Redemptorist houses in America. His patronymic was too formidable +for ordinary use, and he was universally known as Father Bernard. He +was in the prime of life on taking this office, and although he had +spent twenty years on the missions in Holland, his native country, in +Belgium and England, he yet showed no signs of these labors; he +continued them for fourteen years longer, for the most of the time in +the Netherlands, his death resulting from accident in 1865. By common +consent he is ranked in the highest order of popular preachers. He +had entered the community from the secular priesthood shortly after +his ordination; he had made a brilliant course of studies at Rome, +which was crowned by the doctorate of the Roman College. He was +physically a tall, powerful man, and of majestic bearing. His +features were full of intelligence, his glance penetrating, his voice +clear, sympathetic, and vibrating, his gestures expressive. If half +that is handed down of Father Bernard be true, he was a wonderful +preacher of penance and of hope, his high gifts of natural eloquence +served by a perfect education and inspired by a most enthusiastic +love of the people. + +[* The reader is referred to his life by Canon Claessens (Catholic +Publication Society Co.) It is all too brief, yet is a good summary +of the career of the great Redemptorist missionary, one of St. +Alphonsus' noblest sons.] + +He was a popular preacher in the best sense of the term, calm in +demeanor and simple in language as he opened, but when at the point +of fervor pouring forth his soul in a fiery torrent of oratory, whose +only restraint was the inability of the human voice to express all +that the heart contained. In style impassioned, he yet often chose +language bordering on the familiar, but was not vulgar. He is an +instance of the fallacy of the saying that the preacher must stoop to +his auditory if he would be popular. Father Bernard was ever true to +himself, never appeared less than an educated priest and grave +religious, and yet he was a most popular preacher. The great truths +of eternal life are a universal heritage, and the use of plain words +is not getting down from good style even in the literary sense, and a +familiar manner is a trait of affection. We have stopped the reader +for this moment with Father Bernard because he was Father Hecker's +teacher of mission preaching and instructing, and was ever beloved by +him as an appreciative friend and a wise and indulgent preceptor. He +had made his first visit to America with Father de Held in 1845, but +remained only a few months to acquire information and gain +impressions for a report to the Rector Major. He made a second voyage +in January, 1849, acting as superior of the American houses, as +Vice-provincial, and remained about eighteen months. The United +States now forming a separate province and Father Bernard made +Provincial, he demanded Fathers Hecker and Walworth as his subjects, +and they were given to him. + +A letter from Father Hecker announces his departure for New York as +fixed for some time in October, 1890; but delays occurred, and the +following is an extract from one to his mother, dated January 17, +1851; it says that the departure is fixed for some day the same month: + +"Oh! may Almighty God prosper our voyage, and may His sweet and +blessed Mother be our guide and protector on the stormy sea. And may +my arrival in America be for the good of many souls who are still +wandering out of the one flock and away from the one shepherd! I hope +that to no one will it be of more consolation and benefit than to you, +my dearest mother." + +The ship was named the _Helvetia_ and sailed from Havre the 27th of +January, the captain being a genuine down-east Yankee, and the crew a +mixed assortment of English and American sailors. Father Bernard's +party consisted of Fathers Walworth, Hecker, Landtsheer, Kittell, +Dold, and Giesen, and the students Hellemans, Mueller, and Wirth, the +American fathers having come to Havre from London by way of Dover, +Calais, and Paris. The weather was unfavorable during nearly the +entire voyage, the ship being driven back into the English Channel +and forced to anchor in the Downs. They were beaten about for two +weeks before they got fairly upon the Atlantic, and while crossing +the Newfoundland banks were in danger from icebergs. Nearly all the +party were more or less sea-sick, including Father Hecker. This did +not prevent his attempting the conversion of the boatswain, who +seemed the only hopeful subject in the ship's company. There were a +hundred and thirty steerage passengers, emigrants for the most part +from Protestant countries, though a party of Garibaldian refugees and +a few equally wild Frenchmen enlivened the monotony of sea-life by +some bloody fights. There were but two cabin passengers besides the +Redemptorists, and the former being confined to their staterooms by +nearly continual sea-sickness, the cabin was turned into a "floating +convent," to borrow Father Dold's expression in a long letter +descriptive of the voyage, given by Canon Claessens in his _Life of +Father Bernard._ + +The wintry and stormy voyage had already tested the missionaries' +patience for some weeks, when Father Bernard informed the captain +that he and his companions were going to make a novena to St. Joseph +to arrive at New York on or before his feast, March the 19th. "St. +Joseph will have to do his very prettiest to get us in," was the +answer. And when the ship was still far to the east, being off the +banks, and the weather quite unfavorable, and only three days left +before the feast, the captain called out: "St. Joseph can't do +it--give it up, Father Bernard." But the latter would still +persevere; and that night the wind changed. The Yankee ship now flew +along at the rate of fourteen miles an hour. When the eve of St. +Joseph's Day came they were wrapped in a dense fog, and the captain, +dreading the nearness of the coast, hove to. When day dawned the fog +lifted, and the ship was found to be off Long Branch, and a wrecked +ship was seen on the shore; she had been driven there during the +night. The pilot soon came aboard and they sailed through the Narrows +and into the harbor of New York, having spent fifty-two days on the +ocean. As they approached the city a little tug-boat was seen coming +to meet them. It bore George and John Hecker and Mr. McMaster, whose +cordial greetings were the first welcome the young Redemptorists +heard on their return to the New World. They were soon at their home +in the convent in Third Street, and on the sixth of April following +the first mission was opened in St. Joseph's Church, Washington +Place, New York. + +Here is Dr. Brownson's greeting, from his home in Chelsea, Mass., +received by Father Hecker soon after his arrival: + +"My very dear friend, you cannot imagine what pleasure it gives me to +learn of your arrival in New York. . . . I want to see you much, very +much. You have much to tell me that it is needful that I should know, +and I beg you to come to see me. Tell your superiors from me that +your visit to me will be more than an act of charity to me +personally, and that it is highly necessary--not merely as a matter +of pleasure to us two--that we should meet; and tell them that I +earnestly beg to have you come and spend a few days with me. I am +sure that they will permit you to do so in furtherance of the work in +which I as well as you are engaged, and I have a special reason for +wishing to see you now. I would willingly visit you at New York or +anywhere in the United States, but there is no place so appropriate +as my own house. . . . I am more indebted to you for having become a +Catholic than to any other man under heaven, and while you supposed I +was leading you to the church, it was you who led me there. I owe you +a debt of gratitude I can never repay . . . Come, if possible, and as +soon as possible." + +At the Third Street house the new-comers found Father Augustine F. +Hewit, a convert from the Episcopal Church, in which he had tarried +for a few years on his way from Calvinism to the true religion. He +had been a secular priest for a short time previous to entering the +order. He was directed to join the newly-formed missionary band, and +was destined to be more to Father Hecker than any other man, and to +succeed him as superior of the Paulist community. + +After more than five years' absence Father Hecker thus finds himself +in America, the land of his apostolate, a member of a missionary +community whose external vocation is the preaching of penance, and +the conversion of sinful Catholics to a good life. A mission is a +season of renewal of the religious life among the people of a parish. +It is a course of spiritual exercises in which the principles of +religion are called forth and placed in more active control of men's +conduct, and by means of which their emotional nature is stimulated +to grief for sin, love of God, yearning for eternal happiness. The +sermons and instructions are given twice, and sometimes oftener, each +day, during the early mornings and in the evenings. These exercises +are conducted in the parish church, but not by the parish clergy. The +people see among them the members of a religious order, men set +apart, by the interior touch of the Holy Spirit and the public +approval of the church, for this particular work--powerful preachers, +confessors as indefatigable as they are patient, priests full of +masterful zeal, moving in disciplined accord together against vice. +The call they address to the people is the peremptory one: "Do +penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Their words are given +forth not from the usual pulpit, but from a platform at the communion +railing, and in the presence of a high black cross set up in the +sanctuary. They wear no surplice or stole while preaching, the only +insignia of their office being a crucifix on their breasts. The +bishop usually extends to them greater powers than are commonly given +for reconciling sinners who have incurred ecclesiastical censures. +The Holy See empowers them to extend the most abundant spiritual +favors in its gift in the form of indulgences, and the pastor informs +the congregation several Sundays beforehand that he expects the +entire Catholic population of his parish to attend the mission and +receive the sacraments. + +To be absorbed in such labors as above described was not the primary +object of Father Hecker's vocation, but he accepted his place +joyfully as chosen by the evident will of God. The missionary life +was never in his eyes what the reader might surmise it to be--a mere +interlude in his career, a period of patient waiting. Such is far +from having been the case. The missions are eminent works of Catholic +zeal, and there is not any vocation known to the active ministry +which may not commute with them on equal terms. Human nature has +never felt influences more deeply religious than those set at work by +missions, recalling the effects of the preaching of the Apostles +themselves. Remorse of conscience, loathing for sin, terror at the +divine wrath, confidence in God, sympathy for our crucified Saviour, +the ecstatic joy of the new-found divine friendship, utter contempt +for the maxims of the world, iron determination to love God to the +end--these are the sentiments which, by the preaching of missions, +are made to dominate entire parishes in a degree simply marvellous. +Nor can it be said that these dispositions are fleeting. Allowing for +exceptions, especially in large cities, their permanency is often an +evidence of the solidity of the motives which inspired them, as well +as of the supernatural graces which gave them life. Every missionary +will bear witness, as Father Hecker often did, that he has never +assisted at a mission in which he was not profoundly impressed by the +tears of hardened sinners. Every parish priest, however much he may +regret the backsliding of some, will testify to the valuable results +of missions among his people: the quickening of faith and the revival +of supernatural motives, drunkards reformed, restitutions made, lust +cleansed away, families united, the church thronged with worshippers, +saloons deserted. Father Hecker never thought that all this was too +dearly bought by the dreary toil of the confessional, the discomforts +of for ever changing residences and living in strange places, nor +even by the growing nerve-troubles which the fathers are often +subject to, from brains superheated over and over again in the +burning fires of mission preaching. Father Hecker did not think the +privileges of such a life too dearly bought even by the postponement +of his proper apostolate, and was ever glad of his labors as a +missionary. + +They schooled him in public speaking. In his antecedents there was +abundant reason for diffidence, and he knew full well that what was +good enough language for an harangue to the Seventh Ward Democracy +would be ridiculous in a Catholic pulpit. Nor was he deceived into +the notion of his ability to preach because he could influence men in +private. Conversation is not public speaking, and the defects of +grammar, or any other such defects, if pardoned in an earnest and +honest man in private interchange of views, if committed on the +public rostrum are unpardonable and are usually fatal. Father Hecker +found in the incessant practice of the missionary platform, and in +the assistance of his present superior, exactly what he needed by way +of preparation. Besides the mission sermon at night--the great +sermon, as it was called--there is a short doctrinal instruction at +the same service and a moral one on the sacraments or commandments in +the morning. These became his share of the mission preaching, and the +school in which he acquired that direct, convincing, and popular +manner of discourse for which he was afterwards renowned as a +lecturer. + +We find the following among the memoranda: + +"When I came over to America with Fathers Bernard and Walworth, +Bernard wanted to know what I could do. Well, by that time I had +given up all hopes of any public career. I couldn't preach. My memory +and intellectual faculties generally were so influenced by my +interior state that theology was out of the question. The lights that +God had given me about the future state of religion in this country +were still clear as ever, but I thought that I should have to confine +myself to imparting them to particular and individual souls whom the +providence of God should throw in my way; for I was persuaded that +the Redemptorist community was unfitted for the future work I had +caught a glimpse of and I was entirely contented to live and die a +Redemptorist, and was quite certain that I should. So, when Bernard +asked me what I could do, I told him to get me some place as chaplain +of a prison or public institution of charity, as that was about all +that I was capable of. But he thought differently. + +"My first instructions on the missions were almost word for word +given me by Bernard. I didn't seem to have a single thought of my +own." + +To preach, whether to Catholics or to non-Catholics, one must learn +how, and Father Hecker with all his gifts knew that this gift seldom +comes from above except by way of reward for steady labor. The +opportunity of the missions, and of Father Bernard as a guide, was +eagerly accepted in lieu of the prison chaplaincy. + +The missions also enabled him to know the Catholic people. The +non-Catholics he already knew from vivid recollection of his own +former state and from that of his early surroundings; Brook Farm and +Fruitlands had completed his knowledge of the outside world; but the +Redemptorist novitiate and studentate and his sojourn in England did +not give him a similar knowledge of the Catholic people, priesthood, +and hierarchy. To the average looker-on Catholicity is what Catholics +are, and Catholics in America viewed from a standpoint of morality +were then and still are a very mixed population. Why the fruits are +worse than the tree is a sore perplexity even to expert +controversialists, and Father Hecker had need to equip himself well +for meeting that difficulty, a patent one in the rushing tide of +stricken immigrants then pouring into America. The missions are an +unequalled school for learning men. All men and women in a parish are +made known to the missionary, for they walk or stumble through his +very soul. + +Nor can one fail to see the use of missions as an evidence to the +non-Catholic public itself of the supernatural power of Catholicity +over men's lives. To practical people like Americans there is no oral +or written evidence of the true religion so valid as the spectacle of +its power to change bad men into good ones. Such a people will accept +arguments from history and from Scripture, but those of a moral kind +they demand; they must see the theories at work. A mission is a +microcosm of the church as a moral force. It shows a powerful grasp +of human nature and an easy supremacy over it. It is an energetic, +calm, and clean-sweeping influence for good, bold in its choice of +the most sublime truths of supernatural religion as the sole motives +of repentance. And it uniformly achieves so complete a victory over +the best-entrenched vices that non-Catholic prejudice is invariably +shaken at the spectacle. And in America the pioneer work of the +apostolate must be to remove prejudice. The character of the men who +conduct these exercises, their courage, intelligence, devotedness, +discipline, and ready command of the people; the indiscriminate +humanity which rushes to hear them, to pray, to confess their sins, +to listen with mute attention--long before day-break and in the hours +of rest after work--all regardless of social differences or of moral +ones, soon become well known to the public and generally excite +comment in the press. All this contributes to prepare non-Catholics +to hear from the same teachers the invitation which our Lord intended +in saying: "Other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also +must I bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one +fold and one shepherd." + +Furthermore, it was necessary that Father Hecker should be made +personally known to the bishops and priests of the country. The time +was coming when he would have a public cause to advance, and their +approval is a necessary sign of divine favor. Now, the missionary is +closely studied by them and soon is intimately known, for there are +too many things in common between priests but that they can readily +test each other. Before the Paulist community had been organized, +Father Hecker had been the guest of the most prominent clergymen of +the entire United States, and of many even in the British Provinces, +and was a well-known man throughout the Catholic community. Meantime +the humiliations of his study-time had been quickly recovered from, +if they had ever been a real hindrance to public effort, and we find +no sign of protest on his part or of request to be let off from +giving instructions beyond his answer to Father Bernard as above +recorded. As he loved his vows as a Redemptorist, so he loved the +work of the missions, because they were God's will for him; because +they are a work of the highest order of good for souls; because the +reputation of Catholicity is always raised in a community by a +mission, and a good name is necessary for a controversial standing; +because in them he daily learned more of men and of the means to win +them; and because the members of the divine order of the episcopate +and secular priesthood must be well known by him and he well known to +them before any extensive work could be done among non-Catholics; and +the missionary becomes a familiar friend everywhere he goes. Hence +controversial sermons were sometimes preached during the missions, +lectures of the same sort given after them, and during their +continuance many converts received into the church. Father Hecker, as +we have tried to show the reader, was a very observant nature, always +learning lessons from life, and ready to try his 'prentice hand on +what material offered in the way of converting Protestants at every +opportunity public and private. + +Nevertheless, the missions could not be made the ordinary channel of +direct influences for turning sceptics and Protestants to the true +religion. The attempt to make them so, involving, as it does, a +notable interspersion of controversial sermons, has never been tried +by the Redemptorist or Paulist Fathers to our knowledge, and when +done by others has resulted in not enough of controversy for making +solid converts, and too little penitential preaching for the proper +reformation of hard sinners among Catholics. Father Hecker fully +appreciated this. He threw himself into the mission work just as it +was with the utmost ardor, and learning from Father Bernard how to +prepare the matter for the morning and evening instructions, his +natural gifts, together with hints and suggestions from his brethren, +supplied him with the best possible manner of giving them. The writer +has often served on missions in parishes where Father Bernard's +new-formed band had preached in former years, and the testimony is +universal that as a doctrinal and moral instructor Father Hecker was +unequalled among missionaries. He was so frank, so clear, so lively, +so impressible, and, in a certain way, so humorous, that he carried +the people away with him. And he carried them all, high and low, +learned and simple. With persons of education his homely words did +not break the charm, nor did his simple but extremely well chosen +illustrations do so--all taken, as they were, from common life or the +lives and writings of the saints. He never preached the great sermons +and never aspired to do it. He never sought to arouse terror or to be +pathetic. He always reasoned and instructed. In truth, he was not +competent to deal adequately with such subjects as Death, Judgment, +and Hell--that is to say, as they are preached at missions, for the +emotions have honest rights on such occasions, and Father Hecker +acknowledged his deficiency in emotional oratory. But, to tell you +the qualities of true sorrow, or to show you how to make a true +confession, to picture the manliness of virtue and the dignity of the +Christian state, he was unsurpassed. And the general effect remaining +after his instructions was always a bright understanding of just what +to do for a good life, with many happy examples to aid the memory, +together with a strong personal affection for the holy man who showed +religion to be a most happy as well as most reasonable service of +God. To his penitents in the confessional he was ever most kind and +patient. "No school of perfection," he once said, "can equal the +self-denial necessary to hear confessions well." God is now rewarding +him, we trust, for the cheerful, often even bantering, words of +encouragement he gave to the multitudes of poor sinners who knelt at +his feet during the toilsome years he spent on the missions; and for +the enlightenment and encouragement of his big-hearted influence, and +for his trumpet notes of hope in the early morning instructions. +After the hard pounding of the night sermons it is always sought to +pick the sinner up out of the dust and to hearten him by the early +instructions, as well as to guide him to the precise methods and +means of reform and of a good life for the future. As to the +sacrament of penance, the saying of St. Alphonsus is a maxim with us +all: "Be a lion in the pulpit, but a lamb in the confessional." + +The reader must indulge us in thus dwelling so long on the Catholic +missions, for we are inclined to say many words of praise of so +lovely a life, in which the same men sow and reap a great harvest in +the same week, expend their vitality in preaching the word and +administering the sacraments and comforting sinners who are wholly +broken down with the truest contrition. + +In 1851 the American Redemptorists had before them a missionary field +almost untouched. Public retreats had been given from time to time in +the United States by Jesuits and others, but the mission opened at +St. Joseph's Church, New York City, on Passion Sunday, 1851, was the +first mission of a regular series carried on systematically by a body +of men especially devoted to the vocation. The merit of inaugurating +them is chiefly due to Father Bernard, who had no hesitation in +getting to work with his three American fathers; though Father Joseph +Mueller, rector of the Third Street convent, and Rev. Joseph McCarron, +the rector of St. Joseph's Church, had something to do in arranging +the details and in facilitating the work. Several Redemptorists from +Third Street helped in the confessionals.* + +[* Observers of coincidences will be interested to notice the arrival +of the missionaries in America on St. Joseph's day, under the +Provincial Bernard Joseph Hafkenscheid, to open their first mission +at St. Joseph's Church, the pastor being Joseph McCarron, the mission +having been negotiated by Joseph Mueller, the rector of the Third +Street convent. Father Hecker had a special devotion for St. Joseph.] + +We have space for only the following extracts from the brief record +of the missions, preserved by the fathers. They illustrate how +earnestly Father Hecker worked. In the record of the second mission +at Loretto, Pa., we find this: + +The instructions and Rosary were generally given by Father Hecker, +who received from the people the name of "Father Mary." . . . During +the first few days the people did not attend well; but after Father +Hecker had gone through the village and among a clique of young men +who were indifferent and disaffected to the clergy, and the evil +geniuses of the place, and after some fervent exhortations had been +made to the people, they flocked to the mission and crowded the +church. + +At Johnstown, Pa.: After two or three days a man happened to die on +the railroad, and all the men at that station, perhaps a hundred in +number, accompanied the corpse to the church. Father Hecker seized +the opportunity to address them and to give them a mission +_ferveroso._ And the next day he went on horseback, accompanied by +the pastor, Father Mullen (since Bishop of Erie), to several stations +and addressed the men, inviting them to attend the mission. The +result was successful. Procession after procession marched in, +filling the church, and numbers of them stayed all day, lying on the +grass about the church. . . . Father Hecker called out a noted +politician, who had not been to the sacraments for many years until +the mission, to receive the scapular as an example, and the good man +did not fail to receive a plentiful supply of holy water from the +vigorous arm of the said father. + +The following entry in the record under date of February, 1852, made +after a mission given in St. Peter's Church, Troy, N.Y., will be of +interest to missionaries, and to others who are observant of their +methods: "At Youngstown, Pa., (the preceding December) the experiment +of preaching from a platform had been successfully tried and was +repeated here, as at other missions since (Youngstown). On the +platform a large black cross, some ten feet or more in height, was +erected, from the arms of which a white muslin cloth was suspended. +This use of cross and platform has thus been regularly introduced +into the missions." Previously it had been the custom to erect a +large cross out of doors in front of the church as one of the closing +ceremonies of the mission. + +Fathers Hecker, Hewit, and Walworth, led by Father Bernard, made a +unique band of missionaries, one, we think, hardly equalled since +they yielded their place to others. Each was a man of marked +individuality, whose distinct personality was by no means obscured by +the strict conformity to rule evident in their behavior. Fathers +Hewit and Walworth were orators, differing much from each other, both +full of power. Father Hecker was a born persuader of men, and could +teach as a gift of nature, earnest in mind and manner. His two +companions saw him learn by hard work how so to modulate his voice +and to manage it and his manner as to exactly suit himself to his +duties as the instructor of the band, while they delivered finished +discourses at the night services, many of them masterpieces of +mission oratory. Their very poise and glance on the platform stilled +the church, and their noble rhetoric clothed appeals to the +intelligence and to the heart in most attractive garb. In Father +Hecker you saw a man who wanted to persuade you because he was right +and knew it, and because he was deeply interested in your welfare. He +sought no display, and yet held you fast to him by eye and ear. He +had no tricks to catch applause, for he had no vanity. He said what +he liked, for he was totally devoid of diffidence or awkwardness, and +his best aid was his invariable equipment of an earnest purpose. "But +I don't believe," said Father Walworth to the writer, "that +Demosthenes ever worked through greater difficulties than Father +Hecker in making himself a good public speaker." + +Father Bernard managed the missions for the first year, and dealt +with the pastors as superior of the band, meanwhile devouring more +than his share of the work in the confessional. The least experience +shows that there can be little of the discipline of the barracks +order on the missions, and all the fathers must of necessity consult +together, the superior leading in the observance of such community +devotional customs as are possible, and setting a good example in +stooping to the burdens which all must bear. As to Father Bernard, +the Americans could only admire and love him. In his own tongue a +renowned orator, he yet never preached in English while with these +three men unless on rare occasions, such as when one of them was +prevented by sickness. From him they received the manner of giving +missions handed down from St. Alphonsus, and they have transmitted +the tradition to their spiritual children in all its integrity. + +Nearly two years passed of hard missionary campaigning under Father +Bernard, when he was recalled to Europe, and Father Alexander +Cvitcovicz took his place. His last name was seldom used, for the +same evident reason as in his predecessor's case. Father Alexander +was a Magyar, past the meridian of life, long accustomed to missions +in Europe, learned, devout, kindly, and of a zeal which seemed to +aspire at utter self-annihilation in the service of sinners. '"It was +not unusual for Father Alexander," says Father Hewit in his memoir of +Father Baker, "to sit in his confessional for ten days in succession +for fifteen or sixteen hours each day. He instructed the little +children who were preparing for the sacraments, but never preached +any of the great sermons. In his government of the fathers who were +under him he was gentleness, consideration, and indulgence itself. In +his own life and example he presented a pattern of the most perfect +religious virtue, in its most attractive form, without constraint, +austerity, or moroseness, and yet without relaxation from the most +ascetic principles. He was a most thoroughly accomplished and learned +man in many branches of secular and sacred science and in the fine +arts; and in the German language, which was as familiar to him as his +native language, he was among the best preachers of his order. . . . +We went through several long and hard missionary campaigns under his +direction, until at last we left him, in the year 1854, in the +convent at New Orleans, worn out with labor, to exchange his arduous +missionary work for the lighter duties of the parish." + +Father Walworth now became superior, and the missions went on in the +same spirit and with the same success as before. In the record of the +one given at the church of Our Lady, Star of the Sea, Brooklyn, we +find the following entry: "Missionaries, Fathers Walworth, Hecker, +Hewit, and George Deshon (late lieu-tenant Ordnance, U. S. A., a +convert from the Episcopal Church. This was his first mission)." +Father Deshon had been ordained not long before, and soon began to +share the instructions with Father Hecker. This was in February, +1856, and in November of the same year, at St. Patrick's Mission, +Washington, D. C., they were joined by Father Francis A. Baker, +ordained in the preceding September, a distinguished convert from the +Episcopal ministry of the city of Baltimore. Much we would say of +him, his eloquence and his very amiable traits of character, but all +this and more is well said by Father Hewit, in his memoir of Father +Baker, published after the latter's death in 1865 (Catholic +Publication Society Co.) This increase of members allowed a division +of the band for smaller-sized missions. + +In our judgment those men were a band of missionaries the like of +whom have not served the great cause among the English-speaking races +these recent generations. Fathers Walworth, Hewit, and Deshon have +survived their companions of those early days, and may they long +remain with us, calm and beautiful and devout old veterans of the +divine warfare of peace! + +Father Hecker gave several retreats to religious communities of men +and of women during the six or seven years we are considering, +devoting for the purpose portions of the summer months usually +unoccupied by missions. Copies of notes of his conferences, taken +down by some of his hearers, are in our possession and may aid us +further on in giving the reader a view of his spiritual doctrine. + +The following extract from the Roman statement summarizes what we +have been telling in this chapter, and introduces the reader to +Father Hecker's first missionary activity as a writer: + +"My superiors sent me back to the United States, and on my return +being asked by my immediate superior in what way he could best employ +me, my reply was, in taking care of the sick, the poor, and the +prisoners. The stupidity which still reigned over my intellectual +faculties, and the helplessness of my will, and my sympathy with +those classes led me to choose such a sphere of action as most +suitable to my then condition. And although the conversion of the +non-Catholics of my fellow-countrymen was ever before my mind, yet +God left me in ignorance how this was to be accomplished. Such strong +and deep impulses, and so vast in their reach, took possession of my +soul on my return to the United States in regard to the conversion of +the American people, that on manifesting my interior to one of the +most spiritually enlightened and experienced fathers of the +congregation on the subject to obtain his direction, he bade me not +to resist these interior movements, they came from God; and that God +would yet employ me in accordance with them. Such were his words. +After a few weeks in the United States the work of the missions +began. My principal duties on these were to give public instructions +and hear confessions, and up to this time (1858) these missionary +labors have occupied me almost exclusively. + +"The blessings of God upon our missions were most evident and most +abundant and my share in them most consoling, as usually the most +abandoned sinners fell to my lot. But holy and important as the +exercises of the missions among Catholics are, still this work did +not correspond to my interior attrait, and though exhausted and +frequently made ill from excessive fatigue in these duties, yet my +ardent and constant desire to do something for my non-Catholic +countrymen led me to take up my pen. That took place as follows: One +day alone in my cell the thought suddenly struck me how great were my +privileges and my joy since my becoming a Catholic, and how great +were my troubles and agony of soul before this event! Alas! how many +of my former friends and acquaintances, how many of the great body of +the American people were in the same most painful position. Cannot +something be done to lead them to the knowledge of the truth? Perhaps +if the way that divine Providence had led me to the church was shown +to them many of them might in this way be led also to see the truth. +This thought, and with it the hope of inducing young men to enter +into religious orders, produced in a few months from my pen a book +entitled _Questions of the Soul._ The main features of this book are +the proofs that the Sacraments of the Catholic Church satisfy fully +all the wants of the heart. . . . + +"But the head was left to be yet converted; this thought led me to +write a second book, called _Aspirations of Nature;_ and which has +for its aim to show that the truths of the Catholic faith answer +completely to the demands of reason. My purpose in these two books +was to explain the Catholic religion in such a manner as to reach and +attract the minds of the non-Catholics of the American people. These +books were regarded in my own secret thoughts as the test whether God +had really given to me the grace and vocation to labor in a special +manner for the conversion of these people. The first book, with God's +grace, has been the means of many and signal conversions in the +United States and England, and in a short period passed through three +editions. The second has been published since my arrival in Rome. . . + +"On an occasion of a public conference (discourse) given by me before +an audience, a great part of which was not Catholic, the matter and +manner of which was taken from my second book, my fellow-missionaries +were present; and they as well as myself regarded this as a test +whether my views and sentiments were adapted to reach and convince +the understanding and hearts of this class of people, or were the +mere illusions of fancy. Hitherto my fellow-missionaries had shown +but little sympathy with my thoughts on these points, but at the +close of the conference they were of one mind that my vocation was +evidently to work in the direction of the conversion of the +non-Catholics, and they spoke of such a work with conviction and +enthusiasm." + +This last event occurred in St. Patrick's Church, Norfolk, Va., in +April, 1896, and is thus mentioned by Father Hewit in the record of +the mission: "Father Hecker closed with an extremely eloquent and +popular lecture on 'Popular Objections to Catholicity.'" + +The _Questions of the Soul_ was well named, for it undertakes to show +how the cravings of man for divine union may be satisfied. It does +this by discussing the problem of human destiny, affirming the need +of God for the soul's light and for its virtue, proving this by +arguments drawn from the instincts, faculties, and achievements of +man. The sense of want in man is the universal argument for his need +of more than human fruition, and in the moral order is the +irrefragable proof of both his own dignity and his incapacity to make +himself worthy of it. Father Hecker urged in this book that man is +born to be more than equal to himself--an evident proof of the need +of a superhuman or supernatural religion. Eleven chapters, making +one-third of the volume, are devoted to showing this, and include the +author's own itinerarium from his first consciousness of the supreme +question of the soul until its final answer in the Catholic Church, +embracing short accounts of the Brook Farm and Fruitlands +communities, and mention of other such abortive attempts at solution. +Three chapters then affirm and briefly develop the claim of Christ to +be the entire fulfilment of the soul's need for God, with the +Catholic Church as his chosen means and instrument. These are +entitled respectively, "The Model Man," "The Model Life," and "The +Idea of the Church." Three more chapters discuss Protestantism, +stating its commonest doctrines and citing its most competent +witnesses in proof of its total and often admitted inadequacy to lead +man to his destiny. Bringing the reader back to the Church, the +fourteen last chapters fully develop her claims, dealing mostly with +known facts and public institutions, and citing largely the testimony +of non-Catholic writers. + +It is something like the inductive method to infer the existence of a +God from that of an admitted appetite, as also to learn the kind of +food from the nature of the organs provided by nature for its +reception and digestion. So the longings of man's moral nature, +Father Hecker felt, when fairly understood, must lead to the +knowledge of what he wants for their satisfaction--the Infinite +Good--and that by a process of reasoning something equivalent to the +scientific. Such is the statement of his case, embracing with its +argument the introductory chapters. The inquiry then extends to the +claimants in the religious world, not simply as to which is +biblically authentic or historically so, but rather as to which +religion claims to satisfy the entire human want of God and makes the +claim good as an actual fact. It is wonderful how this line of +argument simplifies controversy, and no less wonderful to find how +easily the victory is won by the Catholic claim. The reader will also +notice how consistent all this is with Father Hecker's own experience +from the beginning. + +The literary faults of the book are not a few; for if the argument is +compact, its details seem to have been hastily snatched up and put +together, or perhaps the occupations of the missions prevented +revision and consultation. There is a large surplusage of quotations +from poets, many of them obscure, and worthy of praise rather as +didactic writers than as poets; yet every word quoted bears on the +point under discussion. To one who has labored in preparing sermons, +each chapter looks like the cullings of the preacher's commonplace +book set in order for memorizing; and very many sentences are +rhetorically faulty. But, in spite of all these defects, the book is +a powerful one, and nothing is found to hurt clearness or strength of +expression. What we have criticised are only bits of bark left +clinging to the close-jointed but rough-hewn frame-work. + +The _Questions of the Soul_ was got out by the Appletons, and was at +the time of its publication a great success, and still remains so. +The reason is because the author takes nothing for granted, propounds +difficulties common to all non-Catholics, sceptics as well as +professing Protestants, and offers solutions verifiable by inspection +of every-day Catholicity and by evidences right at hand. Catholicity +is the true religion, because it alone unites men to God in the +fulness of union, supernatural and integral in inner and outer +life--a union demanded by the most resistless cravings of human +nature: such is the thesis. There can be little doubt that prior to +this book there was nothing like its argument current in English +literature; a short and extremely instructive account by Frederick +Lucas of his conversion from Quakerism is the only exception known to +us, and that but partially resembles it, is quite brief, and has long +since gone out of print. + +The _Aspirations of Nature_ deals with intellectual difficulties in +the same manner as the _Questions of the Soul_ does with the moral +ones. The greatest possible emphasis is laid upon the two-fold truth +that man's intellectual nature is infallible in its rightful domain, +and that that domain is too narrow for its own activity. The validity +of human reason as far as it goes, and its failure to go far enough +for man's intellectual needs, are the two theses of the book. They +are well and thoroughly proved; and no one can deny the urgent need +of discussing them: the dignity of human nature and the necessity of +revelation. Like Father Hecker's first book, the _Aspirations of +Nature_ is good for all non-Catholics, because in proving the dignity +of man's reason Protestants are brought face to face with their +fundamental error of total depravity; enough for their case surely. +If they take refuge in the mitigations of modern Protestant beliefs, +they nearly always go to the extreme of asserting the entire +sufficiency of the human intellect, and are here met by the argument +for the necessity of revelation. + +An extremely valuable collection of the confessions of heathen and +infidel philosophers as to the insufficiency of reason is found in +this book, as well as a full set of quotations from Protestant +representative authorities on the subject of total depravity. Over +against these the Catholic doctrine of reason and revelation is +brought out clearly. The study of the book would be a valuable +preparation for the exposition of the claims of the Catholic Church +to be the religion of humanity, natural and regenerate--the +intellectual religion. + +As might be expected from one who had such an aversion for Calvinism, +the view of human nature taken by the author is what some would call +optimistic, and the tone with regard to the religious honesty of +non-Catholic Americans extremely hopeful. Perhaps herein was Dr. +Brownson's reason for an adverse, or almost adverse, criticism on the +book in his _Review._ He had given the _Questions of the Soul_ a +thoroughly flattering reception, and now says many things in praise +of the _Aspirations of Nature,_ praising especially the chapter on +individuality. But yet he dreads that the book will be misunderstood; +he has no such lively hopes as the author; he trusts he is not +running along with the eccentricities of theologians rather than with +their common teaching; fears that he takes the possible powers of +nature and such as are rarely seen in actual life as the common rule; +dreads, again, that Transcendentalists will be encouraged by it; and +more to the same effect. But Father Hecker, before leaving for Europe +in 1857, had submitted the manuscript to Archbishop Kenrick and +received his approval; nor did Brownson's unfavorable notice ruffle +the ancient friendship between them. + +The _Aspirations of Nature_ was put through the press by George +Ripley, at that time literary editor of the New York _Tribune,_ +Father Hecker having gone to Rome on the mission which ended in the +establishment of his new community. Mr. McMaster had assisted him +similarly with the _Questions of the Soul._ The second book sold +well, as the first had done, and has had several editions. It is not +so hot and eager in spirit as the _Questions of the Soul,_ but it +presses its arguments earnestly enough on the reader's attention. It +is free from the literary faults named in connection with its +predecessor, reads smoothly, and has very many powerful passages and +some eloquent ones. + +________________________ + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +SEPARATION FROM THE REDEMPTORISTS + +THE events which led to the separation of the band of American +missionaries from the Redemptorist community took place in the spring +and summer of 1857. A misunderstanding arose about the founding of a +new house in Newark, N.J., or in New York City, which should be the +headquarters for the English-speaking Fathers and become the centre +of attraction for American subjects, and in which English should be +the language in common use. Application had been made by Bishop +Bayley, and afterwards by Archbishop Hughes, for such a foundation, +but superiors, both in the United States and in Rome--the latter +dependent on letter-writing for understanding the difficulties which +arose--became suspicious of the aims of the American Fathers and of +the spirit which actuated them. To establish their loyalty and to +explain the necessity for the new foundation, the missionary Fathers +believed that one of their number should go to Rome and lay the +matter in person before the General or Rector Major of the order. The +choice fell on Father Hecker, who sailed on August 5, 1857, arrived +in Rome the 26th, and was expelled from the Congregation of the Most +Holy Redeemer on Sunday, the 29th of the same month, the General +deeming his coming to Rome to be a violation of the vows of obedience +and poverty. + +The grounds of his expulsion were then examined by the Propaganda, +from which the case passed to the Holy Father, who sought the +decision of the Congregation of Bishops and Regulars. Pius IX. gave +his judgment as a result of the examination made by the last-named +Congregation; but he had made a personal study of all the evidence, +and had given private audiences to both the General and Father +Hecker. It was decided that all the American Fathers associated in +the missionary band should be dispensed from their vows as +Redemptorists, including Father Hecker, who was looked upon and +treated by the decree as if he were still as much a member of the +Congregation as the others, his expulsion being ignored. This +conclusion was arrived at only after seven months of deliberation, +and was dated the 6th of March, 1898. The decree, which will be given +entire in this chapter, contemplates the continued activity of the +Fathers as missionaries, subject to the authority of the American +bishops; their formation into a separate society was taken for +granted. Such is a brief statement of the entire case. If the reader +will allow it to stand as a summary, what follows will serve to fill +in the outline and complete a more detailed view. + +And at the outset let it be fully understood that none of the Fathers +desired separation from the order or had the faintest notion of its +possibility as the outcome of the misunderstanding. One of the first +letters of Father Hecker from Rome utters the passionate cry, "They +have driven me out of the home of my heart and love." We have +repeatedly heard him affirm that he never had so much as a temptation +against his vows as a Redemptorist. But in saying this we do not mean +to lay blame on the Redemptorist superiors. In all that we have to +say on this subject we must be understood as recognizing their purity +of intention. Their motives were love of discipline and obedience, +which they considered seriously endangered. They were persuaded that +their action, though severe, was necessary for the good of the entire +order. And this shows that the difficulty was a misunderstanding, for +there is conclusive evidence of the loyalty of the American +Fathers--of Father Hecker no less than the others; as also of their +fair fame as Redemptorists with both the superiors and brethren of +the community up to the date of their disagreement. When Father +Hecker left for Rome the Provincial gave him his written word that, +although he disapproved of his journey, he bore witness to him as a +good Redemptorist, full of zeal for souls; and he added that up to +that time his superiors had been entirely satisfied with him; and to +the paper containing this testimony the Provincial placed the +official seal of the order. On the other side, a repeated and careful +examination of Father Hecker's letters and memoranda reveals no +accusation by him of moral fault against his Redemptorist superiors, +but on the contrary many words of favorable explanation of their +conduct. When the Rector Major, in the midst of his council, began, +to Father Hecker's utter amazement, to read the sentence of +expulsion, he fell on his knees and received the blow with bowed head +as a visitation of God. And when, again, after prostrating himself +before the Blessed Sacrament and resigning himself to the Divine +Will, he returned to the council and begged the General on his knees +for a further consideration of his case, and was refused, he reports +that the General affirmed that his sense of duty would not allow him +to act otherwise than he had done, and that he by no means meant to +condemn Father Hecker in the court of conscience, but only to +exercise jurisdiction over his external conduct. + +In truth the trouble arose mainly from the very great difference +between the character of the American Fathers and that of their +superiors in the order. It is nothing new or strange, to borrow +Father Hewit's thoughts as expressed in his memoir of Father Baker, +that men whose characters are cast in a different mould should have +different views, and should, with the most conscientious intentions, +be unable to coincide in judgment or act in concert: + +"There is room in the Catholic Church for every kind of religious +organization, suiting all the varieties of mind and character and +circumstance. If collisions and misunderstandings often come between +those who have the same great end in view, this is the result of +human infirmity, and only shows how imperfect and partial are human +wisdom and human virtue." + +What Father Hewit adds of Father Baker's dispositions applies as well +to all the Fathers. In ceasing to be Redemptorists, they did not +swerve from their original purpose in becoming religious. None of +them had grown discontented with his state or with his superiors. +They were all in the full fervor of the devotional spirit of the +community, and as missionaries were generously wearing out their +lives in the toil and hardship of its peculiar vocation. But both +parties became the instruments of a special providence, which made +use of the wide diversities of temperament existing among men, and +set apart Father Hecker and his companions, after a season of severe +trial, for a new apostolate. They did not choose it for themselves. +Father Hecker had aspirations, as we know, but he did not dream of +realizing them through any separation whatever. But Providence led +the Holy See to change what had been a violent wrench into a peaceful +division, exercising, in so doing, a divine authority accepted with +equal obedience by all concerned. + +What Father Hewit further says of Father Baker applies exactly to +Father Hecker: + +"For the Congregation in which he was trained to the religious and +ecclesiastical state he always retained a sincere esteem and +affection. He did not ask the Pope for a dispensation from his vows +in order to be relieved from a burdensome obligation, but only on the +condition that it seemed best to him to terminate the difficulty +which had arisen that way. When the dispensation was granted he did +not change his life for a more easy one. . . Let no one, therefore, +who is disposed to yield to temptations against his vocation, and to +abandon the religious state from weariness, tepidity, or any unworthy +motive, think to find any encouragement in his example; for his +austere, self-denying, and arduous life will give him only rebuke, +and not encouragement." + +After the expulsion the General begged Father Hecker to make the +convent his home till he was suited elsewhere, and Father Hecker, +having thanked him for his kindness and stayed there that night, took +lodgings the following day in a quiet street near the Propaganda. +During the seven months of his stay in Rome he frequently visited the +General and his consultors, sometimes on business but at other times +from courtesy and good feeling. + +He at once presented the testimonials intended for the General to +Cardinal Barnabo, Prefect of the Propaganda, who examined them in +company with Archbishop Bedini, the Secretary of that Congregation. +As may be imagined, the attitude of these prelates was at first one +of extreme reserve. But every case gets a hearing in Rome, and that +of this expelled religious, and therefore suspended priest, could be +no exception. A glance at the credentials, a short conversation with +their bearer, a closer examination of the man and of his claim, +produced a favorable impression and led to a determination to sift +the matter thoroughly. The principal letters were from Archbishop +Hughes and Bishop Bayley. The former spoke thus of Father Hecker: "I +have great pleasure in recommending him as a laborious, edifying, +zealous, and truly apostolic priest." + +Some of the letters were from prominent laymen of the City of New +York, including one from Mr. McMaster, another from Dr. Brownson, and +another from Dr. Ives; in addition he had the words of praise of the +Provincial in America already referred to. Finally he showed letters +from each of the American Fathers, one of whom, Father Hewit, was a +member of the Provincial Council, all joining themselves to Father +Hecker as sharing the responsibility of his journey to Rome, and +naming him as the representative of their cause. + +It is not our purpose to trace the progress of the investigation +through the Roman tribunals. We will but give such facts and such +extracts from letters as throw light on Father Hecker's conduct +during this great crisis. One might be curious to know something +about the friends he made in Rome. The foremost of them was the +Cardinal Prefect of the Propaganda. + +"The impression that Cardinal Barnabo made upon me," he writes in one +of his earliest letters, "was most unexpected; he was so quick in his +perceptions and penetration, so candid and confiding in speaking to +me. He was more like a father and friend; and both the cardinal and +the archbishop (Bedini) expressed such warm sympathy in my behalf +that it made me feel, . . . in a way I never felt before, the +presence of God in those who are chosen as rulers in His Church." + +In another letter he says: + +"He (the cardinal) has been to me more than a friend; he is to me a +father, a counsellor, a protector. No one enjoys so high a reputation +in every regard in Rome as the cardinal. He gives me free access to +him and confides in me." + +There is much evidence, too much to quote it all, that the cardinal +was drawn to Father Hecker on account of his simplicity and openness +of character, his frank manner, but especially for his bold, original +views of the opportunity of religion among free peoples. Cardinal +Barnabo was noted for his sturdy temper and was what is known as a +hard hitter, though a generous opponent as well as an earnest friend. +He espoused Father Hecker's cause with much heartiness; official +intercourse soon developed into a close personal attachment, which +lasted with unabated warmth till the strong old Roman was called to +his reward. + +Father Hecker speaks in his letters of spending time with him, not +only on business but in discussing questions of philosophy and +religious controversy, and in talking over the whole American outlook. + +The cardinal became the American priest's advocate before the Pope, +and also with the Congregation of Bishops and Regulars after the case +reached that tribunal. "When I heard him speak in my defence," he +said in after times, "I thanked God that he was not against me, for +he was a most imperious character when aroused, and there seemed no +resisting him." + +Archbishop Bedini, the Secretary of the Propaganda, was another +hearty friend. Our older readers will remember that he had paid a +visit to America a few years before the time we are considering, and +that his presence here was made the occasion for some of the more +violent outbreaks of the Know-nothing excitement. He knew our +country personally, therefore, and was acquainted with very many of +our clergy; his assistance to the Roman Court in this case was of +special value. He became so demonstrative in his friendship for +Father Hecker that the Pope was amused at it, and Father Hecker +relates in his letters home how the Holy Father rallied him about the +warmth of his advocacy of the American priest's cause, as did various +members of the Pontifcal court. + +At that time and for many years afterwards Doctor Bernard Smith, an +Irish Benedictine monk, was Professor of Dogmatic Theology in the +College of the Propaganda; he is now the honored abbot of the great +Basilica of St. Paul without-the-walls. How Father Hecker came to +know the learned professor we have been unable to discover; but both +he and Monsignor Kirby, of the Irish College, became his firm friends +and powerful advocates. Without Doctor Smith's advice, indeed, +scarcely a step was taken in the case. + +An unexpected ally was found in Bishop Connolly, of St. John's, New +Brunswick. He had been robbed on his way between Civita Vecchia and +Rome, and that misfortune gave him a special claim to the regard of +the Pope, with whom he soon became a favorite. The Holy Father +admired in him that energy of character and zeal for religion which +distinguished him in after years as Archbishop of Halifax. On hearing +of Father Hecker's case he studied it on account of sympathetic +interest in the aspects of Catholicity in the United States, part of +his diocese being at that time, we believe, in the State of Maine. +How ardent his friendship for Father Hecker soon became is shown by +his exclamation: "I am ready to die for you, and I am going to tell +the Pope so." He even offered to assist Father Hecker in paying his +personal expenses while in Rome. In a letter to the American Fathers +of December 18 Father Hecker writes: + +"Another recent and providential event in our favor has been the +friendship of Bishop Connolly, of St. John's, New Brunswick. By his +extraordinary exertions and his warm friendship for us he has +succeeded in giving us the vantage ground in all quarters where we +were not in good favor. I told you in the last note that he had +spoken to the Holy Father in favor of our cause, but I had no time to +give you the substance of what was said. Bishop Connolly is a +full-blooded Irishman, but, fortunately for us, not implicated in any +party views in our country, and seeing that the Propaganda regarded +our cause as its own and had identified itself with our success, . . . +it being friendly to us as missionaries, he exerted all his influence +in our favor. His influence was not slight, for the Pope had +conceived a great friendship for him, and heaped all sorts of honors +on him. Well, he had a regular tussle with his Holiness about us and +our cause, and when the Holy Father repeated some things said of +me--against me, of course--he replied: 'Your Holiness, I should not +be at all surprised if some fine day you yourself would have to +canonize one of these Yankee fellows.' In one word, he left nothing +unsaid or undone with the Pope in our favor; and the Pope suggested +to him obtaining dispensation of our vows and forming a new company. +'They cannot expect me,' he said, 'to take the initiatory step; this +would be putting the cart before the horse. Let them do this, and +present their plan to me, and if I find it good, it shall have my +consent.' . . . The bishop has also seen and won over to our favor +Monsignor Talbot, who said to him: 'The only way now of settling the +difficulties is to give the American Fathers the liberty to form a +new company for the American missions.' In addition, the bishop wrote +a strong document in favor of our missions and of us, and presented +it to Cardinal Barnabo, which will be handed in to the Congregation +of Bishops and Regulars, who have our affairs in hand. . . . If this +good bishop should come in your way, whether by writing or otherwise, +you cannot be too grateful for what he has done for us. After +Cardinal Barnabo and Archbishop Bedini we owe more to him than to any +one else. + +"Wind and tide are now in our favor, and my plan is to keep quiet and +stick close to the rudder to see that the ship keeps right." + +On his way home from Rome Bishop Connolly wrote the following letter +to Father Hecker, dated at Marseilles, January 20, 1858: + +"From the deep interest I feel in your concerns you will pardon my +curiosity in wishing to have the earliest intelligence of your fate +in the Congregation of Bishops and Regulars. I could wish I were near +you all the time, and have nothing else to attend to; but you have +got One more powerful than I at your right hand. Fix your hopes in +Him and you will not be confounded. After having done everything on +your part that unsleeping energy as well as prudence could suggest, +you must take the issue, however unpalatable it may be, as the +undoubted expression of God's will, and act (as I am sure you will +act) accordingly. . . . You must keep steadily in view the glorious +principle for which you came to Rome, and which I am convinced is for +the greater glory of God and the greater good of religion in America. +If you can start as a religious body with the approbation of Rome, +this would be the holiest and most auspicious consummation. . . . Be +guided at every step by the holy and enlightened men whose sympathies +you have won and in whose hands you will be always safe: Cardinal +Barnabo _in primis,_ and after him Monsignor Bedini and Doctors Kirby +and Smith. United with them at every step, failure is impossible--you +must and you will succeed. . . . I am sure that you know and feel +this as well as I do (for we have been, marvellously of the same way +of thinking on nearly all points), but as I feel I must write to you, +as it may be, perchance, of some consolation to you in your troubles, +I thought it better to say it over again. . . . If a letter or +anything else from me could be of any service, I need not tell you +that I am still on hand and only anxious to be employed. (Here +follows his address in Paris and Liverpool.) With all good wishes for +your success, and with the hope of hearing the happy tidings from +your own hand before I leave Europe, I am, Reverend dear Sir, + +"Very faithfully yours in Christ, + +"+ THOMAS L. CONNOLLY, + +"Bishop of St. John's, N.B." + + +From what has been so far communicated to the reader, it will be seen +that Father Hecker's case had the strength of friendship to assist +it. But he was himself his best advocate. His traits of character +were lovable, and the very incongruity of such a man forced to plead +against the direst penalty known to a religious, was a singularly +strong argument. His cheerful demeanor while fighting for his life; +his puzzling questions on social and philosophical points; his +mingled mysticism and practical judgment; his utterance of political +sentiments which, as he truly said in one of his letters, if spoken +by any one but an American would elicit instant reproof; his total +lack of obsequiousness united to entire submission to lawful +authority, all helped to make for himself and his cause friends in +every direction. + +The unanimous adhesion of the American Redemptorist missionaries was +a powerful element in his favor, and a priceless boon for his own +consolation. He was continually in receipt of such words as these: +"We all desire you to consider us fully identified with you and to +act in our name." "We have the utmost confidence in your discretion, +and your conservative views are quite to our mind." His whole heart +went out in response to these greetings. On October 24 he writes to +the Fathers: + +"The contents of your note were what I had a right to expect from +you: sympathy, confidence, and reliance on Divine Providence. How +much these trials will endear us to each other! If we keep together +as one man and regard only God, defeat is impossible. Do not forget +to offer up continually prayers for me. How much I see the hand of +Providence in all our difficulties! And the end will, I trust, make +it evident as the sun." + +But where he placed his entire trust is shown by the following, a +part of the same letter: + +"Our affairs are in the hands of God. I hope no one will feel +discouraged, nor fear for me. All that is needed to bring the +interests of God to a successful issue is grace, grace, grace; and +this is obtained by prayer. And if the American Fathers will only +pray and get others to pray, and not let any one have the slightest +reason to bring a word against them in our present crisis, God will +be with us and help us, and Our Lady will take good care of us. So +far no step taken in our past need be regretted. If it were to be +done again it would have my consent. The blow given to me I have +endeavored to receive with humility and in view of God. It has not +produced any trouble in my soul, nor made me waver in the slightest +degree in my confidence in God or my duty towards Him. Let us not be +impatient. God is with us and will lead us if we confide in Him." + +During his stay in Rome he corresponded regularly with his brother +George, whose ever-open purse paid all his expenses. We have also +found a very long letter of loving friendship from Doctor Brownson, +conveying the profoundest sympathy. This came during the most +critical period of the case and gave much consolation. It called +forth an answer equally affectionate. + +He received exceedingly sympathetic letters from Fathers de Held and +de Buggenoms. The former was at the time rector of the house in +Liege, and wrote a letter to Cardinal Barnabo, a copy of which has +been preserved, which treats most favorably of Father Hecker's +character and discusses his case at length, petitioning a decision +which should reinstate him in the order. + +Late in November he sought an interview with Cardinal Reisach, +holding him closely interested for two hours, conversing upon +American religious prospects and quite winning his friendship. By +means of such interviews, which, at Cardinal Barnabo's suggestion, he +sought with the chief prelates in Rome, he became widely known in the +city, and the state of religion in America was made a common topic of +conversation. + +The following introduces a singular phase in the case. It is from a +letter written before the end of September, less than a month after +his arrival: + +"My leisure moments are occupied in writing an article on the +'Present Condition and Future Prospects of the Catholic Faith in the +United States,' for the _Civilta Cattolica._ They have promised to +translate and publish it." + +The _Civilta_ is still a leading Catholic journal, the foremost +exponent of the views of the Society of Jesus. At that time it was +the official organ of Pius IX., who read all its articles in the +proofs, and it went everywhere in Catholic circles. The editors +became fast friends of Father Hecker, though we are not aware that +they took sides in his case. His article was divided in the editing, +and appeared in two successive numbers of the magazine. It attracted +wide attention, being translated and printed in the chief Catholic +periodicals of France, Belgium, and Germany, and published by Mr. +McMaster in the _Freeman's Journal._ In Rome it served a good +purpose. To some its views were startling, but its tone was fresh and +enlivening. It undertook to show that the freest nation in the world +was the most inviting field for the Catholic propagandist. We suppose +that the author's main purpose in writing was but to invite attention +to America, yet he so affected public opinion in Rome as to +materially assist the adjustment of the difficulty pending before the +high tribunals. Cardinal Barnabo was quite urgent with Father Hecker +that he should write more of the same kind, but either his +occupations or his expectation of an early return home hindered his +doing so. As it was, he had caused himself and the American Fathers +to be viewed by men generally through the medium of the great +question of the relation of religion to the young Republic of the +Western World. That topic was fortunate in having him for its +exponent. He was an object-lesson of the aspirations of enlightened +Catholic Americans as well as an exalted type of Catholic missionary +zeal. Very few men of discernment ever really knew Father Hecker but +to admire him and to be ready to be persuaded by him of his +life-thesis: that a free man tends to be a good Catholic, and a free +nation is the most promising field for apostolic zeal. + +Soon after his arrival in Rome he made the acquaintance of George L. +Brown, an American artist of some note, and a non-Catholic. He was an +earnest man, and Father Hecker attacked him at once on the score of +religion, and before December had received him into the Church. This +event made quite a stir in Rome. The city was always full of artists +and their patrons, and Mr. Brown's conversion, together with the +articles in the _Civilta,_ influenced in Father Hecker's favor many +persons whom he could not directly reach. This was especially the +case with the Pope, to whose notice such matters were brought by +Archbishop Bedini, his office enabling him to approach the Holy +Father at short intervals. He exerted a similar influence on all the +high officials of the Roman court. + +In spite of all this favor the usual delays attendant upon serious +judicial investigations oppressed Father Hecker with the heavy dread +of "the law's delay," detaining him in Rome from the first week in +September, 1857, when the case was opened in the Propaganda, till it +was closed by the decision of the Congregation of Bishops and +Regulars early in the following March. Nor was the "insolence of +office" quite absent. He was once heard to tell of his having been +snubbed in the Pope's antechamber by some one in attendance, and +often put aside till he was vexed with many weary hours of waiting +and by being compelled to repeatedly return. + +"I had to wait for three days," we read in the memoranda, "and then +was reproached and scolded by the monsignor in attendance for coming +late. I had not come late but had been kept waiting outside, and I +told him so. 'You will see those hills of Albano move,' said I, +'before I move from my purpose to see the Holy Father.' When he saw +my determination he changed and gave me my desired audience." + +When events had taken the question out of the Jurisdiction of be +Redemptorist order and into the general court of the Catholic Church, +its settlement was found to be difficult. The restoration of Father +Hecker by a judicial decision would not, it is plain, have left him +and his companions in that harmonious relation so essential to their +personal happiness and to their success as missionaries. It was then +suggested that they should petition for a separate organization under +the Rule of St. Alphonsus approved by Benedict XIV., acting directly +subject to the Holy See, thus making two Redemptorist bodies in the +United States, as is the case with various Franciscan communities. It +was also suggested that the Cisalpine, or Neapolitan Redemptorists, +at that time an independent congregation, would gladly take the +American Fathers under their jurisdiction. The alternative was what +afterwards took place--the dispensation of the Fathers from their +vows, in view of their forming their own organization under direction +of the Bishops and the Holy See. A petition praying the Holy Father +to give them either the Rule of Benedict XIV. in the sense above +suggested, or their dispensations from the vows, was drawn up and +forwarded by the Fathers remaining in America, the dispensation being +named as the last resort. Father Hecker's legal case not being +decided, he was advised by Cardinal Barnabo to reserve his signature +to this document for the present. It will be seen at a glance that +the dispensation from the vows and an entirely new departure in +community existence was more in accordance with his aspirations. But +no aspiration was so strong in him as love of his brethren, and he +was fully determined not to be separated from them if he could +prevent it. + +Much delay was caused by waiting for further testimonials from +American bishops confirmatory of the good character of the Fathers +and of the value of their labors as missionaries. Father Hecker, +meantime, wrote many letters to his brethren discussing the +alternatives in question. + +In one of October 24 he tells of a pilgrimage he made to Nocera, to +the tomb of St. Alphonsus, bearing his brethren in his heart with +him. He also visited the Redemptorist house there and in Naples, and +was quite charmed with the fathers, who were entirely willing to +receive the Americans into their organization, which, as the reader +knows, was separate from that of the General in Rome. Knowing the +mind of his brethren, and determined to take no step alone, Father +Hecker would have been content with this arrangement had it seemed +good to the Holy See. Meantime he tells how greatly he enjoyed his +visit to Nocera, how he said Mass over the holy body of the founder, +and adds: "Ever since I feel more consoled and supported and +confident." + +The following is from a joint letter of the American Fathers dated +November 17; they prefer, in case Father Hecker is not reinstated, +being separated from the order and made "immediately dependent on the +Holy See, or the Prefect of the Propaganda, rather than anything +else; . . . called, for instance, 'Religious Missionaries of the +Propaganda,' if the Holy Father would make us such. With the Rule of +St. Alphonsus and the same missionary privileges we now enjoy, and +our dear Father Hecker among us again, we should feel happy and safe. +. . . But we wait for the words of the Holy See to indicate our +course." + +His words to them are to the same effect: "Our first effort should be +directed to the securing our hopes through the Transalpine +Congregation [this means the regular Redemptorist order to which they +then belonged]. . . . If this is not successful, then to endeavor to +accomplish our hopes through the Cisalpine (Neapolitan) Fathers, who +will be heart and soul with us and grant all our best desires. Or, +thirdly, to obtain permission to act as a band of missionaries in our +country under the protection, for the present, of some bishop. . . . +It is a consolation to me to see that our affairs are so far +developed and known, and our views are so identical that you can act +on your part, and write, without having to delay for information +[from me]. You can easily imagine that it was no pleasant state for +me to be in while in suspense about what would be the determination +you would come to. Thank God and Our Lady, your recent letter set +that all aside! The work now to be done is plain, and the greatest +care and prudence is to be exercised not to commit any fault, or make +any mistake which may be to us a source of regret afterwards." + +In another letter he says that Cardinal Barnabo spoke of the +unpleasant relations likely to exist after his restoration to the +order, and then continues: + +"The cardinal had a long conversation with me, and he suggested +whether God might not desire of me a special work. I told him I would +not think of this while the dismission was over my head. He said, 'Of +course not; for if you are a _mauvais sujet,_ as the General thinks, +God will surely not use you for any special mission.'" The letter +here details more of the exchange of views between the cardinal and +Father Hecker, the latter astounded to hear from this direction +suggestions so closely tallying with his own interior aspirations +about the apostolic outlook in America. "But," continues the letter, +"you must well understand that I should not accept such a proposition +for myself before having asked the best counsel of men of God and +received their unhesitating approval of its being God's will. There +are holy men here, and I take counsel with them in every important +step; and they are religious, so that they are good judges in such +important matters. . . . If God wishes to make use of us in such a +design, and I can be assured of this on _competent authority,_ +whatever it may cost, with His grace I will not shrink from it. I +call competent authority the approbation of good and holy men, and +one like the cardinal, who knows the country, knows all our affairs +now, and has every quality of mind and heart to be a competent judge +in this important matter. Though you have made me your plenipotentiary, +yet this is an individual affair, one we did not contemplate, one of +the highest import to our salvation and sanctification, and must +depend on God and our individual conscience. + +"Even before making this proposition to you I asked advice from my +spiritual director, and he approved of it. You may be confident that +in every step which I take I endeavor to be actuated by the spirit of +God, and take every means to assure myself of it, so that hereafter +no scruple may trouble my conscience, and God's blessing be with me +and you also." + +He writes thus towards the end of September: "The more I think of our +difficulties the more I am inclined to believe that they may have +been permitted by a good God for the very purpose of a work of this +kind. If wise and holy men say so, and we have the approbation of the +Holy See, is it not a mission offered to us by Divine Providence, and +ought we not cheerfully to embrace it?" + +And on October 5: "I hope God has inspired you with some means of +coming to my help. Indeed, it is a difficult position, and the best I +can do is to throw myself constantly on Divine Providence and be +guided by Him. You will remember, and I hope, before this reaches +you, will have answered my proposition in my last note, whether or +not you would be willing to form an independent band of missionaries +to be devoted to the great wants of the country. I have considered +and reconsidered, and prayed and prayed, and in spite of my fears +this seems to me the direction in which _Divine Providence calls us_. +. . . With all the difficulties, dangers, and struggles that another +[community] movement presents before me, I feel more and more +convinced that it _is this that Divine Providence asks of us._ If we +should act in concert its success cannot be doubted--success not only +as regards our present kind of labors, but in a variety of other ways +which are open to us in our new country. . . . If you are prepared to +move in this direction it would be best, and indeed necessary, not +only to write to me your assent, but also a memorial to the +Propaganda--to Cardinal Barnabo--stating the interests and wants of +religion and of the country, and then petition to be permitted to +turn your labors in this direction. . . . + +"Such a course involves the release of your obligations to the +[Redemptorist] Congregation, and this would have to be expressed +distinctly in your petition, and motived by good reasons there given." + +Further on in the same letter he adds: "Since writing the above I +have had time for more reflection, and consulted with my spiritual +adviser, and this course appears to be the one Divine Providence +points out." + +This very important letter ends as follows: "I endeavor to keep close +to God, to keep up my confidence in His protection, and in the aid of +Our Blessed Lady. I pray for you all; you cannot forget me in your +prayers." + +Then follow suggestions about obtaining testimonials from the +American hierarchy for the information of the Holy See in a final +settlement of the entire case. The prelates who wrote, all very +favorably, were: Archbishops Hughes of New York, Kenrick of +Baltimore, Purcell of Cincinnati, Bishops Bayley of Newark, Spalding +of Louisville (both afterwards Archbishops of Baltimore), Lynch of +Charleston, Barry of Savannah, and De Goesbriand of Burlington, +Vermont. + +On October 26, while wondering what would next happen, he writes: +"As for my part, I do not see one step ahead, but at the same time I +never felt so closely embraced in the arms of Divine Providence." But +on the next day: "It seems to me a great and entire change awaits +us. . . . We are all of us young, and if we keep close and true to +God--and there is nothing but ourselves to prevent this--a great and +hopeful future is at our waiting. I know you pray for me; continue to +do so, and believe me always your wholly devoted friend and brother +in Jesus and Mary." + +On November 12: "My present impression is that neither union with the +Cisalpine Fathers nor separation as a band of [independent +Redemptorist] missionaries in the United States will be approved of +here. . . . What appears to me more and more probable is that we +shall have to start entirely upon our own basis. This is perhaps the +best of all, all things considered. . . . Such a movement has from +the beginning seemed to me _the one to which Divine Providence calls +us,_ but I always felt timid as long as any door was left open for us +to act in the Congregation. . . . I feel prepared to take this step +with you without hesitation and with great confidence, . . . I should +have been glad, as soon as my dismission was given, to have started +on in such a movement. But then it was my first duty to see whether +this work could not be accomplished by the Congregation (of the Most +Holy Redeemer); and, besides, I was not sure, as I now am, of your +views being the same as mine . . . all indicates the will of Divine +Providence in our regard and gives me confidence. . . . + +"Father Hewit's letter, confirming your readiness to share your +fortunes with me, was most consoling and strengthening. God knows we +seek only His interest and glory and are ready to suffer anything +rather than offend Him. . . . + +"We should take our present missions as the basis of our unity and +activity; at the same time not be exclusively restricted to them, but +leave ourselves at liberty to adapt ourselves to the [religious] +wants which may present themselves in our country. Were the question +presented to me to restrict myself exclusively to missions, in that +case I should feel in conscience bound to obtain from holy men a +decision on the question whether God had not pointed out another +field for me. . . . Taking our missions and our present mode of life +as the groundwork, the rest will have to be left to Divine +Providence, the character of the country, and our own spirit of faith +and good common sense." + +In the same letter, that of December 25, he hopes that if the Holy +See separates them from old affiliations they will form a society +"which would embody in its life what is good in the American people +in the natural order and adapt itself to answer the great wants of +our people in the spiritual order. I must confess to you frankly that +thoughts of this kind do occupy my mind, and day by day they appear +to me to come more clearly from heaven. I cannot refuse to entertain +them without resisting what appear to me the inspirations of God. You +know that these are not new opinions hastily adopted. From the +beginning of my Catholic life there seemed always before me, but not +distinctly, some such work, and it is indicated both in _Questions of +the Soul_ and _Aspirations of Nature._ And I cannot resist the +thought that my present peculiar position is or may be providential +to further some such undertaking. . . . It might be imagined that +these views were but a ruse of the devil to thwart our common cause +and future prospects. To this I have only to answer that the old +rascal has been a long time at work to reach this point. If it be he, +I shall head him off because all that regards my personal vocation I +shall submit to wise and holy men and obey what they tell me." + +Father Hecker had his first audience with Pius IX., after much delay, +on December 22. "I felt," he said, in giving an account of it in +after years, "that my trouble in Rome was the great crisis in my +life. I had one way of telling that I was not like Martin Luther: in +my inmost soul I was ready entirely ready, to submit to the judgment +of the Church. They had made me out a rebel and a radical to the Holy +Father, and when I saw him alone, after the usual salutations, and +while on my knees, I said: 'Look at me, Holy Father; see, my +shoulders are broad. Lay on the stripes. I will bear them. All I want +is justice. I want you to judge my case. I will submit.' The Pope's +eyes flled with tears at these words, and his manner was very kind." +The rest of the interview is given in a letter: "The Pope bade me +rise and told me he was informed all about my affairs. Then he asked +what was my desire. I replied that he might have the goodness to +examine the purpose of my coming to Rome, 'since it regarded the +conversion of the American people, a work which the most intelligent +and pious Catholics have at heart, among others Dr. Ives, whom you +know.' 'Yes,' he said; 'has his wife become a Catholic?' I replied in +the affirmative. 'But what can I do?' he said; 'the affair is being +examined by Archbishop Bizarri (Secretary of the Congregation of +Bishops and Regulars), and nothing can be done until he gives in his +report; then I will give my opinion and my decision.' 'Your decision, +most Holy Father, is God's decision, and whatever it may be willingly +and humbly will I submit to it.' While I was making this remark his +Holiness paid the greatest attention, and it seemed to satisfy and +please him. 'The American people,' he continued, 'are much engrossed +in worldly things and in the pursuit of wealth, and these are not +favorable to religion; it is not I who say so, but our Lord in the +Gospel.' 'The United States, your Holiness,' I replied, 'is in its +youth, and, like a young father of a family occupied in furnishing +his house, while this is going on he must be busy; but the American +people do not make money to hoard it, nor are they miserly.' 'No, +no,' he replied; 'they are willing to give when they possess riches. +The bishops tell me they are generous in aiding the building of +churches. You see,' he added, 'I know the bright side as well as the +dark side of the Americans; but in the United States there exists a +too unrestricted freedom, all the refugees and revolutionists gather +there and are in full liberty.' 'True, most Holy Father; but this has +a good side. Many of them, seeing in the United States that the +Church is self-subsisting and not necessarily connected with what +they call despotism, begin to regard it as a Divine institution and +return to her fold.' 'Yes,' he said, 'the Church is as much at home +in a republic as in a monarchy or aristocracy. But then, again, you +have the abolitionists and their opponents, who get each other by the +hair.' 'There is also the Catholic faith, Holy Father, which if once +known would act on these parties like oil upon troubled waters, and +our best-informed statesmen are becoming more and more convinced that +Catholicity is necessary to sustain our institutions, and enable our +young country to realize her great destiny. And allow me to add, most +Holy Father, that it would be an enterprise worthy of your glorious +pontificate to set on foot the measures necessary for the beginning +of the conversion of America.' + +"On retiring he gave me his blessing, and repeated in a loud voice as +I kneeled, 'Bravo! Bravo!'" + +"Pius IX.," said Father Hecker afterwards, "was a man of the largest +head, of still larger heart, moved more by his impulses than by his +judgment; but his impulses were great, noble, all-embracing." + +It will not be out of place here to look more closely into Father +Hecker's conscience and study his motives. One might ask why he did +not simply submit to the infliction visited upon him by his superior +in the order, and humbly withdraw from notice till God should find a +way to vindicate him. But his case was not a personal one. He was in +Rome representing a body of priests and a public cause, and every +principle of duty and honor required an appeal to higher authority. +Nor was vindication the chief end in view, but rather freedom to +follow the dictates of the Holy Spirit in accordance with Catholic +traditions and wholly subject to the laws and usages of the Church. +Beyond securing exactly this he had no object whatever. On February +19, 1858, he thus wrote to his brother George: + +"But there is no use of keeping back anything. My policy has all +along been to have no policy, but to be frank, truthful, and have no +fear. For my own part I will try my best to be true to the light and +grace given me, even though it reduces me to perfect insignificance. +I desire nothing upon earth except to labor for the good of our +Religion and our Country, and whatever may be the decision of our +affairs here, my aims cannot be defeated. I feel, indeed, quite +indifferent about the decision which may be given, so that they allow +us freedom." + +As illustrating Father Hecker's supernatural motives and rectitude of +conscience the following extracts from letters to the Fathers will be +of interest. In September, when the arrow was yet in the wound, he +wrote: + +"I have no feelings of resentment against any one of the actors [in +this matter]. On the contrary I could embrace them all with unfeigned +sentiments of love. God has been exceedingly good not to let me be +even tempted in this way." + +Again, on December 5: + +"Your repeated assurances of being united with me in our future fills +me with consolation and courage. We may well repeat the American +motto, 'United we stand, divided we fall.' Never did I find myself +more sustained by the grace of God. How often I have heard repeated +by acquaintances I have made here: 'Why, Father Hecker, you are the +happiest man in Rome!' Little do they know how many sleepless nights +I have passed, how deeply I have suffered within three months. But +isn't Almighty God good? It seems I never knew or felt before what it +is to be wholly devoted to Him." + +On December 9, after a long exposition of the need of a new religious +missionary institute for America: + +"Considering our past training, and many other advantages which we +possess, I cannot but believe that God will use us, provided that we +remain faithful to Him, united together as one man, and ready to make +any sacrifice for some such holy enterprise; and my daily prayer is +that the Holy Father may receive a special grace and inspiration to +welcome and bless such a proposition." + +With his Christmas greetings he wrote: "From the start I have not +suffered myself to repose a moment when there was anything to be done +which promised help. Whatever may be the result of our affairs, this +consolation will be with me--I did my utmost, and everything just and +honorable, to deserve success. No one would believe how much I have +gone through at Rome, but I do it cheerfully, and sometimes gaily, +because I know it is the will of God." + +On February 19, 1858: "The experience I have made here is worth more +than my weight in gold. If God intends to employ us in any important +work in the future, such an experience was absolutely necessary for +us. It is a novitiate on a large scale. I cannot thank God +sufficiently for my having made it thus far without incurring by my +conduct the displeasure or censure of any one." + +And a week afterwards: "You should write often, for words of +sympathy, hope, encouragement are much to me now in these trials, +difficulties, and conflicts. In all my Catholic life I have not +experienced oppression and anxiety of mind in such a degree as I have +for these ten days past." + +March 6: "So far from my devotion to religion being diminished by +recent events, it has, thank God, greatly increased; but many other +things have been changed in me. On many new points my intelligence +has been awakened; experience has dispelled much ignorance, and on +the whole I hope that my faith and heart have been more purified. If +God spares my life to return, I hope to come back more a man, a +better Catholic, and more entirely devoted to the work of God." + +The following is from a copy of a letter to Father de Held dated +November 2: "One thing my trials have taught me, and this is the one +thing important--to love God more. It almost seems that I did not +know before what it is to love Him." + +When it became evident that the Holy See would decide the case so as +to make it necessary for the Fathers to form a new society, Father +Hecker did not accept even this as a final indication of Providence +that external circumstances had made it possible for him to realize +his long-cherished dreams of an American apostolate; for he was at +liberty still to refuse. He redoubled his prayers. His pilgrimage to +the shrine of St. Alphonsus is already known to the reader; he caused +a novena of Masses to be said at the altar of Our Lady of Perpetual +Help in the Redemptorist Church in Rome; he said Mass himself at all +the great shrines, especially the Confession of St. Peter, the altar +of St. Ignatius and that of St. Philip Neri; he earnestly entreated +all his friends, old ones at home and new-found ones in Rome, to join +with him in his prayers for light. + +He furthermore took measures to obtain the counsel of wise and holy +men. Every one whom he thought worthy of his confidence was asked for +an opinion. Finally he drew up a formal document, known in this +biography as the Roman Statement, and already familiar by reference +and quotation, and placed it in the hands of the three religious +whose names, in addition to those of Cardinal Barnabo and Archbishop +Bedini, appear at the end of the extract we make from its original +draft. It opens with a summary of his conversion, entrance into +religion, and missionary life, and embraces a full enough statement +of the trouble with the General of the order--a matter of notoriety +at the time in the city of Rome. He then describes his own interior +aspirations and vocation to the apostolate in America, backing up the +authority of that inner voice with the external testimonials of +prelates and priests and laymen, whose letters had been procured by +the Propaganda as evidence in the case before the Congregation of +Bishops and Regulars. + +"If God has called me," he continues, "to such a work, His providence +has in a singular way, since my arrival at Rome, opened the door for +me to undertake it. The object of my coming to Rome was to induce the +General to sustain and favor the extension of our missionary labors +in the United States. It was undertaken altogether for the good of +the order, in the general interests of religion, and in undoubted +good faith. Under false impressions of my purpose, my expulsion from +the Congregation was decreed three days after my arrival. This was +about three months ago, and it was the source of the deepest +affliction to me, and up to within a short time my greatest desire +was to re-enter the Congregation. At present it seems to me that +these things were permitted by Divine Providence in order to place me +in the position to undertake that mission which has never ceased to +occupy my thoughts." + +After some description of the state of religion in America the +statement concludes: + +"These [American non-Catholics] require an institution which shall +have their conversion to the Catholic faith as its principal aim, +which is free to develop itself according to the fresh wants which +may spring up, thus opening an attractive future to the religious +vocations of the Catholic young men of that country. + +"Regarding, therefore, my early and extensive acquaintance among my +own people, politically, socially, religiously, with the knowledge of +their peculiar wants, with their errors also; and the way in which +God has led me and the graces given to me; and my interior +convictions and the experience acquired confirming them since my +Catholic life, and also my singular position at present--the +question, in conclusion, is to know from holy, instructed, and +experienced men in such matters whether or not there is sufficient +evidence of a special vocation from God for me to undertake now such +a work." + +What follows is placed at the bottom of the last page of the +statement: + +"EPIPHANY, 1858, ROME. + +"This document I had translated into Italian, and I gave it to +Cardinal Barnabo, Archbishop Bedini, Father Francis, Passionist--my +director while in Rome--Father Gregorio, definitor, Carmelite, and +Father Druelle, of the Congregation of the Holy Cross, and each gave +a favorable answer." + +Father Hecker often said that he was fully determined to forego the +entire matter, go back to the Redemptorists, or drift whithersoever +Providence might will, if a single one of the men whom he thus +consulted had failed to approve him, or had so much as expressed a +doubt. He had inquired who were the most spiritually enlightened men +in Rome, and had been guided to the three religious whom he had +associated with Cardinal Barnabo and Archbishop Bedini to assist him +in coming to a decision. + +The end came at last, and is announced in a letter of March 9, 1858: + +"The Pope has spoken, and the American Fathers, including myself, +are dispensed from their vows. The decree is not in my hands, but +Cardinal Barnabo read it to me last evening. The General is not +mentioned in it, and no attention whatever is paid to his action in +my regard. The other Fathers are dispensed in view of the petition +they made, as the demand for separation as Redemptorists would +destroy the unity of the Congregation, and in the dispensation I am +associated with them. The Cardinal [Barnabo] is wholly content; says +that I must ask immediately for an audience to thank the Pope. . . . +Now let us thank God for our success." + +On March 11: "We are left in entire liberty to act in the future as +God and our intelligence shall point the way. Let us be thankful to +God, humble towards each other and every one else, and more than ever +in earnest to do the work God demands at our hands. . . . The Pope +had before him all the documents, yours and mine and the General's, +and the letters from the Archbishops and Bishops of the United +States. Archbishop Bizarri (Secretary of the Congregation of Bishops +and Regulars) gave him a verbal report of their contents and read +some of the letters. Subsequently the Pope himself examined them and +came to the conclusion to grant us dispensation. But there was I in +the way, who had not petitioned for a dispensation. And why not? +Simply because Cardinal Barnabo would have been offended at me if I +had done so. . . . I could not go against the wishes of the cardinal. +A few days after he had given me his views, and with such warmth that +I could not act against them, he saw the Pope, who informed him of +his intention to give us dispensation and to set aside the decree of +my expulsion. On seeing the cardinal after this audience he told me +that I might communicate this to Archbishop Bizarri. I did so by +note, telling him that if the Pope set aside my expulsion and was +determined to give the other American Fathers dispensation from their +vows, in view of the circumstances which had arisen I would be +content to accept my dispensation also. This note of mine was shown +to the Pope, and hence he immediately associated me with you in the +dispensation. + +"The wording of the decree is such as to make it plain that it was +given in view of your memorial, and its terms are calculated to give +a favorable impression of us. . . . Archbishop Bizarri told me +yesterday, when I went to thank him for his part, that in it the Holy +See had given us its praise, and he trusted we would show ourselves +worthy of it in the future. I rejoined that since the commencement of +our Catholic life we had given ourselves soul and body entirely to +the increase of God's glory and the interests of His Church, and it +was our firm resolve to continue to do so to the end of our lives. He +was quite gratified with our contentment with the decision, for I +spoke, as I always have done, in your name as well as my own. + +"But whom do you think I met in his antechamber? The General [of the +Redemptorists]. When he came in and got seated I immediately went +across the room and reached out my hand to him, and we shook hands +and sat down beside each other. . . . In the course of the +conversation he inquired what we intended to do in the future. My +reply was that we had been guided by God's providence in the past and +we looked to Him for guidance in our future. . . . As to my return +[home], the cardinal says I must not think of departing till after +Easter. Indeed, I see that before I can obtain an audience to thank +the Holy Father it will be hard on to Easter. If there be a few days +intervening I will go to Our Lady of Loretto to invoke her aid in our +behalf and for her protection over us as a body and over each one in +particular. In May, earlier or later in the month, with God's +blessing and your prayers, I hope to be with you. + +"The decree, which places us, according to the Canons, under the +authority of the Bishops, you will, of course, understand, does not +in any way make us parish priests. The Pope could not tell us in it +to commence another congregation, although this is what he, and +Cardinal Barnabo, and Archbishop Bedini, and others, expect from us. +He [the Pope] said that for him to tell us so [officially] would be +putting the cart before the horse. These are his words." + +On March 18: "It is customary here, before giving dispensation of +vows to religious, to require them to show their admission into a +diocese. As this was not required in our case, we are consequently at +liberty now to choose any bishop we please who will receive us. +'Choose your bishop, inform him of your intentions, and if he +approves, arrange your conditions with him.' These are the cardinal's +words, and both he and Archbishop Bedini suggested New York. . . . My +trip to Loretto has come to naught, as I can find no one to accompany +me, and then my health, I fear, will not bear so much fatigue, I +shall come back with some gray hairs; I thought to pull them all out +before my return, but on looking this morning with that intention I +found them _too many._ However, that is only on the outside; within +all is right--young, fresh, and full of courage, and ready to fight +the good fight." + +The following is a memorandum of his second audience with Pius IX.: + +"Yesterday, the 16th of March, the Pope accorded me an audience, and +on my entering his room he repeated my name, gave me his blessing, +and after I had kissed his ring he told me to rise, and said: 'At +length your affairs are determined. We have many causes to decide, +and each must have its turn; yours came finally, and now you have our +decision.' 'True,' I replied, 'and your decision gives me great +satisfaction, and it appears to me that it should be satisfactory to +all concerned.' 'I found you,' he rejoined, 'like Abraham and Lot, +and (making a motion with his hand) I told one to take this, the +other that direction.' 'For my part,' I said, 'I look upon the +decision as providential, as I sought no personal triumph over the +General, but entertain every sentiment of charity towards him, and +every one of my former religious brethren.' This remark appeared to +move the Pope, and I continued: 'I thought of your Holiness' decision +in the holy Mass of this morning, when in the Gospel our Lord reminds +us not to decide according to the appearances of things, but render a +just judgment; and such is the one you have given, and for our part +we trust that you will receive in the future consolation and joy +[from our conduct].' 'As you petitioned,' he said, 'with the other +Fathers as one of the Congregation, in giving you dispensation I +considered you a member of the Congregation.' 'So I understood it,' +was my reply; 'and as a [private] person I felt no inclination to +defend my character, but as a priest I felt it to be my duty; and in +this regard your Holiness has done all that I have desired.' 'But you +intend to remain,' he inquired, 'together in community?' 'Most +assuredly, your Holiness; our intention is to live and work as we +have hitherto done. But there are many [spiritual] privileges +attached to the work of the missions very necessary to their success, +and which we would gladly participate in.' 'Well, well,' he answered, +'organize, begin your work, and then demand them, and I will grant +them to you. The Americans, however, are very much engrossed in +material pursuits.' 'True, Holy Father,' I replied, 'but the faith is +there. We five missionaries are Americans, and were like the others, +but you see the grace of God has withdrawn us from these things and +moved us to consecrate ourselves wholly to God and His Church, and we +hope it will do the same for many of our countrymen. And once our +countrymen are Catholics, we hope they will do great things for God's +Church and His glory, for they have enthusiasm.' 'Yes, yes,' he +rejoined, 'it would be a great consolation to me.' I asked him if he +would grant me a plenary indulgence for my brethren and my friends in +the United States. 'Well,' he said, 'but I must have a rescript.' 'I +have one with me which perhaps will do,' I answered. Looking over it, +he made some alterations and signed it. I knelt down at his feet and +begged him to give me a large blessing before my departure, in order +that I might become a great missionary in the United States--which he +gave me most cordially, and I retired. + +"His manner was very affectionate, and in the course of the +conversation he called me _'caro mio'_ and _'figlio mio'_ several +times. We could not desire to leave a more favorable impression than +exists here in regard to us and our part in the recent transaction, +and we have the sympathy of the Pope and the Propaganda. Rome will +withhold nothing from us if we prove worthy of its confidence, and +will hail our success with true joy. I look upon this settlement of +our difficulties as the work of Divine Providence, and my prayer is +that it may make me humble, modest, and renew my desire to consecrate +myself wholly to God's designs." + +He writes to the Fathers, March 27: "The seven months passed here in +Rome seem to me an age; and have taxed me to that extent that I look +forward to home as a place of rest and repose. When I think of the +fears, anxieties, and labors undergone I say to myself--enough for +this time. On the other hand, when I remember the warm and +disinterested friends God has given us on account of these +difficulties, and the happy issue to which His providence has +conducted them, my heart is full of gratitude and joy. To me the +future looks bright, hopeful, full of promise, and I feel confident +in God's providence, and assured of His grace in our regard. I feel +like raising up the cross as our standard and adopting one word as +our motto--CONQUER! + +"I have just received the documents for you to give the Papal +benediction at the missions, and will send them. A letter reached +here this week from the Bishop of Burlington, Vt., and it is strongly +in our favor; it concludes by saying that all that we required to +make us a religious Congregation was the special blessing of the Holy +Father." + +Again, on April 3: "Monsignor Bedini asked of the Pope the special +benediction that Bishop De Goesbriand suggested, and he replied: 'Did +I not give it to Pere Hecker, and through him to his brethren, when +he was here?' 'But,' answered Monsignor Bedini, 'give them this +benediction this time on the request of the bishop.' And he answered: +'It is well; I do.' So there is a special blessing from the Holy +Father in view of our forming a religious body. Indeed, that is so +well understood here that several have inquired what name we intend +to adopt, etc. Of course to all such questions my answer is: 'I can +say nothing; the future is in God's hands, and we intend to follow +His providence.' . . . + +"Good Cardinal Barnabo looks upon us with a paternal regard, and when +I expressed in your name how warmly we returned his affection, and +what a deep gratitude we owed him, he was deeply moved, and replied +that he did not deserve such sentiments, and that he had only done +justice. Since the settlement of our affairs I have let no occasion +pass to express our gratitude to those who have befriended us; and as +for Cardinal Barnabo, Monsignor Bedini, Bishop Connolly, and Doctor +Bernard Smith, Benedictine monk, they should be put at the head of +the list of our spiritual benefactors and remembered in all our +prayers. Now that we are a body, I would advise this to be done at +once. The Holy Father stands No. 1; that is understood. + +"How much I have to relate to you on my return! Many things I did not +venture to write down on paper, and many I can communicate to no one +else but you. How great is my desire to see you!--it seems that I +have no other. + +"I have taken passage for Marseilles on Tuesday after Easter, the 6th +of April, and intend to take passage on the _Vanderbilt,_ which +leaves Havre on the 28th. . . . I saw the General on Tuesday of this +week, to take leave of him. After some conversation we left in good +feeling, promising to pray _pro invicem._ God bless him!" + +Before leaving Paris Father Hecker received extremely affectionate +letters of congratulation from his old friends, Fathers de Held and +de Buggenoms. + +The following is the decree of the Congregation of Bishops and +Regulars: + +"Certain priests of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer in the +United States of North America recently presented their most humble +petition to our Most Holy Lord Pope Pius IX., that in view of certain +special reasons he would grant that they might be withdrawn from the +authority and jurisdiction of the Rector Major and be governed by a +superior of their own, immediately subject to the Apostolic See, and +according to the [Redemptorist] Rule approved by Benedict XIV., of +holy memory. If, however, this should not be granted to them, they +most humbly asked for dispensation from their vows in the said +Congregation. After having carefully considered the matter, it +appeared to his Holiness that a separation of this kind would be +prejudicial to the unity of the Congregation and by no means accord +with the Institute of St. Alphonsus, and therefore should not be +permitted. Since, however, it was represented to his Holiness that +the petitioners spare no labor in the prosecution of the holy +missions, in the conversion of souls, and in the dissemination of +Christian doctrine, and are for this reason commended by many +bishops, it seemed more expedient to his Holiness to withdraw them +from the said Congregation, that they might apply themselves to the +prosecution of the works of the sacred ministry under the direction +of the local bishops. Wherefore his Holiness by the tenor of this +decree, and by his Apostolic authority, does dispense from their +simple vows and from that of permanence in the Congregation the said +priests, viz.: Clarence Walworth, Augustine Hewit, George Deshon, and +Francis Baker, together with the priest Isaac Hecker, who has joined +himself to their petition in respect to dispensation from the vows, +and declares them to be dispensed and entirely released, so that they +no longer belong to the said Congregation. And his Holiness +confidently trusts that under the direction and jurisdiction of the +local bishops, according to the prescription of the sacred Canons, +the above-mentioned priests will labor by work, example, and word in +the vineyard of the Lord, and give themselves with alacrity to the +eternal salvation of souls, and promote with all their power the +sanctification of their neighbor. + +"Given at Rome, in the office of the Sacred Congregation of Bishops +and Regulars, the 6th day of March, 1858. + +"[L. S.] G. CARDINAL DELLA GENGA, Prefect. + +"A., ARCHBISHOP OF PHILIPPI, Secretary."* + +[* Nuper nonnulli ex Presbyteris Congregationis SSmi Redemptoris in +provinciis Americae Septentrionalis foederatis existentibus SSmum D. +N. Pium PP. IX., supplici prece deprecabantur, ut eis ob speciales +circumstantias concederet ab auctoritate et jurisdictione Rectoris +Majoris subtrahi, ac a proprio Superiore Apostolicae Sedi immediate +subjecto juxta regulam a Benedicto XIV., sanctae memoriae, approbatam +gubernari. Quod ad id eis datum non esset, dispensationem a votis in +dicta Congregatione emissis, humillime expostulabant. Re sedulo +perpensa, Sanctitas Sua existimavit hujusmodi separationem unitati +Congregationis officere, et S. Alphonsi instituto minime respondere +ideoque haud permittendum esse. Cum autem relatum sit oratores nulli +labore parcere in sacris expeditionibus peragendis, et in proximorum +conversione, Christianaque institutione curanda, et idcirco a +pluribus Antistibus commendentur, visum est SSmo Domino magis +expedire eos a praefata Congregatione eximi, ut in sacri ministerii +opera promovenda sub directione Antistitum locorum incumbere possint. +Quapropter Sanctitas Sua presbyteros Clarentium Walworth, Augustinum +Hewit, Georgium Deshon, et Franciscum Baker, una cum presbytero Isaac +Hecker, qui eorumdem postulationibus quoad dispensationem a votis +adhaesit, a votis simplicibus, etiam permanentiae in Congregatione SSmi +Redemptoris emissis, hujus Decreti tenore, Apostolica auctoritate +dispensat, et dispensatos, ac prorsus solutos esse declarat, ita ut +ad eamdem Congregationem amplius non pertineant. Confidit vero +Sanctitas Sua memoratos Presbyteros, qua opere, qua exemplo, qua +sermone, in vinea Domini sub directione et jurisdictione Antistitum +locorum, ad praescriptum SS. Canonum adlaboraturos, ut aeternam +animarum salutem alacriter curent, atque proximorum sanctificationem +pro viribus promoveant. + +Datum Romae, ex Secretaria Sacrae Congregationis Episcoporum et +Regularium, Die 6 Martii, 1858. + +[L. + S.] G. CARDINAL DELLA GENGA, Praef. + +A., ARCHIEPISCOPUS PHILIPPEN, Sec.] + +NOTE.--I wish to add to this, that the relations between the +Redemptorists and Paulists are, and I trust will continue to be, most +amicable. + +AUG. F. HEWIT, C.S.P., Superior. + +________________________ + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +BEGINNINGS OF THE PAULIST COMMUNITY + +DURING the seven months of Father Hecker's stay in Rome the band of +American missionaries were busily occupied. Missions were given in +the following order: Newark, N.J.; Poughkeepsie, Cold Spring on the +Hudson, and Utica, N.Y.; Brandywine, Del.; Trenton, N.J.; Burlington, +Brandon, East and West Rutland, Vt., and Plattsburgh, Saratoga, and +Little Falls, N.Y. All these labors were undertaken subject to the +authority of the Redemptorist Provincial and in a spirit of entire +obedience. The mission at Little Falls closed on Palm Sunday, March +28, and the missionaries, with the exception of Father Baker, who was +sent to Annapolis, Md., returned to the Redemptorist house in Third +Street, New York. On the Tuesday after Easter, April 6, 1858, the +official copy of the Pope's decision reached them, and they bade +farewell to their Redemptorist brethren and to the community in which +they had spent so many happy years, and witnessed, as Father Hewit +has written, "so many edifying examples of high virtue and devoted +zeal, to enter upon a new and untried undertaking." + +Archbishop Kenrick, as soon as he heard of this, made a determined +effort to secure Father Baker for the diocese of Baltimore, but the +latter never for a moment faltered in his purpose to cast his lot +with his brethren, and the archbishop gave up his claim upon him at +the request of Cardinal Barnabo. + +Their engagements called for two more missions before the season +ended--one at Watertown, N.Y., and the other at St. Bridget's Church, +New York City. The first of these opened on the 18th of April, and +while waiting for that date the Fathers lived with Mr. George Hecker +in Rutger's Place, saying Mass in his private chapel and following +their religious rule as far as circumstances allowed, continuing +meantime to obey Father Walworth, their former superior of the +missions. They journeyed to Watertown, fearful lest the faculties for +giving the Papal blessing and the mission indulgences should not +arrive there in time. But late on Saturday night, April 19, they were +received, much to the joy of the Fathers. + +Here occurred a noteworthy coincidence. Watertown was at that time in +the diocese of Albany, of which Bishop McCloskey was then the +ordinary. He had received Father Hecker into the Church and had been +his first guide in the spiritual life, and now he was the first to +publicly welcome his brethren at the beginning of their new career. +The following is from a letter of his to Father Walworth in answer to +one announcing the recent changes: + +"I am happy to hear that your difficulties have at length received +their solution, and in a manner, I presume, as satisfactory as you +could well expect. The future must now in great measure depend upon +yourselves. You will, of course, have difficulties to surmount and +prejudices to encounter, but I trust that with God's blessing your +new community when once organized will continue from day to day to +gain increased stability and strength, and be enabled to carry out +successfully all its laudable aims for the good of our holy religion. +The faculties already given you in this diocese you will not consider +as being withdrawn by the act of your separation from the +Redemptorist order, and there is nothing that I know of to interfere +with your proposed mission in Watertown." + +During the mission at St. Bridget's--that is, in the first half of +the month of May--Father Hecker arrived in New York and measures were +at once taken for the practical organization of the new community. +Nothing was done hurriedly; a fair and full consideration of all +questions from every point of view, which lasted until early in the +month of July, enabled each one clearly to understand his new +relation in its every aspect. Father Walworth not being entirely in +agreement with the others, withdrew to the diocese of Albany and took +charge of a parish; he returned again in 1861, remaining with the +community till 1865, when his health becoming quite shattered, he +reluctantly decided to withdraw altogether. It need hardly be said +that the relations between him and the community have always been +most cordial. Meantime the others, Fathers Hecker, Hewit, Deshon, and +Baker, organized by electing the first-named the Superior, and drew +up and signed what was termed a Programme of Rule. This was submitted +to Archbishop Hughes and by him approved and signed on July 7, 1858. +The Apostle of the Gentiles was chosen as patron, and the name +selected was, The Missionary Priests of St. Paul the Apostle, which +has been popularized into Paulists. The habit agreed upon was in form +somewhat like that of the students of the Propaganda in Rome, black +throughout, with a narrow linen collar and buttoned across the +breast, being held at the waist by a cincture. + +The Programme of Rule adopts an order of spiritual exercises similar +to that observed by the Fathers while Redemptorists. A perpetual +voluntary agreement takes the place of the vows as the security of +stability, the members affirming that they are fully determined to +promote their sanctification by leading a life in all essential +respects similar to that led in the religious orders. Besides the +chastity imposed upon them by the priesthood the other evangelical +counsels of obedience and poverty are adopted and their observance +enjoined upon the members, together with the daily and periodical +exercises of community life. As to the external vocation, the +missions are named as the basis of general apostolic labors, and +parish work also, though in a subordinate degree. The entire document +looks forward to a complete Rule to be drawn up and submitted to the +Holy See at a future day, for which it actually furnished the +outlines some twenty years afterwards. The approval of the Programme +of a Rule by the Archbishop of New York gave the Fathers the +canonical status anticipated by the decree _Nuper nonnulli._ This was +confirmed by an official permission of the Holy See to the Archbishop +of New York to establish the Paulist Institute in his diocese, with +the consent of his suffragans, which was asked for and obtained. + +A little more than a fortnight after these events Father Hecker wrote +as follows to a friend: + +"Before leaving Rome our Holy Father Pius IX. gave us his special +blessing for the commencement of our new organization, promised us +any privileges we might need to carry on our missionary labors, and +held out the hope of his sanction, in proper time, of the rules which +we might make. In my last visit to his Eminence Cardinal Barnabo he +gave me advice how to organize, what steps were to be taken from time +to time, and expressed a most lively interest in our undertaking. The +same did Monsignor Bedini. On my return we organized as advised, +wrote out an outline of our new institution and submitted it to the +ordinary of this diocese, the initiatory step of all such +undertakings. He gave it his cordial approbation, and said that he +found no word to alter, to add, or improve. Thus we are so far +regularly canonically instituted. + +"Our aim is to lead a strict religious life in community, starting +with the voluntary principle; leaving the question of vows to further +experience, counsel, and indications of Divine Providence. Our +principal work is the missions, such as we have hitherto given, but +we are not excluded from other apostolic labors as the wants of the +Church may demand or develop. . . . We begin early this fall our +campaign of missions, and we never had before us so fine a list. One +thing I may say, and I trust without boasting, we are of one mind and +heart, resolved to labor and die for Jesus Christ, for the good of +His holy Church, for the advancement of the Catholic faith. We have +the encouragement of a number of bishops, and also, we trust, the +prayers, sympathy, and assistance of the faithful. We shall have to +face obstacles, opposition from friends and foes; but if we are the +right kind of men and have the virtues which such a position as ours +demands, our trials will only strengthen us and make us the better +Christians. Every good work must expect opposition from pious men, +and our minds are made up to that." + +After St. Bridget's mission the little community found itself +homeless, and it remained so till the spring of the year 1859. But +during part of this period Mr. George Hecker, taking his family to +the country, gave up his whole house to the Fathers, servants and +all, making provision for the supply of every want in the most +generous manner. For the greater portion of the time, however, +especially between missions in the winter and spring of 1858-9, the +Fathers depended for temporary shelter upon the hospitality of +friends among the clergy and laity, even lodging for a short while in +a respectable boarding-house in Thirteenth street, at a convenient +distance from several churches and chapels where Mass could be said +daily. + +But in the spring of 1858 arrangements had been made with Archbishop +Hughes for establishing a house and parish in New York. The present +site of St. Paul's Church and convent, then in the midst of a +suburban wilderness, was chosen, and, by dint of hasty collections +from private friends and with the help of a very large gift from Mr. +George Hecker, money enough was paid down to obtain the deeds. +Sixtieth Street was not quite opened at the time, and this part of +Ninth Avenue existed only on paper; but by energetic efforts made by +all the Fathers and their friends, and by personal appeals in every +direction, especially in the down-town parishes in which they had +given missions, sufficient funds were raised to clear the ground and +lay the foundations of a building which was to include both convent +and church. Early in the summer of 1858 circulars asking assistance +had been sent out to the clergy of the United States, and by this +means also a considerable amount was secured, the very first answer +with a handsome donation coming from Father Early, President of +Georgetown College. In the spring of 1859 the Fathers rented a frame +house on Sixtieth Street, just west of Broadway, fitted up a little +chapel in it, and lived there in community till the new house was +finished. + +The corner-stone of the new structure was laid by Archbishop Hughes +on Trinity Sunday, June 19, 1859, in the presence of an immense +concourse of people. During that summer and fall every effort was +made to keep the builders at work. The task was no easy one. The +times were hard, the country still suffering from the effects of the +financial crisis of 1857, the financial depression being aggravated +by the ominous outlook in the political world. But the house was +finally completed, and was blessed by Father Hecker on the 24th of +November, the feast of St. John of the Cross, one of his very special +patrons. This was within a few weeks of his fortieth birthday. On the +27th of the same month, the first Sunday of Advent, the chapel was +blessed and Solemn Mass was celebrated in it. Thereafter the Fathers +had to act as parish priests as well as missionaries. A few weeks +before this the first recruit joined the little band in the person of +Father Robert Beverly Tillotson, a convert, who, though an American, +had been for some time a member of Dr. Newman's Oratory. He was a +charming preacher and a noble character, much beloved by all the +fathers, and especially by Father Hecker. He died, deeply mourned, in +the summer of 1868, having given the community nine years of most +valuable service. He came just in time to set free three of the +Fathers for missionary duty, the other two remaining in care of the +parish. This was at first small enough in numbers, though in +territory it reached from Fifty-second Street to very near +Manhattanville. The accession of Father Alfred Young, of the diocese +of Newark, and the return of Father Walworth considerably relieved +the pressure, though the rapid growth of the parish and the widening +scope of the community's labors kept every one busy enough. + +The newly-founded Paulist community was heartily welcomed by both +clergy and people. Missions were given in various parts of the +country, applications being often declined for want of time and +missionaries. Several prelates, among whom were the Archbishops of +Baltimore and Cincinnati, wrote to Father Hecker offering to +establish the community in their dioceses; Bishop Bayley, of Newark, +also wished to secure the Fathers, and he was especially urgent in +his request. One has but to know the intensely conservative spirit of +the Catholic hierarchy and clergy to appreciate how stainless must +have been the record of the Fathers to elicit such testimonials of +good-will just after they had fought a hard battle on the ground of +authority and obedience. As to the Catholic laity, the following +extract from a letter of the poet George H. Miles, whose early death +some years after was so deeply lamented, shows how they regarded the +new community. It was written from Baltimore under date of August 13, +1858: + +"MY VERY DEAR FATHER HECKER: . . . Since we last parted you have been +to me one of those grand, good memories we take to heart and cherish. +I have loved you better than you could believe, for I felt that in +the extremity of sorrow or temptation you were the man and the priest +I would have recourse to, could my own wish be granted. You are not +wrong in considering me a friend; that is, if much love may atone for +little power to befriend. . . . _Providentially,_ it now appears, you +men have always had an individual force that detached you completely +from your _confreres._ To me and to the multitudes you were never +Redemptorists, never Liguorians, but Hecker, Walworth, Hewit, Deshon, +Baker. I mean to utter nothing disrespectful to the society which has +blessed this nation in training and developing you and your new body +of preachers, but I maintain that you stood so completely apart from +that society, so absolutely individualized, that, etc." + +The three years following Father Hecker's return from Rome were +exceedingly active ones. The missions were maintained, money +collected for the purchase of the property and the building of the +convent at the corner of Fifty-ninth Street and Ninth Avenue, and, +after the opening of the new church in November, 1859, the regular +duties of a city parish were added. + +"I am hard at work," writes Father Hecker to a friend, in the very +midst of these labors, "in soliciting subscriptions for our convent +and temporary church. I have worked hard in my life, but this is +about the hardest. However, it goes. I had, a couple of weeks ago, a +donation of $200 from a Protestant. Yesterday a subscription of $90 +from another. _Sursum Corda_ and go ahead, is my cry!" And, indeed, +he was full of courage and conscience in the future, all his letters +breathing a cheerful spirit. + +Before giving Father Hecker's principles for community life, which we +will do in the next chapter, it may be well to say a few words more +about the attitude in which he and his companions had been placed, by +the action of the Holy See, toward the Catholic idea of authority. + +Just as he was about to sail for America he wrote to his brother +George: "I return from Rome with my enthusiasm unchilled and my +resolution to labor for the conversion of our people intensified and +strengthened. I feel that the knowledge and experience which I have +acquired are most necessary for the American Fathers in their present +delicate position." And in truth his stay in Rome had prepared him +for the new responsibilities in store for him. His sufferings there +had purified his motives, his humiliations and his anguish had taught +him the need of reliance, total and loving, on Divine Providence. He +had studied authority in its chief seat, and he had done so with the +depth of impression which a man on trial for his life experiences of +the power of the advocates and the dignity of the judges. The result +of that trial was of infinite benefit. The test of genuine liberty is +its consonance with lawful authority, and in Father Hecker's case the +newest liberty had been roughly arraigned before the most venerable +authority known among men, tried by fire, and sent forth with Rome's +broad seal of approval. + +Without doubt the chief endeavor of authority should be to win the +allegiance of free and aspiring spirits; but, on the other hand, no +one should be so firmly convinced of the rights of the external order +of God as the man who is called to minister to the aspirations of +human liberty. + +No man ought to be so vividly conscious of the prerogatives of +authority as he who lays claim to a vocation to extol the worth of +liberty. It was, therefore, fitting that Father Hecker should learn +his lesson of the prerogatives of the visible Church from that +teacher who has no master among men. At the same time Rome sent forth +in the person of Father Hecker a living and powerful argument +addressed to this Republic, that the Catholic Church is worthy of the +heartiest allegiance of our citizens. + +This providential aspect of the case should not be forgotten. When +Father Hecker had been expelled from the Redemptorists it might have +been thought that he was done for, and that if he had ever had a +mission it had suffered total shipwreck, whether deserved or not. But +in reality the very reverse was the truth. The disgrace of expulsion, +the sudden horror of being thus cast out, a calamity which set him +forth to all Catholics as a ruined priest, had but served to bring +him into the notice of the supreme authority of the Church. And when +in this God had wrought all His work His servant was purified within +and mightily strengthened without. In his inmost soul he was +conscious of his divine mission with a deeper certitude than ever +before; and as he began his apostolate he bore on his arm the buckler +of Rome, against which all the darts of enemies, if any should arise, +would strike harmless and fall to the ground. + +It was fitting that the Paulist community, appealing to the men and +women of to-day with the credentials as well of their own individual +independence as of the good will of the Pope and the Bishops, should +be launched into existence from the very deck of Peter's bark, and +furnished with all the testimonials of ecclesiastical authority short +of canonical sanction. This was the more proper because, in a few +years after the beginning of the community, European revolutionists +were to be scourged with the Syllabus, whose every word agonized the +souls of unworthy advocates of liberty. That Pontifical document has +created a literature of its own in comment and explanation, some +tying more knots in every lash and others mitigating its severity or +palliating the errors it smote with such pitiless rigor. But the best +interpretation of the Syllabus is the Paulist community. It is a body +of free men whose origin was the joint result of the personal +workings of the Holy Spirit in the soul of a man who loved civil and +political freedom with a mighty love, and the decision of the highest +court of Catholicity declaring him worthy of trust as an exponent of +the Christian faith. If the Syllabus shows what the Church thinks of +those who in the guise of freemen are conspirators against religion +and public order, the approval of the Paulist community shows the +Church's attitude towards men worthy to be free. + +Nor was Rome's course chosen without weighing the consequences, +without a full estimate of the public significance of the act. Father +Hecker's adversaries fixed upon him every stigma of radicalism and +rebellion possible in a good but deluded priest. For seven long +months they poured into ears which instinctively feared revolt in the +name of liberty, every accusation his doings and sayings could be +made to give color to, in order to prove that he and the American +Fathers were tainted with false liberalism. And he seemed to lend +himself to their purpose. His guileless tongue spoke to the +cardinals, prelates, and professors of Rome about nothing so much as +freedom, and its kinship with Catholicity. He seemed to have no +refuge but the disclosure of the very secrets of his soul. During +those months of incessant accusation and defence Father Hecker talked +Rome's high dignitaries into full knowledge of himself, until they +saw the cause mirrored in the man and gave approval to both. Some, +like Barnabo, were actuated by the quick sympathy of free natures; +others, like Pius IX., arrived at a decision by the slower processes +of the removal of prejudice from an honest mind, and the careful +comparing of Father Hecker's principles with the fundamental truths +of religion. + +________________________ + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +FATHER HECKER'S IDEA OF A RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY + +THE beginnings of the Paulist community having been sketched, it is +now in order to state the principles with which Father Hecker, guided +no less by supernatural intuition than by enlightened reason, +intended it should be inspired; and this shall be done as nearly as +possible in his own words. The following sentences, found in one of +his diaries and quoted some chapters back, embody what may be deemed +his ultimate principle: + +"It is for this we are created: that we may give a new and individual +expression of the absolute in our own peculiar character. As soon as +the new is but the re-expression of the old, God ceases to live. Ever +the mystery is revealed in each new birth; so must it be to eternity. +The Eternal-Absolute is ever creating new forms of expressing itself." + +What the new order of things was to be in the spiritual life could be +learned, Father Hecker held, by observing men's strivings after +natural good. The tendencies which shape men's efforts to secure +happiness in this world, in so far as they are innocent, indicated to +him what choice of means should be made to propagate the knowledge +and love of God. According to this, the most successful worker for a +people's sanctification will be kindred to them by conviction and by +sympathy in all that concerns their political and social life. Men's +aspirations in the natural order point out the highway of God's +representatives. As these aspirations change from era to era, so do +the main lines of religious effort change, the highways of one age +becoming the byways of another. It is true that no method for the +elevation of human nature to divine union, which the Church has +sanctioned, ever becomes quite obsolete, but the merest glance at the +differences between the spiritual characteristics of the martyrs, the +hermits, the monks, the friars, shows that one form of the Christian +virtues succeeds another in general possession of men's souls. The +new spirit, without crowding the old one off its beaten track, +follows men to the new ways whither the providence of God in the +natural order has led them. "First the natural man," says St. Paul, +"and then the spiritual." Different types of spirituality are brought +forward by Almighty God to sanctify men in new conditions of life. +Among the foremost of these are religious communities of men and +women. Hence their duty to adjust themselves, as far as faith and +discipline permit, to the circumstances of the times. The power of a +religious community for good will be measured by its ability to +elevate the natural to the supernatural without shocking it or +thwarting it. + +Now, every one knows that this age differs materially from past ones. +It differs by a wider spread of education and an uncontrollable +longing after liberty, civil, political, and personal. + +Father Hecker was penetrated with the belief that the intelligence +and liberty, whose well-ordered enjoyment he had witnessed in +America, and which he loved so deeply himself, were divine +invitations to the apostolate of the Holy Spirit. He was profoundly +impressed with the certainty of the development, the extension, and +the permanence of these political and social changes; and he knew +that they demanded of men a personal independence of character far in +advance of previous generations. And he knew, also, that for the +sanctification of such men the aids of religion, though not changed +in themselves, must be applied in a different spirit. Discipline and +uniformity, though never to be dispensed with, must yield the first +places to more interior virtues. The dominant influence must be +docility to the guidance of the Holy Spirit dwelling within every +regenerate soul. Applying this, towards the end of his life, to +religious communities, Father Hecker wrote: "The controlling thought +of my mind for many years has been that a body of free men who love +God with all their might, and yet know how to cling together, could +conquer this modern world of ours." The sentence may be taken as a +brief description of the Paulist community as he would have it. And +it is easily seen why free men loving God with all their hearts are +suited to conquer this modern world; because men are determined to be +free. + +The following extracts from notes, letters, and diaries more fully +develop this idea: + +"A new religious order is an evidence and expression of an uncommon +or special grace given to a certain number of souls, so that they may +be sanctified by the practice of particular virtues to meet the +special needs of their epoch, and in this way to renew the spiritual +life of the members of the Church and to extend her fold. A new +community is this, or it has no reason for its existence. The means +to accomplish its special work are both new and old. It should lay +stress on the new, and not despise but also make use of the old. 'The +wise householder bringeth forth from his treasury new things and +old.'" + +"The true Paulist is a religious man entirely dependent on God for +his spiritual life; he lives in community for the greater security of +his own salvation and perfection, and to meet more efficiently the +pressing needs of the Church and of humanity in his day." + +"The Church always finds in her wonderful fecundity wherewith to +supply the new wants which arise in every distinct epoch of society." + +"A new religious community, unless its activity is directed chiefly +to supplying the special needs of its time, wears itself out at the +expense of its true mission and will decline and fail." + +"We must realize the necessity of more explicitly bringing out our +ideal if we would give a sufficient motive for our students and +members, keep them in the community, bring about unity of action, and +accomplish the good which the Holy Spirit demands at our hands. A +Paulist, as a distinct species of a religious man, is one who is +alive to the pressing needs of the Church at the present time, and +feels called to labor specially with the means fitted to supply them. +And what a member of another religious community might do from that +divine guidance which is external, the Paulist does from the +promptings of the indwelling Holy Spirit." + +"A Paulist is a Christian man who aims at a Christian perfection +consistent with his natural characteristics and the type of +civilization of his country." + +"So far as it is compatible with faith and piety, I am for accepting +the American civilization with its usages and customs; leaving aside +other reasons, it is the only way by which Catholicity can become the +religion of our people. The character and spirit of our people, and +their institutions, must find themselves at home in our Church in the +way those of other nations have done; and it is on this basis alone +that the Catholic religion can make progress in our country." + +"What we need to-day is men whose spirit is that of the early +martyrs. We shall get them in proportion as Catholics cultivate a +spirit of independence and personal conviction. The highest +development of religion in the soul is when it is assisted by free +contemplation of the ultimate causes of things. Intelligence and +liberty are the human environments most favorable to the deepening of +personal conviction of religious truth, and obedience to the interior +movements of an enlightened conscience. To a well-ordered mind the +question of the hour is how the soul which aspires to the +supernatural life shall utilize the advantages of liberty and +intelligence." + +"The form of government of the United States is preferable to +Catholics above other forms. It is more favorable than others to the +practice of those virtues which are the necessary conditions of the +development of the religious life of man. This government leaves men +a larger margin for liberty of action, and hence for co-operation +with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, than any other government under +the sun. With these popular institutions men enjoy greater liberty in +working out their true destiny. The Catholic Church will, therefore, +flourish all the more in this republican country in proportion as her +representatives keep, in their civil life, to the lines of their +republicanism." + +"The two poles of the Paulist character are: first, personal +perfection. He must respond to the principles of perfection as laid +down by spiritual writers. The backbone of a religious community is +the desire for personal perfection actuating its members. The desire +for personal perfection is the foundation stone of a religious +community; when this fails, it crumbles to pieces; when this ceases +to be the dominant desire, the community is tottering. Missionary +works, parochial work, etc., are and must be made subordinate to +personal perfection. These works must be done in view of personal +perfection. The main purpose of each Paulist must be the attainment +of personal perfection by the practice of those virtues without which +it cannot be secured--mortification, self-denial, detachment, and the +like. By the use of these means the grace of God makes the soul +perfect. The perfect soul is one which is guided instinctively by the +indwelling Holy Spirit. To attain to this is the end always to be +aimed at in the practice of the virtues just named. Second, zeal for +souls; to labor for the conversion of the country to the Catholic +faith by apostolic work. Parish work is a part, an integral part, of +Paulist work, but not its principal or chief work--and parish work +should be done so as to form a part of the main aim, the conversion +of the non-Catholic people of the country. In this manner we can +labor to raise the standard of Catholic life here and throughout the +world as a means of the general triumph of the Catholic faith." + +"I do not think that the principal characteristic of our Fathers and +of our life should be poverty or obedience or any other special and +secondary virtue, or even a cardinal virtue, but zeal for apostolic +works. Our vocation is apostolic--conversion of souls to the faith, +of sinners to repentance, giving missions, defence of the Christian +religion by conferences, lectures, sermons, the pen, the press, and +the like works; and in the interior, to propagate among men a higher +and more spiritual life. To supply the special element the age and +each country demands, this is the peculiar work of religious +communities: this their field. It is a fatal mistake when religious +attempt to do the ordinary work of the Church. Let religious practise +prayer and study; there will always be enough of the work to which +they are called." + +"Are the Paulists Religious? Yes, and no. Yes, of their age. No, of +the past; the words in neither case being taken in an exclusive +meaning." + +"As regards the growth of the Paulist, he must develop in an +apostolic vocation--that is, in apostolic works, Catholic, universal; +not in works which confine his life's energies to a locality. He must +do the work of the Church. The work of the Church, as Church, is to +render her note of universality more and more conspicuous to render +it sensible, palpable. This is the spirit of the Church in our +country." + +The following refers to the second trait of the character above +given: "A Paulist is to emphasize individuality; that is, to make +individual liberty an essential element in every judgment that +touches the life and welfare of the community and that of its +members. Those who emphasize the community element are inclined to +look upon this as a dangerous and impracticable experiment." + +"_Individuality is an integral and conspicuous element in the life of +the Paulist._ This must be felt. One of the natural signs of the true +Paulist is that he would prefer to suffer from the excesses of +liberty rather than from the arbitrary actions of tyranny." + +"The individuality of a man cannot be too strong or his liberty too +great when he is guided by the Spirit of God. But when one is easily +influenced from below rather than from above, it is an evidence of +the spirit of pride and that of the flesh, and not 'the liberty of +the glory of the children of God.'" + +What follows touches the relation between the personal and common +life: + +"Many other communities lay the main stress on community life as the +chief element, giving it control as far as is consistent with +fundamental individual right; the Paulists, on the contrary, give the +element of individuality the first place and put it in control as far +as is consistent with the common life." + +"The spirit of the age has a tendency to run into extreme +individuality, into eccentricity, license, revolution. But the +typical life shows how individuality is consistent with community +life. This is the aim of the United States in the political order, an +aim and tendency which we have to guide, and not to check or +sacrifice." + +"The element of individuality is taken into account in the Paulist +_essentially,_ integrally, practically. But when it comes into +conflict with the common right, the individual must yield to the +community: the common life outranks the individual life in case of +conflict. But the individual life should be regarded as sacred and +never be effaced. How this is to operate in particular cases belongs, +where it is not a matter of rule, to the virtue of prudence to +decide." + +"When the personality of the individual comes into conflict with the +life of the community, the personal side must not be sacrificed, but +made to yield to the common. In case of conflict, as before said, +common life and interests outrank personal life and interests. It may +be asked how, in the ordinary regulation and government of a +community of this kind, the individual and common elements are to be +made to harmonize? The answer is, that the one at the head of affairs +must be a true Paulist that is to say, keenly sensitive of personal +rights as well as appreciative of such as are common: where the +question is not a point of rule, its decision is dependent on the +practical sagacity and prudence of the superior more than on any +minute regulations which can be given. He who interprets the acts of +legitimate authority as an attack on his personal liberty, is as far +out of the way as he who looks upon the exercise of reason as an +attack on authority." + +"How about persons of dull minds or of little spiritual ambition +coming into the use of this freedom? First, no such person should be +allowed to enter into the community: such persons should be excluded. +Second, a full-fledged Paulist should have passed a long enough +novitiate to have acquired the special virtues which are necessary +for his vocation. Absence of supernatural light is the cause why a +man is not fit to be a Paulist, for he cannot understand rightly or +appreciate the value of the liberties he enjoys. He either is or he +becomes a turbulent element in the community." + +"A Paulist, seeing that he has so much individuality, should have a +strong, nay, a very strong attrait for community life; he should be +fond of the Fathers' company, prefer them and their society when +seeking proper recreation, feel the house to be his home and the +community and its surroundings very dear to him; in the routine of +the day all the community exercises and labors are, in his judgment, +of paramount obligation and importance. + +"The civil and political state of things of our age, particularly in +the United States, fosters the individual life. But it should do so +without weakening the community life: this is true individualism. The +problem is to make the synthesis. The joint product is the Paulist." + +"A Paulist should cultivate personal freedom without detriment to the +community spirit; and, vice versa, the community spirit should not be +allowed to be detrimental to personal freedom. But when the +individual life runs into eccentricity, license, and revolution, that +is a violation and sacrifice of the community life." + +"The duty of the Paulist Superior is to elicit the spontaneous zeal +of the Fathers and to further it with his authority. For lack of +one's own initiative that of another may be used, and herein the +Superior offers a constant help. But the centre of action is +individual, is in the soul moved by the Holy Ghost; not in the +Superior of the community or in the authorities of the Church. And if +he be moved by the Holy Spirit, he will be most obedient to his +superior; and he will not only be submissive to the authority of the +Church, but careful to follow out her spirit." + +In explaining the routine of daily life Father Hecker said: "The +member of a community who does not make the common exercises [of +religion] his first care is derelict of his duty. A common exercise +should be preferred to all other devotional practices or occupations +whatever; as far as possible all other exercises ought to be made +subordinate to common ones, which should never be omitted without +permission of the superior." + +Father Hecker was once asked: "Which would you prefer: to have a rule +and manner of life adapted to a large number of men, embracing many +of a uniform type, men good enough for average work, intended to +include and seeking to retain persons of mediocre spirit, and having +a dim understanding of our peculiar institute? or would you prefer +the rule to be made only for a select body, composed of such men as +----and ----, and the like?'" [Answer:] "I should prefer the rule to +be made for the smaller and more select body of men. Religious +vocations are not common, but special. It is a fatal mistake for +religious to take the place of secular priests." + +No one can be misled by what he has read in the foregoing pages into +the notion that Father Hecker had any other aim than the entire +consecration of liberty and intelligence to the influence of the Holy +Spirit. To know Father Hecker well was to be more deeply impressed +with his longing for the reign of the Spirit of God in men's souls +than even with his love of human liberty. In his esteem the worth of +the latter was altogether in proportion to its aptitude for the +former. His love of liberty was that of a means to an end--the +perfect oblation of the inner man to God. He aimed at individuality +because of his belief in the action of the Holy Ghost in the +individual soul. Such action, he was quick to maintain, is given to +every Christian, but it is to be looked for in a high degree in those +who are called by a special vocation to assist independent characters +to find the spirit of God within them; or, if already known, to obey +His direction implicitly. Paulists after Father Hecker's heart would +be men whom experience and study had rendered fit instruments for +disseminating the knowledge of the ways of God the Holy Ghost in +men's hearts; for instructing the faithful how to distinguish the +voice of God in the soul from the vagaries of the imagination or the +emotions of passion, and able to stimulate a ready and generous +response to every call of God from within. + +It is because of this indwelling of the Holy Spirit in every +regenerate soul that Father Hecker so vigorously maintained that the +freedom of the individual is a golden opportunity for the Catbolic +apostolate, according to the text "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, +there is liberty." Freedom, he affirmed, was in absolute consonance +with Catholic doctrine. But he furthermore insisted that it has +become the world-wide aspiration of men by interposition of Divine +Providence and with a view to their higher sanctification; and +however grossly abused, it is yet a direct suggestion to an +apostolate whose prospects are in the highest degree promising. And +this is the answer to the question which reasonable persons may well +ask, namely: Why should the new institution differ so radically from +the old ones, which were certainly works of God? Because the change +of men's lives in the entire secular and natural order is in the +direction of personal liberty and independence, and this change is a +radical one. "The Eternal-Absolute is ever creating new forms of +expressing itself." If, indeed, men's aspirations for liberty and +intelligence be all from the powers of darkness, then let every +longing for freedom be repressed and condemned, crushed by authority +in the state, anathematized by the Church. But if men are yearning to +be free, however blindly, because God by their freedom would make +them holier, then let us hail the new order as a blessing; and let +those who love freedom and are worthy of it use its privileges to +advance themselves and their brethren nearer to immediate union with +the Holy Spirit. + +It has been seen that the important question whether the end of the +new community would be better attained with the usual religious vows +or without them was decided in the negative. They were not definitely +rejected in the beginning; but starting without them, the Fathers +were willing to allow experience to show whether or not they should +be resumed. The lapse of time but confirmed the view that the +voluntary agreement and the bond of fraternal charity were, under the +circumstances, preferable as securities for stability and incentives +to holiness. + +There can be little doubt that Father Hecker's ideas on this feature +of the religious state had been greatly modified between the writing +of the _Questions of the Soul_ and the end of the struggle in Rome. +Much is said in that book of community life in the Catholic Church, +and generally as rendered stable and its spirit of sacrifice made +complete by the vows; and in the statement given in Rome to his five +chosen advisers, he says that one reason for writing the volume named +was to induce young men to enter the religious orders as the only +means of perfection--meaning orders under vows. But when he was +released from his own obligations and was confronted with the choice +of means for following his vocation, the horizon broadened away until +he could see beyond the institutions and traditions in which he had +lived since entering the novitiate at St. Trond. His ideas of +perfection in its relation to states of life underwent a change. +Therefore he said, Let us wait for the unmistakable will of God +before we bind ourselves with vows amidst a free people. He never +depreciated the evident value of these obligations; indeed, he seldom +was heard to speak of them. But he knew from close observation the +truth of the words of the Jesuit Avancinus: + +"The net (St. Matthew 13:44) is the Catholic Church, or, to take a +narrower view, it means the station in which you are placed. As in a +net all kinds of fish are to be found, so in our position, as in all +others, there are good and bad Christians. . . . Should yours be a +sacred calling, you are not, on that account, either the better or +the more secure; your sanctity and your salvation depend on yourself, +not on your calling." (_Meditations,_ Fourteenth Friday after +Pentecost) + +It never entered into the minds of the Fathers to question the +doctrine and practice of the Church concerning vows. But personal +experience proves the lesson of history, that what religion needs is +not so much holy states of life as holy men and Women. + +Looking back into the past, Father Hecker saw St. Philip Neri, to +whom he had a great devotion and for whose spiritual doctrine he had +a high admiration. The following is from an exponent of that +doctrine, and is much in point: + +"Although our Fathers and lay brothers [Oratorians] make no vow of +obedience, as do religious, they are, nevertheless, no way inferior +in the perfection of this virtue to those who profess it in the +cloister with solemn vows. They supply the want of vows with love, +with voluntary promptitude, and perfection in obeying every wish of +the superior. And it is a thing for which we must indeed thank God, +that without the obligation of obeying under pain of sin, without +fear of restraint or other punishment (except that of expulsion in +case of contumacy), all the subjects are prompt in this obedience, +even in things most humiliating and severe, according to the terms of +the rule. All take pleasure in meeting the wishes of the superior, +etc." (_The Excellences of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri,_ p. 136. +London: Burns & Oates.) + +Father Hecker did not dream that by relinquishing the vows he and his +companions in the Paulist community had cast away a single incentive +to virtue capable of moving such men as they, or had even failed to +secure any of the insignia adorning the great host of men and women +in the Catholic Church whose entire being has been given up to the +divine service. "The true Paulist," said he once, "should be fit and +ready to take the solemn vows at any moment." He felt strongly the +truth of the following words of the Jesuit Lallemant: + +"A desire and hunger after our perfection, a determined will to be +constantly tending towards it with all our strength--let this be +always our chief object and our greatest care. Let us bear in mind +that this care is more of the essence of religion [i.e., of a +religious order] than vows themselves; for it is on this that our +whole spiritual progress depends. Herein consists the difference +between true religious and those who are so only in appearance and in +the sight of men. Without this care to advance in perfection the +religious state does not secure our salvation; but nothing is more +common than to deceive ourselves on this point." (_The Spiritual +Doctrine of Father Louis Lallemant, S.J,_ p. 111. New York: Sadlier & +Co.) + +With regard to stability, men of stable character need no vow to +guarantee adherence to a divine vocation, and men of feeble character +may indeed vow themselves into an outward stability, but it is of +little fruit to themselves personally, and their irremovability is +often of infinite distress to their superiors and brethren. The +episcopate is the one religious order founded by Our Lord, and its +members are in the highest state of evangelical perfection; yet they +are neither required nor advised to take the oaths or vows of +religious orders. + +Neither Father Hecker nor any of his associates had the least +aversion to the vows. On the contrary, they had lived contentedly +under them for many of their most active years, and it will be +remembered of Father Hecker that he never found them irksome, had +never known a temptation against them. + +The question which arose was a choice between two kinds of community, +the one fast-bound by external obligations to the Church in the form +of vows, placing the members in a relation of peculiar strictness to +the Canon Law; or another kind, in which the members trusted wholly +to the strength of Divine grace, and their own conscious purpose +never to give up the fight for perfection; which of these states +would better facilitate the action of the Holy Spirit in the present +Providence of God; and which of them would tend to produce a type of +character fitted to evangelize a nation of independent and +self-reliant men and women? The free community was chosen. + +No doubt this involved some risk of criticism, particularly in the +beginning, for it was a wonder to many that men should organize for a +life-long endeavor after perfection and not swear to it, especially +as none of the free communities existing in Europe had houses in +America, for the Sulpicians belong to the secular clergy. And there +was also danger of unworthy subjects creeping in under favor of a +freedom they were unfit to enjoy. For it may be reproached against us +that we are apt to be victimized by men ruled by caprice, indulging +in extravagant schemes or deluded by wandering fancies; and also by +superiors who would let everybody do as he pleased. No doubt such +dangers are to be guarded against. But vowed communities do not claim +to be free from difficulties. No state of life and no organization +claims to be so perfect as totally to prevent abuse of power on the +part of superiors or caprice and sloth on the part of members. + +Both kinds of organized religious life have their difficulties: the +one, the martinet superior and the routine subject; the other, the +capricious subject and the lax superior. In one kind the bond of +union as well as the stimulus of endeavor is mainly obedience, +fraternal charity assisting; in the other it is mainly fraternal +charity, obedience assisting; each has to overcome obstacles peculiar +to itself. + +What has been said in this chapter, besides serving to exhibit Father +Hecker's principles as a founder, will be, we trust, a sufficient +answer to the silly delusion which the Paulists have encountered in +some quarters, that their society tolerates a soft life and supposes +in its members no high vocation to perfection; or that the voluntary +principle allows them a personal choice in regard to the devotional +exercises, permitting them to attend or not attend this or that +meditation or devotion laid down in the rule, as "the spirit moves +them." This is as plain an error as another one which had much +currency for years and which is not yet everywhere corrected: that +the Paulist community was open to converts alone and received none +others. + +________________________ + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +FATHER HECKER'S SPIRITUAL DOCTRINE + +HAVING given in the preceding chapter Father Hecker's principles of +the religious life in community, a more general view of his spiritual +doctrine, as well as of his method of the direction of souls, +naturally follows. And here we are embarrassed by the amount of +matter to choose from; for as he was always talking about spiritual +doctrine to whomsoever he could get to listen, so in his published +writings, in his letters to intimate friends, and in his notes and +memoranda, we have found enough falling under the heading of this + + + +CHAPTER to fill a volume. Let us hope for its publication some day. + +It need hardly be said that Father Hecker did not claim to have any +new doctrine; there can be none, and he knew it well. Every +generation since Christ has had His entire revelation. Development is +the word which touches the outer margin of all possible adaptation of +Christian principles to the changing conditions of humanity. But in +the transmission of these principles from master to disciple, in +practically assisting in their use by public instruction, or by +private advice, or by choice of devotional and ascetical exercises, +there is as great a variety of method as of temperament among races, +and even among individuals; and there are broadly marked differences +which are conterminous with providential eras of history. This was a +truth which Father Hecker, in common with all discerning minds, took +carefully into account. + +His fundamental principle of Christian perfection may be termed a +view of the Catholic doctrine of divine grace suited to the +aspirations of our times. By divine grace the love of God is diffused +in our hearts; the Holy Spirit takes up his abode there and makes us +children of the Heavenly Father, and brethren of Jesus Christ the +Divine Son. The state of grace is thus an immediate union of the soul +with the Holy Trinity, its Creator, Mediator, and Sanctifier. To +secure this union and render it more and more conscious was Father +Hecker's ceaseless endeavor through life, both for himself and for +those who fell under his influence, whether in cleansing the soul of +all hindrances of sin and imperfection, or advancing it deeper and +deeper into the divine life by prayer and the sacraments. + +His doctrine of Christian perfection might be formulated as a +profession of faith: I believe in God the _Father_ Almighty; I +believe in Jesus Christ the Only Begotten _Son_ of the Father; I +believe in the Holy Ghost the _Life Giver,_ the spirit of adoption by +whom I am enabled to say to the Father, _My Father,_ and to the Son, +_My Brother._ + +He wished that men generally should be made aware of the immediate +nature of this union of the soul with God, and that they should +become more and more personally conscious of it. He would bring this +about without the intervention of other persons or other methods than +the divinely constituted ones accessible to all in the priesthood and +sacraments. It was the development of the supernatural, heavenly, +divine life of the regenerate man, born again of the Holy Ghost, that +Father Hecker made the end of all he said and all he did in leading +souls; and he maintained that to partake of this life which is "the +light of men," many souls needed little interference on the part of +others, and that in every case the utmost care should be taken lest +the soul should mingle human influences, even the holiest, in undue +proportion with those which were strictly divine. + +"Go to God," he wrote to one asking advice, "go entirely to God, go +integrally to God; behold, that is sincerity, complete, perfect +sincerity. Do that, and make it a complete, continuous act, and you +need no help from me or any creature. I wish to provoke you to do it. +That is my whole aim and desire. Just in proportion as we harbor +pride, vanity, self-love--in a word, self-hood--just so far we fail +in integrally resigning ourselves to God. Were we wholly resigned to +God He would change all in us that is in discord with Him, and +prepare our souls for union with Him, making us one with Himself. God +longs for our souls greatly more than our souls can long for Him. +Such is God's thirst for love that He made all creatures to love Him, +and to have no rest until they love Him supremely. If my words are +not to your soul God's words and voice, pay no heed to them. If they +are, hesitate not a moment to obey. If they humble you to the dust, +what a blessing! He that is humbled shall be exalted." + +"Peace is gained by a wise inaction, and strength by integral +resignation to God, who will do all, and more than we, with the +boldest imagination, can fancy or desire." + +"May you see God in all, through all, and above all. May the Divine +transcendence and the Divine immanence be the two poles of your life." + +The natural faculties of the understanding and will, whose integrity +Father Hecker so much valued, were to be established in a new life +infinitely above their native reach, glorified with divine life, +their activity directed to the knowledge of things not even dreamed +of before, and endowed with a divine gift of loving. In this state +the Holy Spirit communicates to the human faculties force to +accomplish intellectual and moral feats which naturally can be +accomplished by God alone. This is called by theologians supernatural +infused virtue, and is rooted in Faith, Hope, and Love, is made +efficacious by spiritual gifts of wisdom and understanding, and +knowledge and counsel, and other gifts and forces, the conscious and +daily possession of which the Christian is entitled to hope for and +strive after, and finally to obtain and enjoy in this life. + +That this union is a personal relation, and that it should be a +distinctly conscious one on the soul's part, all will admit who think +but a moment of the infinite, loving activity of the Spirit of God, +and the natural and supernatural receptivity of the spirit of man. +Although not even the smallest germ of the supernatural life is found +in nature, yet the soul of man ceaselessly, if blindly, yearns after +its possession. Once possessed, the life of God blends into our own, +mingles with it and is one with it, impregnating it as magnetism does +the iron of the lodestone, till the divine qualities, without +suppressing nature, entirely possess it, and assert for it and over +it the Divine individuality. "Now I live, yet not I, but Christ +liveth in me." An author much admired by Father Hecker thus describes +the effects produced in the soul by supernatural faith, and hope, and +love: + +"These virtues are called and in reality are _Divine_ virtues. They +are called thus not because they are related to God in general, but +because _they unite us in a divine manner with God,_ have Him for +their immediate motive, and can be produced in us only by a +communication of the Divine nature. . . . For the life that the +children of God lead here upon earth must be of the same kind as the +life that awaits them in heaven." (Scheeben's _Glories of Divine +Grace,_ p. 222; Benziger Bros.) + +To partake thus of the inner life of God was Father Hecker's one +spiritual ambition, and to help others to it his one motive for +dealing with men. He was ever insisting upon the closeness of the +divine union, and that it is our life brought into actual touch with +God, whose supreme and essential activity must, by a law of its own +existence, make itself felt, dominate as far as permitted the entire +activity of the soul, and win more and more upon its life till all is +won. Then are fulfilled the Apostle's words: "But we all beholding +the glory of the Lord _with open face_ are transformed into the same +image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Cor. +3:18). + +Here are some of Father Hecker's words, printed but a year or two +before his death, which treat not only of the interior life in +general, but in particular of its relation to the outer action of God +on the soul through the divine organism of the Church: + +"St. Thomas Aquinas attributes the absence of spiritual joy mainly to +neglect of consciousness of the inner life. 'During this life,' he +says (_Opuscula de Beatitudine,_ cap. iii.), 'we should continually +rejoice in God, as something perfectly fitting, in all our actions +and for all our actions, in all our gifts and for all our gifts. It +is, as Isaias declares, that we may particularly enjoy him that the +Son of God has been given to us. What blindness and what gross +stupidity for many who are always seeking God, always sighing for +Him, frequently desiring Him, daily knocking and clamoring at the +door for God by prayer, while they themselves are all the time, as +the apostle says, temples of the living God, and God truly dwelling +within them; while all the time their souls are the abiding-place of +God, wherein He continually reposes! Who but a fool would look for +something out of doors which he knows he has within? What is the good +of anything which is always to be sought and never found, and who can +be strengthened with food ever craved but never tasted? Thus passes +away the life of many a good man, always searching and never finding +God, and it is for this reason that his actions are imperfect.' + +"A man with such a doctrine must cultivate mainly the interior life. +His answer to the question, What is the relation between the inner +and the outer action of God upon my soul? is that God uses the outer +for the sake of the inner life. + +"There seems to be little danger nowadays of our losing sight of the +Divine authority and the Divine action in the government of the +Church, and in the aids of religion conveyed through the external +order of the sacraments. Yet it is only after fully appreciating the +life of God within us that we learn to prize fittingly the action of +God in His external Providence. Such is the plain teaching of St. +Thomas in the extract above given. + +"By fully assimilating this doctrine one comes to aim steadily at +securing a more and more direct communion with God. Thus he does not +seek merely for an external life in an external society, or become +totally absorbed in external observances; but he seeks the invisible +God through the visible Church, for she is the body of Christ the Son +of God. + +"Once a man's hand is safe on the altar his eye and voice are lifted +to God. + +"It is not to keep up a strained outlook for times and moments of the +interior visitations, but to wait calmly for the actual movements of +the Divine Spirit; to rely mainly upon it and not solely upon what +leads to it, or communicates it, or guarantees its genuine presence +by necessary external tests and symbols. + +"Not an anxious search, least of all a craving for extraordinary +lights; but a constant readiness to perceive the Divine guidance in +the secret ways of the soul, and then to act with decision and a +noble and generous courage--this is true wisdom. + +"The Holy Spirit is thus the inspiration of the inner life of the +regenerate man, and in that life is his Superior and Director. That +His guidance may become more and more immediate in an interior life, +and the soul's obedience more and more instinctive, is the object of +the whole external order of the Church, including the sacramental +system. + +"Says Father Lallemant (_Spiritual Doctrine,_ 3d principle, chap. i. +art. 1): 'All creatures that are in the world, the whole order of +nature as well as that of grace, and all the leadings of Providence, +have been so disposed as to remove from our souls whatever is +contrary to God.'" + +What follows has been culled from notes and memoranda: + +"When authority and liberty are intelligently understood, when both +aim at the same end, then the universal reign of God's authority in +the Church will be near and the kingdom of God be established +universally." + +"The whole future of the human race depends on bringing the +individual soul more completely and perfectly under the sway of the +Holy Spirit." + +"What society most needs to-day is the baptism of the Holy Spirit." + +"That soul is perfect which is guided habitually by the instinct of +the Holy Spirit." + +"The aim of Christian perfection is the guidance of the soul by the +indwelling Holy Spirit. This is attained, ordinarily, first by +bringing whatever is inordinate in our animal propensities under the +control of the dictates of reason by the practice of mortification +and self-denial; for it is a self-evident principle that a rational +being ought to be master of his animal appetites. And second, by +bringing the dictates of reason under the control and inspiration of +the Holy Spirit by recollection, and by fidelity and docility to its +movements." + +"To attain to the spiritual estate of the conscious guidance of the +indwelling Holy Spirit, the practice of asceticism and of the natural +and Christian moral virtues are the preparatory means. + +"To rise before the light appears, is vain; to hinder the soul from +rising when it does appear, is oppression. In the first place, the +soul is exposed to delusions; in the second, it is subjected to +arbitrary human authority. The former opens the door to all sorts of +extravagances and heresies; the latter breeds a spirit of servility +and bondage." + +"To reach that stage of the spiritual life which is the consciousness +of the indwelling and guidance of the Holy Spirit some souls need the +practice of asceticism more than others, these latter being more +advanced by the practice of the Christian virtues. Others, again, +need the strenuous practice of both of these means of advancement +until the close of their lives. And there is another class which +reaches this degree of spiritual growth sooner and with less +difficulty than the generality of souls." + +"Whenever the guidance of the Holy Spirit is sufficiently recognized, +then the practice of the virtues immediately related to this action +and proper to increase it in the soul are to be recommended, such as +recollection, purity of heart, docility and fidelity to the inner +voice, and the like." + +"It should ever be kept in view that the practice of the virtues is +not only for their own sake and to obtain merit, but mainly in order +to remove all obstacles in the way of the guidance of the Holy +Spirit, and to assist the soul in following His operations with +docility." + +"Obedience in its spiritual aspect divests one of self-will and makes +him prompt to submit to the will of God alone. Viewed as an act of +justice, obedience is the payment of due service to one's superior, +who holds his office by appointment of God." + +"The essential mistake of the transcendentalists is the taking for +their guide the instincts of the soul instead of the inspirations of +the Holy Spirit. They are moved by the natural instincts of human +beings instead of the instinct of the Holy Ghost. But true spiritual +direction consists in discovering the obstacles in the way of the +Divine guidance, in aiding and encouraging the penitent to remove +them, and in teaching how the interior movements of the Holy Spirit +may be recognized, as well as in stimulating the soul to fidelity and +docility to His movements." + +"The director is not to take the place of the Holy Ghost in the soul, +but to assist His growth in the soul as its primary and supreme +guide." + +"The primary worker of the soul's sanctification is the Holy Spirit +acting interiorly; the work of the director is secondary and +subordinate. To overlook this fundamental truth in the spiritual life +is a great mistake, whether it be on the part of the director or the +one under direction." + +The great obstacle to the prevalent use of this privilege of divine +interior direction is lack of practical realization of its existence +by good Christians. And this want of faith is met with almost as much +among teachers as among learners, resulting in too great a mingling +of the human element in the guidance of souls. What is known as +over-direction is to be attributed, as Father Hecker was persuaded, +to confessors leading souls by self-chosen ways, or laboriously +working them along the road to perfection by artificial processes, +souls whom the Holy Spirit has not made ready for more than the +beginning of the spiritual life. This is like pressing wine out of +unripe grapes. Another practice which Father Hecker often deprecated +was the binding of free and generous souls with all sorts of +obligations in the way of devotional exercises. This is forcing +athletes to go on crutches. The excuse for it all is that it really +does stagger human belief to accept as a literal matter of fact that +God the Holy Ghost personally comes to us with divine grace and gives +Himself to us; that He actually and essentially dwells in our souls +by grace, and in an unspeakably intimate manner takes charge of our +entire being, soul and body, and all our faculties and senses. + +"By sanctifying grace," says St. Thomas (p. I, q. 33, art. 2), "the +rational creature is thus perfected, that it may not only use with +liberty the created good, but that it may also enjoy the uncreated +good; and therefore the invisible sending of the Holy Ghost takes +place in the gift of sanctifying grace and the Divine Person Himself +is given to us." + +It is the soul's higher self, thus in entire union with the Spirit of +God, that Father Hecker spent his life in cultivating, both in his +own interior and in that of others. He insisted that in the normal +condition of things the mainspring of virtue, both natural and +supernatural, should be for the regenerate man the instinctive +obedience of the individual soul to the voice of the indwelling Holy +Spirit. + +To what an extent this inner divine guidance has been obscured by +more external methods is witnessed by Monsignor Gaume, who places +upon the title-page of his learned work on the Holy Spirit the motto +"Ignoto Deo"--to the Unknown God! + +Objections to this doctrine are made from the point of view of +caution. There is danger of exaggeration, it is said; for if in its +terms it is plainly Catholic, it may sound Protestant to some ears. +And in fact to those whose glances have been ever turned outward for +guidance it seems like the delusions of certain classes of +Protestants about "change of heart" and "inner light." + +"But," says Lallemant (and the reader will thank us for a detailed +reply to this difficulty from so venerable an authority), "it is of +faith that without the grace of an interior inspiration, in which the +guidance of the Holy Spirit consists, we cannot do any good work. The +Calvinists would determine everything by their inward spirit, +subjecting thereto the Church herself and her decisions. . . . But +the guidance which we receive from the Holy Ghost by means of His +gifts presupposes the faith and authority of the Church, acknowledges +them as its rule, admits nothing which is contrary to them, and aims +only at perfecting the exercise of faith and the other virtues. The +second objection is, that it seems as if this interior guidance of +the Holy Spirit were destructive of the obedience due to superiors. +We reply: 1. That as the interior inspiration of grace does not set +aside the assent which we give to the articles of faith as they are +externally proposed to us, but on the contrary gently disposes the +mind to believe; in like manner the guidance which we receive from +the gifts of the Holy Spirit, far from interfering with obedience, +aids and facilitates the practice of it. 2. That all this interior +guidance, and even [private] divine revelations, must always be +subordinate to obedience; and in speaking of them this tacit +condition is ever implied, that obedience enjoins nothing contrary +thereto. . . . + +"The third objection is that this interior direction of the Holy +Spirit seems to render all deliberation and all counsel useless. For +why ask advice of men when the Holy Spirit is Himself our director? +We reply that the Holy Spirit teaches us to consult enlightened +persons and to follow the advice of others, as He referred St. Paul +to Ananias. The fourth objection is made by some who complain that +they are not themselves thus led by the Holy Spirit, and that they +know nothing of it. To them we reply: 1. That the lights and +inspirations of the Holy Spirit, which are necessary in order to do +good and avoid evil, are never wanting to them, particularly if they +are in a state of grace. 2. That being altogether exterior as they +are, and scarcely ever entering into themselves, examining their +consciences only very superficially, and looking only to the outward +man and the faults which are manifest in the eyes of the world, . . . +it is no wonder that they have nothing of the guidance of the Holy +Spirit, which is wholly interior. But, first, let them be faithful in +following the light which is given them; it will go on always +increasing. Secondly, let them clear away the sins and imperfections +which, like so many clouds, hide the light from their eyes: they will +see more distinctly every day. Thirdly, let them not suffer their +exterior senses to rove at will, and be soiled by indulgence; God +will then open to them their interior senses. Fourthly, let them +never quit their own interior, if it be possible, or let them return +as soon as may be; let them give attention to what passes therein, +and they will observe the workings of the different spirits by which +we are actuated. Fifthly, let them lay bare the whole ground of their +heart to their superior or to their spiritual father. A soul which +acts with this openness and simplicity can hardly fail of being +favored with the direction of the Holy Spirit" (_Spiritual Doctrine,_ +4th principle, ch. i. art. 3). + +Father Hecker had himself suffered, and that in the earliest days of +his religious life, from want of explicit instruction about this +doctrine. Father Othmann, whom our readers remember as the +novice-master at St. Trond, was too spiritual a man to have been +ignorant of its principles. Yet he seemed to think that either no one +would choose it in preference to the method in more common use, or +that he would not find his novices ready for it. But to Father Hecker +it was all-essential. "When I was not far from being through with my +noviceship," he was heard to say, "I was one day looking over the +books in the library and I came across Lallemant's _Spiritual +Doctrine._ Getting leave to read it, I was overjoyed to find it a +full statement of the principles by which I had been interiorly +guided. I said to Pere Othmann: 'Why did you not give me this book +when I first came? It settles all my difficulties.' But he answered +that it had never once occurred to his mind to do so." Besides the +Scriptures, Lallemant, Surin, Scaramelli's _Directorium Mysticum,_ +the ascetical and mystical writings of the contemplatives, such as +Rusbruck, Henry Suso (whose life he carried for years in his pocket, +reading it daily), Tauler, Father Augustine Baker's _Holy Wisdom_ +(Sancta Sophia), Blosius, the works of St. Teresa, and those of St. +John of the Cross--these and other such works formed the literature +which aided Father Hecker in the understanding and enjoyment of the +guidance of the Holy Spirit. Lallemant he returned to ever and again, +and St. John of the Cross he never let go at all. It was always with +him, always read with renewed joy, and its wonderful lessons of +divine wisdom, expressed as they are with the scientific accuracy of +a trained theologian and the unction of a saint, were to Father +Hecker a pledge of security for his own state of soul and a source of +inspiration in dealing with others. + +To the ordinary observer a knowledge of the men and women of to-day +does not give rise to much hope of the widespread use of this +spirituality. But Father Hecker thought otherwise. He ever insisted +that it must come into general preference among the leading minds of +Christendom; for independence of character calls for such a +spirituality, and that independence is by God's providence the +characteristic trait of the best men and women of our times. God must +mean to sanctify us in the way He has placed us in the natural order. +He believed that the Holy Spirit would soon be poured out in an +abundant dispensation of His heavenly gifts, and that such a renewal +of men's souls was the only salvation of society. Some may think that +he was over-sanguine; many will not interest themselves in such +"high" matters at all. But some of the wisest men in the Church are +of his mind, notably Cardinal Manning. And the signs of the times, if +interrogated with regard to the problem of man's eternal destiny, +give no other answer than the promise of a new era in which the Holy +Ghost shall reign in men's souls and in their lives with a supremacy +peculiar to this age. + +The following extract from _The Church and the Age,_ a compilation of +Father Hecker's later essays, shows his estimate of the form of +spirituality we have been discussing, as bearing upon the +regeneration of society in general: + +"The whole aim of the science of Christian perfection is to instruct +men how to remove the hindrances in the way of the action of the Holy +Spirit, and how to cultivate those virtues which are most favorable +to His solicitations and inspirations. Thus the sum of spiritual life +consists in observing and yielding to the movements of the Spirit of +God in our soul, employing for this purpose all the exercises of +prayer, spiritual reading, the practice of virtues, and good works. + +"That divine action which is the immediate and principal cause of the +salvation and perfection of the soul, claims by right the soul's +direct and main attention. From this source within the soul there +will gradually come to birth the consciousness of the indwelling +presence of the Holy Spirit, out of which will spring a force +surpassing all human strength, a courage higher than all human +heroism, a sense of dignity excelling all human greatness. The light +the age requires for its renewal can come only from the same source. +The renewal of the age depends on the renewal of religion. The +renewal of religion depends on a greater effusion of the creative and +renewing power of the Holy Spirit. The greater effusion of the Holy +Spirit depends on the giving of increased attention to His movements +and inspirations in the soul. The radical and adequate remedy for all +the evils of our age, and the source of all true progress, consist in +increased attention and fidelity to the action of the Holy Spirit in +the soul. 'Thou shalt send forth Thy spirit and they shall be +created: and Thou shalt renew the face of the earth.'" + +Lallemant's answer to the difficulty of excess of personal liberty in +this method has been already given. Father Hecker's own is as follows: + +"The enlargement of the [interior] field of action for the soul, +without a true knowledge of the end and scope of the external +authority of the Church, would only open the door to delusions, +errors, and heresies of every description, and would be in effect +only another form of Protestantism. But, on the other hand, the +exclusive view of the external authority of the Church, without a +proper understanding of the nature and work of the Holy Spirit in the +soul, would render the practice of religion formal, obedience +servile, and the Church sterile. + +"The solution of the difficulty is as follows: The action of the Holy +Spirit embodied visibly in the authority of the Church, and the +action of the Holy Spirit dwelling invisibly in the soul form one +inseparable synthesis; and he who has not a clear conception of this +two-fold action of the Holy Spirit is in danger of running into one +or the other, and sometimes into both, of these extremes, either of +which is destructive of the end of the Church. The Holy Spirit, in +the external authority of the Church, acts as the infallible +interpreter and criterion of divine revelation. The Holy Spirit in +the soul acts as the divine Life-giver and Sanctifier. It is of the +highest importance that these two distinct offices of the Holy Spirit +should not be confounded. + +"The increased action of the Holy Spirit, with a more vigorous +co-operation on the part of the faithful, which is in process of +realization, will elevate the human personality to an intensity of +force and grandeur productive of a new era to the Church and to +society--an era difficult for the imagination to grasp, and still +more difficult to describe in words, unless we have recourse to the +prophetic language of the inspired Scriptures." + +"The way out of our present difficulties," said Father Hecker, +speaking of the conflicts of religion in Europe, "is to revert to a +spirituality which is freer than that which Providence assigned as +the counteraction of Protestantism in the sixteenth century--to a +spirituality which is, and ever has been, the normal one of the +Christian inner life. That era accentuated obedience, this +accentuates no particular moral virtue, but rather presses the soul +back upon Faith and Hope and Love as the springs of life, and makes +the distinctive virtue fidelity to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, +impelling the Christian to that one of the moral virtues which is +most suitable to his nature and to the requirements of his state of +life, and other environments." + +But from what has been said it must not be inferred that Father +Hecker thought it safe to be without spiritual counsel, above all +when the soul seemed led in extraordinary ways. He firmly believed in +the necessity of direction, and that in the sense intended by +spiritual writers generally. In practice he himself always consulted +men of experience and piety. We have seen how he sought advice, and +was aided by it at every crisis of his life. But he did not accept +all that is said by some writers about the surrender of the soul to +one's father confessor. He thought that confession was often too +closely allied with direction, and he was convinced that many souls +could profit by less introspection in search of sin, and more in +search of natural and supernatural movements to virtue. He condemned +over-direction, and thought that there was a good deal of it. He +thought that there were cases in which spontaneity of effort was too +high a price to pay for even the merit of obedience. His sentiment is +well expressed by St. John of the Cross in the ninth chapter of _The +Ascent of Mount Carmel:_ + +"Spiritual directors are not the chief workers, but rather the Holy +Ghost; they are mere instruments, only to guide souls by the rule of +faith and the law of God according to the spirit which God gives to +each. Their object, therefore, should be not to guide souls by a way +of their own, suitable to themselves; but to ascertain, if they can, +the way which God Himself is guiding them." + +Leave much to God's secret ways, was one of Father Hecker's +principles. "When hearing some confessions on the missions," he once +said, "and when about to give absolution, I used to say, in my heart, +to the penitent, Well, no doubt God means to save you, you poor +fellow, or He wouldn't give you the grace to make this mission. But +just how He will do it, considering your bad habits, I can't see; but +that's none of my business." + +Leave much to natural or acquired inclinations, was one of his +maxims. He was not deeply interested in souls who by temperament or +training needed very minute guidance in the spiritual life; to him +they seemed so overloaded with harness as to have no great strength +left for pulling the chariot. But he would not interfere with them; +he knew that it was of little avail to try to change such methods +once they had become habitual; and he recognized that there were many +who could never get along without them. At any rate he was tolerant +by nature, and slow to condemn in general or particular anything +useful to well-meaning souls. + +"It is vain to rise before the light," was another motto. "Make no +haste in the time of clouds." These two texts of Scripture he was +fond of repeating. "When God shows the way," he once said, "you will +see; no amount of peering in the dark will bring the sun over the +hills. Pray for light, but don't move an inch before you get it. When +it comes, go ahead with all your might." Self-imposed penances, +self-assumed devotional practices he mistrusted. He was convinced +that the only way sure to succeed, and to succeed perfectly, was +either that shown by an interior attraction too powerful and too +peaceful to be other than divine, or one pointed out by the lawful +external authority in the Church. + +When asked for advice on matters of conscience his decisions were +generally quick and always simple. Yet he often refused to decide +without time for prayer and thought, saying, "I have no lights on +this matter; you must give me time." And not seldom he refused to +decide altogether for the same reason. One thing annoyed him much, +and that was the blank silence and stupid wonder with which some +instructed Catholics listened to him as he spoke of the guidance of +the Holy Spirit as the way of Christian perfection, treating it as +beyond the reach of ordinary mortals, intricate in its rules, +"mystical," and visionary; whereas Father Hecker knew it to be the +one only simple method, with a minimum of rules, useful for all, +readily understood. What follows is a brief outline of the entire +doctrine in it practical use in the progress or the soul from a +sinful life onwards; we have found it among his memoranda: + +"What must one do in order to favor the reception of the Holy Spirit, +and secure fidelity to His guidance when received? First receive the +Sacraments, the divinely instituted channels of grace: one will +scarcely persevere in living in the state of grace, to say nothing of +securing a close union with God, who receives Holy Communion only +once or twice a year. Second, practise prayer, above all that highest +form of prayer, assisting at Holy Mass; then mental and vocal prayer, +the public offices of the Church, and particular devotions according +to one's attrait. Third, read spiritual books daily--the Bible, Lives +of the Saints, _Following of Christ, Spiritual Combat,_ etc. But in +all this bear ever in mind, that the steady impelling force by which +one does each of these outward things is _the inner and secret +prompting of the Holy Ghost, and that perseverance in them is secured +by no other aid except the same hidden inspiration._ Cherish that +above all, therefore, and in every stage of the spiritual life; be +most obedient to it, seeking meantime for good counsel wherever it is +likely to be had." + +Father Hecker was of opinion that a larger number of persons can be +led to perfection than is generally supposed, and he would sound the +call in the ears of Christians generally far more than is commonly +done. He was also persuaded that there are many souls whose whole +lives have been entirely, or almost entirely, free from the taint of +mortal sin, and these he considered should be the most active spirits +among Christians. He thought that more room should be made for them +in our discourses, and that everybody should not be lumped together +in one mass as hardened sinners or as penitents. + +To these innocent men and women the mediatorship of Christ should be +made as distinct as possible, the elevation of the soul to divine +union through the Incarnation brought out fully, and the redemption +of man from sin and hell be included in it, and be absorbed by it. +Too many souls who have never sinned mortally fail to struggle for +perfection, Father Hecker often said, because they never have heard +any invitation but the call to repentance. The positive side of +Christianity is the Incarnation, which lifts all men of good-will, +repentant and innocent alike, into participation with the Deity. +Father Hecker would talk by the hour of the need of bringing that +view of our Lord's mission most prominently forward, the idea of +redemption applying to innocent souls only on account of original +sin, and by sympathy with their brethren infected by actual sin. +And he would show that even hard sinners could often be brought to a +good life more surely, and be enabled more certainly to persevere, by +forcibly emphasizing the Incarnation and its benefits than by any +other method. Their blindness and selfishness hinder hard sinners +from easily appreciating our Lord's sufferings as borne on their +account. Father Hecker regretted that the idea of redemption was so +often presented in a way to give the impression that atonement was +the whole office of Christ. There are many souls for whom access to +Christ as Mediator was more in consonance with the truth than access +to Him as Redeemer, Mediator in that case including Redeemer, rather +than the Redeemer absorbing the idea of Mediator. Redemption from +original sin is, of course, necessary to the mediatorship of a fallen +race. But our Lord became Redeemer that he might be Mediator; he +cleansed us from sin that he might lift us up to the Godhead; and in +many souls Father Hecker knew that the process of cleansing began and +ended with original sin and venial sins. Such souls often go their +lives long with no compelling stimulus to perfection, because they +cannot apply to themselves the accusations of sin commonly put into +the directions for beginners. + +Much has been already said of the aids to perfection which Father +Hecker perceived in a right use of the liberty and intelligence of +our times. He also insisted that the commercial and industrial +features of our civilization were no obstacles to a high state of +Christian perfection. + +In a remarkable sermon, entitled "The Saint of Our Day," published in +the third volume of the Paulist series, Father Hecker, after making a +powerful exposition of the advantages of liberty and intelligence as +helps to the interior life, insists that the opportunities and +responsibilities peculiar to our civilization are capable of being +sanctified to the highest degree. The model he proposes in this +sermon is St. Joseph. He was no martyr, yet showed a martyr's +fidelity by his trust in God. + +"Called by the voice of God to leave his friends, home, and country, +he obeys instantly and without a murmur. To find God and to be one +with God, a solitary life in the desert was not necessary to St. +Joseph. He was in the world and found God where he was. He sanctified +his work by carrying God with him into the workshop. St. Joseph was +no flower of the desert or plant of the cloister; he found the means +of perfection in the world, and consecrated it to God by making its +cares and duties subservient to divine purposes. + +"The house of St. Joseph was his cloister, and in the bosom of his +family he practised the sublimest virtues. While occupied with the +common daily duties of life his mind was fixed on the contemplation +of divine truths, thus breathing into all his actions a heavenly +influence. He attained in society and in human relationships a degree +of perfection not surpassed, if equalled, by the martyr's death, the +contemplative of the solitude, the cloistered monk, or the missionary +hero. + +"Our age is not an age of martyrdom, nor an age of hermits, nor a +monastic age. Although it has its martyrs, its recluses, and its +monastic communities, these are not, and are not likely to be, its +prevailing types of Christian perfection. Our age lives in its busy +marts, in counting-rooms, in workshops, in homes, and in the varied +relations that form human society, and it is into these that sanctity +is to be introduced. St. Joseph stands forth as an excellent and +unsurpassed model of this type of perfection. These duties and these +opportunities must be made instrumental in sanctifying the soul. For +it is the difficulties and the hindrances that men find in their age +which give the form to their character and habits, and when mastered +become the means of divine grace and their titles to glory. Indicate +these, and you portray that type of sanctity in which the life of the +Church will find its actual and living expression. + +"This, then, is the field of conquest for the heroic Christian of our +day. Out of the cares, toils, duties, afflictions, and responsibilities +of daily life are to be built the pillars of sanctity of the Stylites +of our age. This is the coming form of the triumph of Christian +virtue." + +With all, moreover, Father Hecker insisted on the practice of the +natural virtues, honesty, temperance, truthfulness, kindliness. +courage, and manliness generally, as preceding any practical move +towards the higher life. He first explored the character and life of +his penitent in search of what natural power he had, and then +demanded its full exertion. He began with the natural man, and made +every supernatural force in the sacraments and prayer aid in +establishing and increasing natural virtue as a necessary preliminary +and ever-present accompaniment of supernatural progress. Perhaps +Father Hecker's antipathy to Calvinism sharpened his zeal for the +natural virtues, and strengthened his advocacy of human innocence. +The craving for the supernatural, he was convinced, would be strong +in proportion to the enlightenment of the natural reason; the need of +the grace of God is, of course, most urgent in a sinful state, but it +would be more quickly perceived in proportion to the possession of +natural virtue. As the exercise of reason is necessary to faith and +precedes its acts, so the integrity of natural virtue is the best +preparation for the grace of God. Many pages of _The Aspirations of +Nature,_ from which the following brief quotations are made, are +devoted to the dignity of humanity and the need of placing the +excellence of human nature in the foreground when considering how man +may attain to a high supernatural state: + +"Every faculty of the soul, rightly exercised, leads to truth; every +instinct of our nature has an eternal destiny attached to it. +Catholicity finds its support in these and employs them in all her +developments." + +"The Catholic religion is wonderfully calculated and adapted to call +forth, sustain, and perfect the tastes, propensities, and +peculiarities of human nature. And let no one venture to say that +these characteristics which are everywhere found among men are to be +repressed rather than encouraged. This is to despise human nature, +this is to mar the work of God. For are not these peculiarities +inborn? Are they not implanted in us by the hand of our Creator? Are +they not what go to constitute our very individuality?" + +Humanity is a word of vague meaning to most ears, but to Father +Hecker its meaning was a living thing of value second only to +Christianity. Here is his summary of the relation of Catholicity to +human nature, taken from the same source as the foregoing: + +"Catholicity is that religion which links itself to all the faculties +of the mind, appropriates all the instincts of human nature, and by +thus concurring with the work of the Creator affirms its own Divine +origin." + +We give the following extracts from letters of spiritual advice, to +show Father Hecker's views of mortification: + +"Exterior mortifications are aids to interior life. What we take from +the body we give to the spirit. If we will look at it closely, +two-thirds of our time is taken up with what we shall eat, and how we +shall sleep, and wherewithal we shall be clothed. Two-thirds of our +life and more is animal--including sleep. I do not despise the animal +in man, but I go in for fair play for the soul. The better part +should have the greater share. The right order of things has been +reversed: _con_-version is necessary. Read the lives of the old +Fathers of the Desert. They determined on leading a rational and +divine life. How little are they known or appreciated in our day! +Their lives are more interesting than a novel and stranger than a +romance." + +"Self-love, self-activity, self-hood, is something not easily +destroyed. It is like a cancer which has its roots extending to the +most delicate fibres of our mental and moral nature. Divine grace can +draw them all out. But how slowly! And how exquisitely painful is the +process--the more subtle the self-love the more painful the cure." + +"Never practise any mortification of a considerable character without +counsel. The devil, when he can no longer keep us back, aims at +driving us too far and too fast." + +"How can the intellect be brought under direction of divine grace +except by reducing it to its nothingness?--and how can this be done +except by placing it in utter darkness? How can the heart be filled +with the spirit of divine love while it contains any other? How can +it be purified of all other inordinate love except by dryness and +bitterness? God wishes to fill our intelligence and our hearts with +divine light and love, and thus to deify our whole nature--to make us +one with what we represent--God. And how can He do this otherwise +than by removing from our soul and its faculties all that is contrary +to the divine order?" + +"All your difficulties are favors from God; you see them on the wrong +side, and speak as the block of marble would while being chiselled by +the sculptor. When God purifies the soul, it cries out just like +little children do when their faces are washed. The soul's attention +must be withdrawn from external, created things and turned inward +towards God exclusively before its union with Him; and this +transformation is a great, painful, and wonderful work, and so much +the more difficult and painful as the soul's attention has been +attracted and attached to transitory things--to creatures." + +He was often heard repeating the following verse from _The Imitation_ +(book iii. chap. xxxi.), as summarizing the necessary conditions of +the active life: "Unless a man be elevated in spirit, and set at +liberty from all creatures, and wholly united to God, whatever he +knows and whatever he has is of no great weight." He wrote to a +friend that he had studied that verse for thirty years and still +found that he did not know all it meant. + +We give what follows as characteristic of Father Hecker's manner as a +director: + +"At first, in all your deliberate actions, calm your mind, place +yourself in the attitude of a receiver or listener, and then decide. +Imperceptibly and insensibly grace will guide you." + +"Don't care what people say; keep your own counsel. Use your own +sense and abound in it; as the apostle says: 'Let every one abound in +his own sense.' Don't try to get anybody to agree with you. No two +noses are alike, much less souls. God never repeats." + +"Nobody nowadays wants God. Every one has the whole world on his +shoulders, and unless his own petty ideas and schemes are adopted and +succeed, he prophesies the end of the world. You are on the right +road--push on! Our maxim is: Be sure you are right and then go ahead!" + +"How much that is good and noble in the soul is smothered by unwise +restraint! The whole object of restraint is to reject that which is +false and to correct the preference given to a lower good instead of +to a higher one. As for the rest--_freedom!_ + +"I know a man who thinks he don't know anything--who every day knows +that he knows less; and who hopes to know nothing before he dies. O +blessed emptiness which fills us with all! O happy poverty which +possesses all! O beatified nothingness which can exclaim, _Deus meus +et omnia!"_ + +It will have been seen by this time that Father Hecker's first and +fundamental rule of direction was to have as little of it as +possible. His method started out with the purpose to do away with +method at the earliest moment it could safely be done. To be Father +Hecker's penitent meant the privilege of sooner or later being +nobody's penitent but the Holy Ghost's. The following rules of +direction he printed in 1887: + +"The work of the priesthood is to help to guide the Christian people, +understanding that God is always guiding them interiorly. + +"An innocent soul we must guide, fully understanding that God is +dwelling within him; not as a substitute for God. + +"A repentant sinner we must guide, understanding that we are but +restoring him to God's guidance. + +"The best that we can do for any Christian is to quicken his sense of +fidelity to God speaking to him in an enlightened conscience. + +"Now, God's guidance is of two kinds: one is that of His external +providence in the circumstances of life; the other is interior, and +is the direct action of the Holy Spirit on the human soul. There is +great danger in separating these two. + +"The key to many spiritual problems is found in this truth: The +direct action of God upon the soul, which is interior, is in harmony +with his external providence. Sanctity consists in making them +identical as motives for every thought, word, and deed of our lives. +The external and the internal (and the same must be said of the +natural and supernatural) are one in God, and the consciousness of +them both is to be made one divine whole in man. To do this requires +an heroic life-sanctity. + +"All the sacraments of the Church, her authority, prayer both mental +and vocal, spiritual reading, exercises of mortification and of +devotion, have for their end and purpose to lead the soul to the +guidance of the Holy Spirit. St. Alphonsus says in his letters that +the first director of the soul is the Holy Ghost Himself. + +"It is never to be forgotten that one man can never be a guide to +another except as leading him to his only Divine Guide. + +"The guide of the soul is the Holy Spirit Himself, and the criterion +or test of possessing that guide is the Divine authority of the +Church." + +What follows was published by Father Hecker in _The Catholic World_ +in 1887. It throws new light on the questions we have been +considering, abounding in practical rules of direction, and +therefore, though somewhat long, we venture to close the chapter with +it: + +"'If any one shall say that without the previous inspiration of the +Holy Spirit and His aid, a man can believe, hope, love, or repent as +he should, so that the grace of justification may be conferred upon +him, let him be anathema.' + +"These are the words of the holy Council of Trent, in which the +Catholic Church infallibly teaches that without an interior movement +of the indwelling Holy Spirit no act of the soul can be meritorious +of heaven. This doctrine, embodying the plain sense of Holy Scripture +and the unbroken teaching of the Church in all ages, bases human +justification on an interior impulse of the Third Person of the +Divine Trinity. This impulse precedes the soul's acts of faith, hope, +and love, and of sorrow for sin: the first stage in the supernatural +career, then, is the entering of the Holy Spirit into the inner life +of the soul. The process of justification begins by the divine life +of the indwelling Spirit taking up into itself the human life of the +soul. + +"Nor is this to the detriment of man's liberty, but rather to its +increase. The infinite independence of God and his divine liberty are +shared by man exactly in proportion as he partakes of God's life in +the communication of the Holy Spirit. + +"If it be asked how the Holy Spirit is received, the answer is, +Sacramentally. 'Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy +Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.' As man by nature is +a being of both outer and inner life, so, when made a new man by the +Spirit of God and elevated into a supernatural state, God deals with +him by both outer and inner methods. The Holy Spirit is received by +the sacramental grace of baptism and renewed by the other sacraments; +also in prayer, vocal or mental, hearing sermons, reading the +Scriptures or devout books, and on occasions, extraordinary or +ordinary, in the course of daily life; and when once received every +act of the soul that merits heaven is done by the inspiration of that +Divine Guide dwelling within us. Even though unperceived, though +indistinguishable from impulses of natural virtue, though +imperceptibly multiplied as often as the instants are, yet each +movement of heaven-winning virtue, and especially love, hope, faith, +and repentance, is made because the Holy Spirit has acted upon the +soul in an efficacious manner. + +"It is not to induce a strained outlook for the particular cases of +the action of the Spirit of God on us, or the signs of it, that these +words are written. The sacraments, prayer and holy reading, and +hearing sermons and instructions, are the plain, external instruments +and accompaniments of the visitations of God, and are sufficient +landmarks for the journey of the soul, unless it be led in a way +altogether extraordinary. And apart from these external marks, no +matter how you watch for God, his visitations are best known by their +effects; it is after the cause has been placed, perhaps some +considerable time after, that the faith, hope, love, or sorrow +becomes perceptibly increased--always excepting extraordinary cases. +Not to 'resist the Spirit' is the first duty. Fidelity to the divine +guidance, yielding one's self up lovingly to the impulses of virtue +as they gently claim control of our thoughts--this is the simple duty. + +"Having laid down in broad terms the fundamental doctrine of the +supernatural life, it is proper to say a word of the natural virtues +and of their relation to the supernatural. It has been already +intimated that the goodness of nature is often indistinguishable from +the holiness of the supernatural life; and, indeed, as a rule, +impulses of the Holy Spirit first pour their floods into the channels +of natural virtue, thus rendering them supernatural. These are mainly +the cardinal virtues: Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance. +Practised in a state of nature, these place us in our true relations +with our nature and with God's providence in all created nature +around us; these are the virtues which choice souls among the heathen +practised. They are not enough. When they have done their utmost they +leave a void in the heart that still yearns for more. It is the +purpose of the Spirit of God to raise our virtue to a grade far above +nature. The practice of the virtues of faith hope, and love, which +bring the soul into direct communication with God, and which, when +practised under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, are supernatural, +following upon the practice of the cardinal virtues under the same +guidance, place the soul in its true and perfect relation with God--a +state which is more than natural. + +"Let us, if we would see things clearly, keep in sight the difference +between the natural and supernatural. In the natural order a certain +union with God was possessed by man in all ages in common with every +creature. The union of the creature with the divine creative power is +something which man can neither escape from nor be robbed of. But in +the case of rational creatures this union is, even in a state of +nature, made far closer and its enjoyment increased by a virtuous +life--one in which reason is superior to appetite; a life only to be +led by one assisted, if not by the indwelling Holy Spirit peculiar to +the grace of Christ, yet by the helps necessary to natural virtue and +called medicinal graces. The practice of the four cardinal +virtues--Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance--in the +ordinary natural state gave to guileless men and women in every age a +natural union with their Creator. Although we maintain that such +natural union with God is not enough for man, yet we insist that the +part the natural virtues play in man's sanctification be recognized. +In considering a holy life natural virtues are too often passed over, +either because the men who practised them in heathen times were +perhaps few in number, or because of the Calvinistic error that +nature and man are totally corrupt. + +"And we further insist on the natural virtues because they tend to +place man in true relations with himself and with nature, thus +bringing him into more perfect relation or union with God than he was +by means of the creative act--a proper preliminary to his +supernatural relation. Who will deny that there were men not a few +among the heathen in whom Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and +Temperance were highly exemplified? They knew well enough what right +reason demanded. Such men as Socrates, Plato, Epictetus, and Marcus +Aurelius had by the natural light of reason a knowledge of what their +nature required of them. They had faults, great ones if you please; +at the same time they knew them to be faults, and they had the +natural virtues in greater or less degrees. Thus the union between +God and the soul, due to the creative act, though not sufficient, +never was interrupted. The Creator and the Mediator are one." + +________________________ + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +THE PAULIST PARISH AND MISSIONS + +IN serving the parish, the Paulists, led by Father Hecker, endeavored +to utilize the individual qualities of each member, as well as the +advantages of a community, so as to bring them to bear as distinct +forces upon the people. What George Miles had said of them as +missionaries, as quoted in a previous chapter, applied to them as +parish priests, and told accordingly in result. Their personal +excellences found free room for activity, without any lack of oneness +of spirit and without interfering with harmony of action. + +The missionary makes an efficient parish priest. Accustomed to severe +labor as well as to very moderate recreation, he pours the energy of +apostolic zeal into parochial channels. A high order of preaching is +often the result, combined with tireless application to visiting the +sick, hunting up sinners, and hearing confessions. On the other hand, +the experience of regular parish duty is of assistance to the +missionary when he returns to his "apostolic expeditions," as Pius +IX. called them; he is all the better fitted to plan and execute his +proper enterprises from having obtained a fuller knowledge of the +ordinary state of things in a parish. + +It will not be expected that a detailed account of the parish work of +St. Paul's will here be given, or more than a brief summary of that +of the missions. These latter were kept up with vigorous energy from +1858 till the close of the war in the spring of 1865. On April 4 of +that year Father Baker died, and the missions, which had been a +grievous burden to the little band, now became an impossibility. They +were suspended till 1872, excepting an occasional one, given not so +much as part of the current labor of the community, as to retain +their sweet savor in the memory and as an earnest of their future +resumption. But up to Father Baker's death this small body of men had +preached almost everywhere throughout the country, getting away from +the South just before the war blocked the road. Eighty-one missions +had been given, hundreds of converts had been received into the +Church and many scores of thousands of confessions heard. Numerous +applications for missions were refused for want of men to preach +them. Scarcely a city of any size in the United States and Canada but +knew the Paulists and thanked God for their missions. + +The Fathers conducted them in the same spirit as when they were +Redemptorists, and followed, as the community still continues to do, +substantially the same method. It is not easy to improve on St. +Alphonsus. But they did not fail to bring out the qualities and call +for the peculiar virtues demanded by Divine Providence in these +times. Their preaching was distinguished by appeals to manliness and +intelligence, as well as to the virtues distinctly supernatural. The +people were not only edified by their zeal and religious discipline, +but the more observant were attracted by the Paulists' freedom of +spirit, and by their constant insistence on the use of the reasoning +faculties to guide the emotions aroused by the sermons. The +missionaries were men of native independence, and their religious +influence was productive of the same quality. Great attention was +paid to the doctrinal instructions. As to special devotions, the +Paulists have never had any to propagate, though competent and +willing to assist the pastor in his own choice of such subsidiary +religious aids. Non-Catholics of all classes were drawn to hear the +convert missionaries, and the exercises usually received flattering +notices from the secular press. An unrelenting warfare was carried on +against the dangerous occasions of sin peculiar to our country and +people, and the Fathers were from the beginning, and their community +is yet well known for particular hostility to drunkenness, and to the +most fruitful source of that detestable and widespread vice, the +saloon. Their antagonism to drunkenness showed their appreciation of +its evil supremacy among the masses, and the condemnation of the +saloon was a necessary result. + +This attitude of the missionaries was often a bitter-sweet morsel to +the pastors, nearly all of whom at that time had been trained in the +Old World. They were glad of the good done, yet sorry to see their +liquor-dealers put to public shame. One pastor is recorded as saying: +"The only people that have looked sad at this mission are the first +men in my parish, the rum-sellers." The following is a piece of +evidence worth publishing, though it is but one of very many which +could be produced. It is found in the Mission Record in Father +Baker's handwriting: + +"A Catholic one evening, on his way to the mission, stopped in a +grog-shop and took a glass with the proprietor. 'Won't you go with me +to hear the Fathers?' said the guest. 'No,' said the other, 'these +men are too hard on us. They want all of us liquor-dealers to shut up +our shops. If we were rich we could do it; but we an't--we are poor. +These men are too high and independent; Father wouldn't dare to speak +as they do. But after all,' continued he, 'they are good fellows; see +the effect of their labors.' Then, taking out of his pocket a +crumpled letter which he had received through the post-office, and +which was badly spelled and badly written, he read as follows: 'SIR: +I send you three dollars which I received by mistake three years ago +from your clerk. And now I hope that you will stop _selling +damnation,_ and that God may give you grace to stop it. +Yours: A Sinner.'" + +Whatever may have been the misgivings of some, the opposition of the +Paulists to the liquor-traffic was approved by the most enlightened +and influential prelates and priests of the country, as is shown by +the number of cathedrals and other prominent churches in which the +missions were preached. It should be added that this antagonism to +drunkenness, to convivial drinking, and to saloon-keeping, not only +received the unanimous applause of the Catholic laity, but edified +the non-Catholic public, and brought out many commendations from the +secular press as well as from the police authorities of our crowded +cities. A mission is a terror to obstinate evil-doers of all kinds, +but to habitual drunkards and saloon-keepers it is especially so. The +attitude of the Church in America on this entire subject, as +officially expressed by the decrees of the Third Plenary Council and +by its pastoral letter, fully justifies the action of Father Hecker +and his companions. + +As soon as the church in Fifty-ninth Street was opened the community +exerted itself to make the surroundings attractive. The building +occupied but a small part of the property, the rest of which was laid +out in grass-plats and gravel walks; many shade-trees and some +fruit-trees were set out, and a flower and vegetable garden planted. +It was Father Hecker's delight to superintend this work, and to +participate actively in it when his duties allowed. The grounds soon +became an attractive spot, to which in a few years church-goers from +all parts of the city began to make Sunday pilgrimages. They came in +considerable numbers every Sunday to assist at Mass or Vespers in St. +Paul's quiet, country-like church. Meantime the residents of the +parish, not very numerous and nearly all of the laboring class, +formed deep attachments for their pastors, and an almost ideal state +of unity and affection bound priests and people together. + +Nearly the entire region was covered with market gardens, varied with +huge masses of rock, and groups of shanties. Very many of the +parishioners of that early period lived in these nondescript +dwellings, of which they were themselves both the architects and +builders, a fact which added not a little to their quaint and +picturesque appearance. The sites upon which these "squatters'" homes +were placed, and over which roamed and sported their mingled goats, +dogs, and children, are now occupied in great part by blocks of +stately residences and apartment houses; but we know not whether the +grace of God abounds more plentifully now than it did then. At any +rate, whoever heard Father Hecker in those primitive days call his +parish "Shantyopolis," could see no sign of regret on his part that +he had a poor and simple people as the bulk of his parishioners. + +Much attention was given to the preparation and preaching of sermons, +with the result of a full attendance at High Mass on Sundays. +Beginning with 1861, a volume of these discourses was published under +Father Hecker's direction each year, till a series of seven volumes +had been completed. These were very well received by the Catholic +public, and were bought in considerable numbers by non-Catholic +clergymen. They had an extensive sale, though when their publication +was first proposed it was feared that they would not succeed. They +are almost wholly of a strictly parochial character, brief, direct in +style, abounding in examples from every-day life, and plentifully +illustrated with Scripture quotations. Although Father Hecker +preached regularly in his turn, only a few of his sermons were +contributed to these volumes, but his suggestions and encouragement +greatly assisted the other Fathers in preparing theirs, as indeed in +all their duties, parochial and missionary. Some years after the +series was ended two volumes of Five-Minute Sermons were published, +providing short instructions for Low Masses on Sundays. + +The Paulist Church also became well known for the attention paid to +the public offices of religion, as well as for rubrical exactness in +ceremonies, the greater feasts of the year being celebrated with all +the splendor which a simple church-building and limited pecuniary +means allowed. + +Father Hecker was from first to last strongly in favor of +congregational singing, and assisted to the best of his power in +introducing it. It began in our church in modest fashion back in +those early days, and was fostered zealously at the Lenten devotions +and society meetings. It never failed of some good results, and has +finally attained a flourishing state of success in this parish. His +attention to the children was constant. No matter who had charge of +the Sunday-school, as long as his health permitted Father Hecker was +there every Sunday that he was at home, asking questions, talking to +the teachers and children, enlivening all by his encouragement and +cheerfulness. He was a martinet on one question, and that was +cleanliness, and its kindred virtue, orderliness. He was never above +working with mop, broom and duster indoors, and shovel and rake in +the garden; and this trait added much to the appearance of things as +well as to the comfort of all concerned in the use of the convent and +the church. + +Though assiduous in every parish duty, his favorite task was the +relief of the poor. They multiplied in number in undue proportion to +the increase of the parish, drifting out this way from the +overcrowded quarters down town. Father Hecker enlisted the best men +and women in the congregation in the work of caring for them, +organizing a conference of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, in whose +labors he joyfully and energetically participated. + +The death of Father Baker was, humanly speaking, a loss to the +community beyond all calculation, and was the great event of the +first period of the Paulist community. Father Hecker had the very +highest estimate of his holiness, and mourned him with the mingled +sorrow and joy with which saints are mourned. The reader should get +Father Hewit's Memoir of Father Baker if he would know his virtues. +Father Hecker was often heard to say that few men understood his +ideas so clearly as did Father Baker and had so much sympathy with +them. And his death was the signal for an impulse whose power plainly +indicated its supernatural origin. Up to that time there had been but +two priests added to the community, and those who had offered +themselves as novices and been rejected were, as a rule, little +calculated to inspire hope. But from 1865 onwards good subjects, +mostly converts, applied in sufficient numbers, and in a few years +the missions were resumed. But what was of even more importance, the +apostolate of the press, started in the publication of THE CATHOLIC +WORLD the month in which Father Baker's death occurred, assumed a +national prominence, and together with the Catholic Tracts and the +Catholic Publication Society set the Paulists at work in their +primary vocation, the conversion of non-Catholics to the true +religion. To this, and to Father Hecker's lectures, we now turn. Of +course we might dwell longer on the parish and the missions, about +which there are many things of interest left untold, but only the +lapse of time can sufficiently dissociate them from living persons to +allow of their being made public. + +________________________ + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +FATHER HECKER'S LECTURES + +THE suspension of the missions, if it was the result of necessity, +was yet an aid to Father Hecker in devoting himself to public +speaking in the interests of the Catholic faith. Between missions, it +is true, he seized every favorable opportunity to address audiences +on controversial topics, often doing so in public halls, as well as +in churches. Meantime he could still further mature his plans, and, +testing his methods by experiment, secure for future occasions a +course of lectures fully suited to the end he had in view. More than +ever did he study to fit himself for his apostolate. How, he asked +himself, shall the living word be framed anew for our new people? How +shall religious teaching be suited to the special needs of this age +without detracting from the integrity and the venerable antiquity of +the truth? He sought to answer these questions by recalling his own +early difficulties, and by opening his soul to the voices of +struggling humanity uttered everywhere around him. What men outside +the Church were yearning for in matters social and religious was his +incessant study. He read every book, he read every periodical which +promised to guide him ever so little to know by what road Divine +Providence was moving men's minds towards the truth. His eyes were +ever strained to read the signs of God's providence in men's lives. +And his conclusion was always the same: proclaim it on the house-tops +that no man can be consistent with his natural aspirations till he +has become a Catholic; preach it on the street-corners that the +Catholic religion elevates man far above his highest natural force +into union with the Deity--intimate, conscious, and perpetual. + +As to systematic preparation for discourses to non-Catholics, Father +Hecker had his own peculiar equipment. As the reader will remember, +God had led him in no way more singularly than in his studies, and +had led him straight. The doctrines of the Church were familiar to +him, for they had quenched his soul's thirst. And he had preached +them on the missions, the instructions on the Creed and the +Sacraments falling to his share. He had given these waters of life to +other souls, and knew their value. He was a close student of the +dogmatic side of religion. He had, it is true, little taste for the +refinements of theologians, unless they touched the questions of +human dignity and the scope of the grace of Christ, which were vital +ones to himself. He viewed religion with wide-sweeping glances, +trying to discover every hill of vision or stream of sanctity. He had +plain truths to teach, and he needed none other. He knew the organism +of the Church in clergy and in people, for he had seen it both from +without and within. He had felt the grip of authority fixed in his +soul. He had agonized under the brand of punishment as it burnt into +his flesh, and he had seen it changed into the badge of approval. +Within and without he knew Catholicity, loved it daily more and more, +and was daily more and more anxious to proclaim it to the world. + +It was not from labored preparation of his lectures that success came +to Father Hecker. Even those which seemed the most elaborately +prepared he did not write out word for word. His verbal memory was +not trustworthy, and he had to confide in his extemporizing faculty, +which was very good, and which became in course of time quite +reliable, giving out sentences clear, grammatical, and fit to print. +"I have to produce a sermon for next Sunday," he once wrote to a +friend. "For me a sermon is always a spontaneous production; I cannot +get one up. The idea must arise and grow up in my own mind. It is +usually hard labor for me to produce it outwardly and give it +suitable expression." But the effort did not appear in the delivery, +for his style, although emphatic, was easy and familiar; his +delivery, if not altogether according to the rules of elocution, +nevertheless gained his point completely. No word of his was +dead-born. His voice was not always clear, as he often suffered from +bronchial troubles, but it was not unpleasant, and had a penetrating +quality, being of that middle pitch which carries to the ends of a +large auditorium without provoking the echoes. His appearance was +very dignified, his tall frame, his broad face and large features +showing with striking effect. His action was simple and not +ungraceful, though frequently exceedingly energetic. As he never +sought emotional effects his power may be known by his unfailing +success in holding his audience perfectly attentive throughout long +argumentative discourses. Energy of conviction was one of the +strongest forces he possessed, and it took the shape of a gentle +constraint with which his positive utterances of Catholic principles +compelled assent. Sincerity of belief and liberty of soul were +admirably blended in his manner. He never appeared in public without +attracting many representatives of the mottled sectarianism of our +population; and this pleased him much, for he loved them, felt at +home with them, and was full of joy at the opportunity of addressing +them. + +He was chagrined at the apathy he sometimes met with among Catholics +concerning the American apostolate. He found priests who would devote +much labor to collecting money for the propagation of the faith among +distant heathen races, but very few who would make a serious effort +for the conversion of their American fellow-citizens. Are Americans +of less worth in God's eyes than pagans and Buddhists? he would ask. +He thought no differently of the people of the United States than St. +Paul did of the Corinthians and Macedonians, groaning and travailing +with them to bring them forth members of Christ; or than St. Francis +Xavier did of the Japanese. + +If asked how he was going to convert people, he would answer: "I am a +Catholic, and I know that I am right. I can prove that I am right. +What more do I want than this, and honest men and women who will +listen to me?" The confidence he had in the strength of the Catholic +argument was absolute, and this he showed by his zeal. His sole study +was how to transmute this force into missionary form. Of all the +wonders of the intellectual world he felt that the greatest is the +faith of Catholics, and he knew by the lesson of his early life that +it is but slightly appreciated by the non-Catholic mind. That +Catholics permit this ignorance to continue was a puzzle to him. And +it was all the more annoying because any single one of them can +multiply his influence indefinitely by his union with the most +perfect organism ever known--the Catholic Church. The quiescence of a +body of men, sincere and intelligent, infallibly certain of the means +of obtaining eternal happiness, living in daily contact with other +men ignorant and _inquiring_ about this unspeakable privilege, and +yet not taking instant measures to impart their knowledge, was to +Father Hecker almost as great a wonder as the divine gift of faith +itself, especially as Catholics are well furnished with leaders and +are organized to spread the truth as one of their most sacred duties. + +Mr. Wilfrid Ward, a Catholic philosophical writer of distinction, has +explained in a brilliant little volume the influence upon controversy +of what he styles _The Clothes of Religion_--race, political +traditions, education, physical temperament. He puts into his +instructive pages the sense of the great scholastic maxim, _Quidquid +recipitur secundum modum recipientis recipitur_--Whatever is +received, is received according to the mode (or character) of the +recipient. The national character, the tendencies, the antecedents of +the people addressed, the relative power of thought and of emotion in +their mental activity; all these are not, indeed, the souls of men +but the clothing of them, their armor and their weapons; and Father +Hecker felt that such things must be taken into account in dealing +with people, and that with the utmost discretion. His view about +controversy with non-Catholics was indeed aggressive--that we had +reached the point in the battle at which the legion, having cast its +javelins, rushes on with drawn swords to closer conflict. But the +combatants should be well trained, the captains should know the +ground to be traversed, should understand thoroughly the weakness and +strength of the enemy. It was not a new thing to bring Protestantism +into court at the suit of human liberty. But it was a novelty to +attack Protestantism as the very torture-chamber of free and +innocent souls, and to do it in such a way as to draw thousands of +the best Protestants in the land to listen. Such sentences in the +morning papers as "An overflowing house greeted Father Hecker," "The +immense hall has seldom been so completely filled," "Representative +men of all creeds and of none were scattered through the large +audience," had a tremendous meaning when the lecturer was known to be +the most fearless assailant of Protestantism who had appeared for +many a day. + +Father Hecker well knew that the non-Catholic American aspires to +deal with God through the aid of as few exterior appliances as +possible. To come near God by his own spiritual activity without +halting at forms of human contrivance is his spiritual ambition. His +religious joy is in a spiritual life which deals with God directly, +His inspired Word, His Holy Spirit. Father Hecker longed to tell his +fellow-countrymen that the Catholic Church gives them a flight to God +a thousand times more direct than they ever dreamed of. They think +that the authority of the Church will cramp their limbs; he was eager +to explain to them that it sets them free, clears the mind of doubt, +intensifies conviction into instinctive certitude, quickens the +intellectual faculties into an activity whose force is unknown +outside the Church. + +It was not with the truths of revelation alone that Father Hecker +dealt in his lectures. The first principles of natural religion were +the background of all his pictures of true Christianity: that God is +good, that men will be punished only for their personal misdeeds, +that men are born for union with God and in their best moments long +for Him, that they are equal, being all made in the Divine image, +endowed with free will and called to the one eternal happiness--such +were the great truths with which he would impress his audience first +of all, using them afterwards as terms of comparison with Protestant +doctrine. This plan he followed rather than institute a comparison of +historical claims or of Biblical credentials, the well-trodden but +weary road of ordinary controversy. To him Protestantism was more an +offence against the integrity of human nature than even against the +truths of Christian revelation. And he would place Catholicity in a +new light, that of reason and liberty. + +The revolt of Protestantism was not more against God's external +authority among men than it was against the equal brotherhood of the +human race. Well done, Luther, Father Hecker would say, well and +consistently done; when you have proclaimed man totally depraved you +have properly made his religion a Cain-like flight from the face of +his Maker and his kindred by your doctrine of predestination. Father +Hecker deemed it plainly unwise to forego the advantages of attacking +such vulnerable points as the Protestant errors of total depravity +and predestination for the sake of dwelling on the Biblical and +historical credentials of Church authority. He knew, indeed, that +extravagant individualism is to this day a fundamental Protestant +error, but the waning power of its doctrinal assertion has deprived +it of aggressive vigor. There is less danger of its assault upon the +Church, Father Hecker thought, than of its sceptical tendency upon +its own adherents. To emphasize the obligation of organic unity, in +such a condition of things, was not good tactics; it was to revive +the spirit of resistance without arresting the evils of doubt. +Authority in religion has high and undoubted claims; but it is +nevertheless true that the normal development of man is in freedom. +Man is fitted for his destiny in proportion to his ability to use his +liberty with wisdom, and Father Hecker endeavored to set +non-Catholics themselves to work removing the obstacles to true +spiritual liberty which Protestantism had planted in the way. + +An appeal from Luther and Calvin to the standards of rational nature, +to human virtue, to human equality, rather than to exclusively +Catholic standards, was certain of success in a large class of minds. +And this but led to the consideration of the Church's claims to +elevate rational nature and natural virtue to that divine order which +is above nature, and which is organic in the Catholic Church. Moral +rectitude is a simpler test of truth than texts from a dead book, +whose original tongues and whose perplexed exegesis are quite unknown +to the vast mass of mankind. And Father Hecker recognized that the +elementary truths of reason and the aspirations of humanity for +better things are not unknown to any man or woman; these are +everybody's personal means of testing truth. To pass them by in order +to apply the remoter test of revelation is either to admit that +Protestantism is not against the dictates of reason and man's +aspirations, or to commence the argument against it at the wrong end. + +In a letter to Cardinal Barnabo written in July, 1863, Father Hecker +gives an account of how he went to work to secure and interest a +non-Catholic audience: + +"For several years past it has seemed to me that some more effectual +means should be taken to reach the Protestant community. This last +winter I ventured with this view upon an experiment. In three +different cities I gave, in a large public hall, a course of +conferences on religion, one every evening from Sunday to Sunday +inclusive. The expense of the hall was paid by the priest of the +place, the lectures were all free, and addressed exclusively to +Protestants. The halls were crowded at each place, and that my +audiences might be such as I desired to address, I begged Catholics +to stay away. At the close of one of my lectures there were present +twenty-five hundred persons, chiefly Protestants. + +"My method was as follows: In treating any doctrine of our holy faith +with a view to convincing my audience, I considered first what want +in our nature it was related to, and to which it addressed itself. +This want being discovered, I developed and illustrated it until my +hearers were fully convinced of its existence and importance. Then +the question came up, Which religion recognizes this element or want +of our nature, and meets all its legitimate demands? Does +Protestantism? Its answers were given, and found either hostile or +incomplete. Then the Catholic Church was interrogated: and she was +found to recognize this want, and her answers adequate and +satisfactory. These answers were then shown to be supported by the +authority of Holy Scriptures. + +"The interest shown by my audience was remarkable, and the effect of +this method was equal to my hopes. My experience convinces me that, +if this work were continued, it would prepare the way for a great +change of religion in this country, more particularly at the present +time, when the public mind is favorably disposed to consider the +claims of the Catholic Church." + +The "want in our nature" appealed to was often in the political +order, such as the love of liberty or man's capacity for +self-government. This he dwelt upon at considerable length in the +opening part of his lecture, viewing it as a philosopher would, and +extending its application, as far as possible, to men generally. He +thus chose his criterion for comparison of the two claimants in the +religious world. His triumph was, therefore, often in an arena only +semi-religious, or rather in that of natural religion. The effect was +wonderfully good, though doubtless due in great measure to the manner +in which his plan, so simply sketched in the letter above quoted, was +developed before the audience. The entire doubting body of +intelligent men was enlisted in varying degrees in favor of the +Catholic teaching of man's relation to God and to his fellow-men, and +against Protestantism. Americans could not help feeling disgust for +doctrines which were condemned by the maxims of the Declaration of +Independence. + +Although there was nothing positively new in the method--something +like it had been used by Archbishop Hughes against the Presbyterian +champion, Breckenridge--yet the public was taken by surprise. The +style of controversy universally in vogue was that of setting up +texts of Scripture and bowling them down with other texts. But here +comes an American Catholic and arraigns Protestant doctrine at the +tribunal of American liberty. The thick-and-thin Protestant was +thrown into a rage, and became abusive and often incoherent in his +reply. The easy-going Protestant claimed that the doctrines assailed +were obsolete, as his church had, at least implicitly, changed them. +"Then change your church," said Father Hecker; "if you have come back +to the right doctrine, why not come back to the true Church?" As to +the average intelligent inquirer, he was uniformly influenced by +these lectures against the Reformation and its entire teaching, with +its dreadful effects of doubt and division among Christians. + +Father Hecker had an intuitive perception of the peculiar +difficulties of the American people, and ever showed the utmost +readiness and skill in meeting them. He had a matchless power of +laying bare the wants of the human heart, and an equal facility of +pointing out the light and strength of Catholicity for their supply. +His immense sympathy for an aspiring and guileless soul deprived of +the truth, was most evident; he always looked it and spoke it and +acted it before his audience. To do so was no effort on his part. He +told of the promised land not as a native of it, but as a messenger +sent into it, and now returned with such tidings as should hasten the +steps of his brethren still wandering in the desert; and this +sympathetic interest embraced the civil as well as the religious side +of human nature. He claimed everything really American for the +Catholic faith, and this was joy and gladness to many a weary heart +drawn to the Church by her charities, or her beautiful symbolism, yet +hindered by the phantom of absolute authority and the dread of losing +the integrity of free citizenship. Incivism--will Catholic apologists +never learn it?--is the heaviest stone flung at the Church in all +free lands to-day. Father Hecker's blood fairly boiled that the +Church of Christ, the very home of Christian freedom, and the +nursing-mother of all civil well-being, should be thus assailed, +while Calvin's and Luther's degrading doctrines should be paraded as +alone worthy of a free people. + +To say that Father Hecker "Americanized" in the narrow sense would be +to do him injustice. The American ideas to which he appealed he knew +to be God's will for all civilized peoples of our time. If +fundamentally American they were not for that reason exclusively +American. His Americanism is so broad that by a change of place it +can be made Spanish, or German; and a slight change of terms makes it +religious and Catholic. Nor had form of government essentially to do +with it; human equality cannot be monopolized by republics; it can be +rightly understood in a monarchy, though in such a ease it does not +assume the conspicuous place which it does in a republic. It was this +broadness of Father Hecker's Americanism that made him acceptable to +the extremely conservative circles of Rome, in his struggle there in +the winter of 1858-9. Many men in the monarchies of the old World may +doubt the advent of republicanism there, but what sensible man +anywhere doubts the aspiration of all races towards liberty and +intelligence? + +Father Hecker's repertory covered the entire ground between +scepticism and Catholicism. In refutation of Protestantism the +principal lectures were: _The Church and the Republic; Luther and the +Reformation; How and Why I Became a Catholic, or A Search after +Rational Christianity;_ and _The State of Religion in the United +States._ On the positive side his chief topics were: The Church as a +Society, Why We Invoke the Saints, and the Sacraments of Penance and +Holy Communion. Others he had against materialism, spiritualism, etc. + +As may naturally be supposed, some of his lectures succeeded better +than others. One of those he personally preferred was _The Churrk and +the Republic._ He opened by affirming, as the fundamental principle +of the American nation, that man is naturally virtuous enough to be +capable of self-government. He developed this in various ways till +his audience felt that it was to be the touchstone of the question +between the churches. He then exhibited the Protestant teaching on +human virtue and human depravity, quoting extensively from Luther and +from Calvin, as well as from the creeds of the principal Protestant +sects, until the contrast between their teaching and the fundamental +American principle was painfully vivid. There was no escape; +doctrinal Protestantism is un-American. He then gave the Catholic +doctrine of free will, of merit, of human dignity, and of the +equality of men and human brotherhood. The impression was profound. +Great mountains of prejudice were lifted up and cast into the sea. +The elevating influences of the Church's faith fixed men's eyes and +won their hearts. To have it demonstrated that Catholicity was not a +gigantic effort to combine all available human forces to maintain a +central religious despotism in the hands of a hierarchy, was a +surprise to multitudes of Protestants. To not a few intelligent +Catholics the style of argument was a great novelty. Father Hecker's +success proved that the claim of authority on the part of the Church +could be established without much difficulty in men's minds, if it +were not associated with the enslavement of reason and conscience, +and if shown to be consistent with rational liberty. He insisted upon +the positive view of the subject. He proclaimed the purpose of +Catholic discipline to be essentially conservative of human rights, a +divinely-appointed safeguard to the liberty and enlightenment of the +soul of man. He further proclaimed that the infliction of penalties +by Church authority was an accidental exercise of power provoked by +disobedience to lawful authority. + +_Luther and the Reformation_ excited widespread remark, and yet to +one accustomed to old-time controversy it seemed but a fragment of an +argument. The lecture proved that Luther was not an honest reformer, +because, having started to reform inside the Church and as a +Catholic, he finished by leaving the Church and therefore the real +work of reform. At the outset Father Hecker proved that Luther was +but one, and by no means the most important one, of the great body of +Catholic reformers of his time. These set to work to remedy abuses +which had grown to such an extent as to have become intolerable. The +genuine reformers, led by the Popes, went right on and did reform the +Church most thoroughly, ending by the decrees of the Council of +Trent. All this the lecturer proved by citations from numerous high +authorities, all of them Protestants. Why did Luther leave the +company of the true reformers? or, as Father Hecker puts it, "Why did +Luther change his base?" Whatever reason he had for leaving +Catholicity, it was not, as a matter of fact, on account of zeal for +reform. The lecture concluded by emphatically and, in different +terms, repeatedly denying to Luther the name of Reformer and to his +work the name of Reformation. Such was the line of argument in a +lecture which entertained the general public and enraged bigoted +Protestants more, perhaps, than any of the others. The secret of its +success was that it overturned the great Protestant idol. + +With humanitarians, rationalists, indifferentists, and sceptics +Father Hecker's lectures were popular, and such were his favorite +audience. If he so much as aroused their curiosity about the Church, +he deemed that he had gained a victory; this and more than this he +always succeeded in doing. Regular "church members" he did not hope +much from, though they came to hear him and he sometimes made +converts even among them. The lecture system, then far more in vogue +than at present, gave him hearers from all classes of minds, and +especially those most intellectually restless and inquiring. He took +his turn in the list which contained the names of Wendell Phillips, +Beecher, Emerson, and Sumner, and found his golden opportunity before +such audiences as had been gathered to listen to them. Thus into the +drifts of thought and into the intellectual movements around him, +into the daily and periodical press, into the social and political +and scientific groupings of men and women, his lectures enabled him +to breathe the peremptory call of the true religion, sure to provoke +inquiry in all active minds, and in some to find good soil and bear +the harvest of conversion. He searched for earnest souls; and his +confidence that they were everywhere to be found was rewarded not +only in many particular instances, but also by the removal of much +prejudice throughout the entire country. + +The writer of these pages saw Father Hecker for the first time on the +lecture platform. He was then in the full tide of success, conscious +of his opportunity and of his power to profit by it. We never can +forget how distinctly American was the impression of his personality. +We had heard the nation's greatest men then living, and their type +was too familiar to be successfully counterfeited. Father Hecker was +so plainly a great man of that type, so evidently an outgrowth of our +institutions, that he stamped American on every Catholic argument he +proposed. Nor was the force of this peculiar impression lessened by +the whispered grumblings of a few petty minds among Catholics +themselves, to whom this apostolic trait was cause for suspicion. +Never was a man more Catholic than Father Hecker, simply, calmly, +joyfully, entirely Catholic. What better proof of this than the rage +into which his lectures and writings threw the outright enemies of +the Church? Grave ministers lost their balance and foamed at him as a +trickster and a hypocrite, all the worse because double-dyed with +pretence of love of country. + +For the Protestant pulpits felt the shock and stormed in unison +against this new exposition of Catholicity and against its +representative. In some cases, not content with one onslaught, they +returned to the charge Sunday after Sunday. All this was not +unexpected. The secular press, however, were very generally favorable +in their notices, excepting some of the Boston dailies. As a rule, +the lectures were very fully reported and sometimes appeared word for +word. + +To reply to one's assailants after one has left the field of battle +is no easy matter, and for the most part Father Hecker trusted for +this to local champions of Catholicity; and not in vain. But it +happened on one occasion that after he had lectured in a large town +in Michigan, and had journeyed on to fulfil engagements farther West, +he was attacked in a public hall by a minister of the place. On his +return East Father Hecker stopped over and gave another lecture in +the town, and not only refuted the minister but covered him with +ridicule. In fact there was no great need of defence of Father +Hecker's arguments, they were so simply true and so readily +understood. Not one of his antagonists compared well with him for +frankness, good humor, courtesy; and they almost invariably shirked +the issue and confined themselves to stale calumnies against the +Church. + +At Ann Arbor, Michigan, Father Hecker lectured in the Methodist +meeting-house, then the largest hall in the town. The Michigan State +University, at this town, had at the time about seven hundred +students, nearly all of whom came to the lecture. The subject chosen +was _Luther and the Reformation._ As it was announced, the audience +loudly applauded Luther's name, and some one called for three cheers +for him, which were given vociferously, especially by the students. +Father Hecker smiled, waited till the noise was over, then bade them +give him a fair hearing; which, of course, they did. Before he had +concluded, his audience seemed won to his view of the question in +hand, and showed it by the names and the sentiments applauded. At the +end some one called out "Three cheers for Father Hecker!" and they +were given most heartily. + +There seems nothing like a new discovery, as we have already said, in +Father Hecker's controversial matter, or even in the method of its +treatment. But joined with its exponent, blended into his +personality, as it was, by the sincerity of his conviction, it was a +discovery; flavored and tinctured by him, this wayside fountain had a +new life-giving power to both Catholics and non-Catholics. Bishops, +priests, and Catholic men and women in the world heard him with mute +attention. Some Catholics, it is true, were stunned by his bold +handling of those traditional touch-me-nots of conservatism--reason +and liberty; and such drew off suspicious. But multitudes of +Catholics felt that he opened up to full view the dim vistas of truth +towards which they had long been groping; these could agree with him +without an effort. A few had reached his stand-point before they knew +him, and hailed with rapture the leader who, unlike themselves, was +not kept back by either dread of novel-sounding terms or by the +impotency of private station. But here and there he met Catholics as +dead-set against him as the Judaizing converts had been against his +patron, St. Paul. Their only love was for antiquity, and that they +loved passionately and in all its forms, even the neo-antiquity of +the controversy of the Reformation era. On the other hand many, when +they heard him, said, "That is the kind of Catholic I am, and the +only kind it is easy for me to be." Non-Catholics, earnest men and +women, were often heard to say, _"If I were quite sure that Hecker is +a genuine Roman Catholic_ I think that I could be one myself"; and +this some of them did not hesitate to publish in the newspapers, so +that Father Hecker might have said with Job: "The ear that heard me +blessed me, and the eye that saw me gave witness to me." + +Father Hecker felt that he was a pioneer in thus dealing with +rationalized Protestants. His eye was quick to see the signs of the +breaking up of dogmatic Protestantism, and he was early out among the +vast intellectual wreckage, endeavoring to catch and tow into port +what fragments he could of a system founded on doubt and on the +denial of human virtue and human intelligence. "I want," he said on +one occasion in private, "to open the way to the Church to +rationalists. It seems to me to be now closed up. I feel that I am a +pioneer in opening and leading the way. _I smuggled myself into the +Church,_ and so did Brownson." And now he wanted to abolish the +custom-house, and open the harbor wide and clear for the entrance +into the Church of all men who had been forced back on reason alone +for guidance. The words above italicised were uttered with powerful +emphasis and with much feeling. He quoted the following saying of +Ozanam with emphatic approval: "What the age needs is an +intellectual crusade"; and he affirmed that Leo XIII. had done very +much to aid us in preaching it, and that Pius IX., rightly +understood, had led the way to it. "The Catholics I would help with +my left hand, the Protestants with my right hand," he once said. And +non-Catholics, all but the bigots, liked him, for he was frank and +true by every test. He was neither an exotic nor a hybrid, and they +felt at home with him. He much resembled the best type of public men +in America who have achieved fame at the bar or in politics; indeed, +as we have already intimated, he really belonged to that type, for +all his studies and all his training in the Catholic schools and +convents, which had given him more and more of truth, more and more +of the grace of God, had not changed the kind or type of man to which +he belonged. He was the same character as when he harangued the +Seventh Ward voters, or discussed the Divine Transcendence at Brook +Farm. Scholastic truth sank deep into his soul, but scholastic +methods stuck on the surface and then dropped away. "And David having +girded his sword upon his armor began to try if he could walk in +armor, for he was not accustomed to it. And David said to Saul, I +cannot go thus, for I am not used to it. And he laid them off. And he +took his staff which he had always in his hands, and chose him five +smooth stones out of the brook." + +If his duties in the Paulist community and parish had allowed, Father +Hecker could have lectured to large audiences during the greater part +of the year, and been well paid for his labor. He soon became the +foremost exponent of Catholicity on the public platform in the United +States. From the close of the war till his health gave way in 1872 he +was much sought after for lectures, and spoke in the different cities +and very many of the large towns, besides being obliged to refuse +numerous applications, constantly coming in from all parts of the +Union and from all sorts of societies, secular, Catholic, and even +distinctly Protestant. Meantime he was frequently called on to preach +on such occasions as the laying of corner-stones of churches and +their dedications. He also gave one of the sermons preached before +the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore. + +The following is the introductory paragraph of a long character +sketch of Father Hecker from the pen of James Parton, the historian. +It is taken from an article entitled "Our Roman Catholic Brethren," +published in the _Atlantic Monthly_ for April and May, 1868. The +entire article is full of admiration for the Catholic Church and of +yearning towards her, though written by a typical sceptic of this era: + +"As usual with them [Catholics] it is one man who is working this new +and most effective idea [the Catholic Publication Society]; but, as +usual with them also, this one man is working by and through an +_organization_ which multiplies his force one hundred times and +constitutes him a person of national importance. Readers who take +note of the really important things transpiring around them will know +at once that the individual referred to is Father Hecker, Superior of +the Community of the Paulists, in New York. . . . It is he [Father +Hecker] who is putting American machinery into the ancient ark and +getting ready to run her by steam. Here, for once, is a happy +man--happy in his faith and in his work--_sure_ that in spreading +abroad the knowledge of the true Catholic doctrine he is doing the +best thing possible for his native land. A tall, healthy-looking, +robust, handsome, cheerful gentleman of forty-five, endowed with a +particular talent for winning confidence and regard, which talent has +been improved by many years of active exercise. It is a particular +pleasure to meet with any one, at such a time as this, whose work +perfectly satisfies his conscience, his benevolence, and his pride, +and who is doing that work in the most favorable circumstances, and +with the best co-operation. Imagine a benevolent physician in a +populous hospital, who has in his office the medicine which he is +perfectly certain will cure or mitigate every case, provided only he +can get it taken, and who is surrounded with a corps of able and +zealous assistants to aid him in persuading the patients to take it!" + +Mr. Parton having given us a picture of Father Hecker as he appeared +to Protestants, the following exhibits him as Catholics saw him. It +is an extract from Father Lockhart's clever book, _The Old Religion;_ +the original of Father Dilke is Father Hecker: + +"The day after our last conversation, having an introduction to the +Superior of the ---- Fathers in New York, my friends agreed to +accompany me. I was particularly glad of this because Father Dilke +was one of the most remarkable men of our Church in the States. +Himself a convert, and a man of large views and great sympathies, no +one was better able to enter into the scruples and difficulties of +religious Protestants on their first contact with Catholic doctrines +and Catholic worship. + +"On sending in our names we had not long to wait in the guest-room +before the good father made his appearance. There was a stamp of +originality about him; tall in stature, not exactly what we are used +to call clerical in appearance, with a thoroughly American type of +face, and with the national peaked beard instead of being closely +shaven as is the custom with our clergy generally. I had met him +before, without his clerical (religious) garb, on a journey on board +a steamboat. At first, I remember, I had set him down as a Yankee +skipper or trader of some sort; but when by chance we got into +conversation, I found him a hard-headed man, shrewd, original, and +earnest in his remarks; but when our conversation turned to religious +topics, and got animated, I shall never forget how all that was +common and national in his physique disappeared. And when he spoke of +the mystery of God's love for man, his countenance seemed as it were +transfigured, so that I felt that an artist would not wish for a +better living model from which to paint a St. Francis Xavier, making +himself all things to all men amidst his shipmates on his voyage to +the Indies." + +From what has been said of Father Hecker's aptitude to win +non-Catholics to hear and believe him, it should not be thought that +in order to do so he was obliged to leave off any sign of his +priestly character. He was distinctly priestly in his demeanor, +though, as already observed, not exactly what one would call a +thorough "ecclesiastic." He ever dressed soberly. When he arrived at +a town on a lecture tour he always put up at the house of the +resident priest, if there was one, and, if he stayed over Sunday, +preached for him at High Mass. He invariably corresponded beforehand +with the pastor of the town to which he was invited by a secular +lecture society, requesting him to send complimentary tickets to the +leading men of the place--lawyers, doctors, ministers, merchants, and +politicians. And when he appeared on the platform it was always in +company with the priest. He loved priests with all his might and was +ever at home in their company. It is not very singular, therefore, +that some of his most devoted friends and most ardent admirers were +priests, secular and religious, born and bred in the Old World--among +them some of the most prominent clergymen in the country. + +Father Hecker often met non-Catholics in private, being sought out by +prominent radicals, sceptics, unbelievers, and humanitarians. What +they had heard from him in public lectures, or read of him in the +press, drew them to him, or they were brought to see him by mutual +friends. And here he was indeed powerful, overbearing resistance by +the strength of conviction and the simple exhibition of Catholic +truth. The sight of a man anywhere, whom he could but suspect of +aptitude for his views, was the signal for his emphatic affirmation +of them, sometimes leading him to controversy bordering on the +vociferous on cars and steamboats. In such circumstances, and in all +his other dealings with men, you saw his prompt intelligence, his +fine sensibility, his lofty spirit, his forceful and occasionally +imperious will to hold you to the point; but the quality which, both +in public and private discourse, outshone all, or rather gave all +light and direction, was an immense love of truth joined to an equal +admiration for virtue. + +________________________ + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +THE APOSTOLATE OF THE PRESS + +ONE Sunday forenoon, happening to cross Broadway near a fashionable +Protestant church, we saw the curb on both sides of the street lined +with carriages, and the coachmen and footmen all reading the morning +papers. The rich master and his family were in the softly-cushioned +pews indoors, while their servants studied the news of the world and +worshipped at the shrine of the Press outside: a spectacle suggestive +of many things to the social reformer. But to a religious mind it was +an invitation to the _Apostolate of the Press._ The Philips of our +day can evangelize the rough charioteer by means of the written word +as easily as they can his cultured master. + +To Father Hecker the Press was the highest opportunity for religion. +The only term of comparison for it is some element of nature like +sunlight or the atmosphere. In the Press civilized Man lives and +breathes. Father Hecker was as alive to the injury done to humanity +by bad reading as a skilful physician is to the malaria which he can +smell and fairly taste in an infected atmosphere; and he ever strove +to make the Press a means of enlightenment and virtue. He began to +write for publication almost immediately after his arrival in America +as a Redemptorist missionary; the _Questions of the Soul_ and the +_Aspirations of Nature_ were composed amidst most absorbing +occupations between 1853 and 1858. Throughout life he was ever asking +himself and others how the Press could be cleansed, and how its +Apostolate could be inaugurated. To this end he was ready to devote +all his efforts, and expend all his resources and those of the +community of which he was the founder. It is true that no man of his +time was better aware of the power of the spoken word, and few were +more competent to use it, the natural and Pentecostal vehicle of the +Holy Spirit to men's souls. But he also felt that the providence of +God, in making the Press of our day an artificial medium of human +intercourse more universal than the living voice itself, had pointed +it out as a necessary adjunct to the oral preaching of the truth. He +was convinced that religion should make the Press its own. He would +not look upon it as an extraordinary aid, but maintained that the +ordinary provision of Christian instruction for the people should +ever be two-fold, by speech and by print: neither the Preacher +without the Press nor the Press without the Preacher. He was heard to +say that in reading Montalembert's _Monks of the West_ he had been +struck with the author's eloquent apostrophe to the spade, the +instrument of civilization and Christianity for the wild hordes of +the early middle ages. Much rather, he said, should we worship the +Press as the medium of the light of God to all mankind. He felt that +the Apostolate of the Press might well absorb the external vocation +of the most active friends of religion. + +In the Press he found a distinct suggestion from above of a change of +methods for elevating men to truth and virtue. In the spring of 1870, +while on his way home from the Vatican Council, he wrote to Father +Deshon from Assisi: + +"I felt as if I would like to have peopled that grand and empty +convent with inspired men and printing-presses. For evidently the +special battle-field of attack and defence of truth for half a +century to come is the printing-press." + +He believed in types as he believed in pulpits. He believed that the +printing-office was necessary to the convent. To him the Apostolate +of the Press meant the largest amount of truth to the greatest number +of people. By its means a small band of powerful men could reach an +entire nation and elevate its religious life. + +This being understood, one is not surprised at the extent of his +plans for this Apostolate. He was never able to carry them out fully. +Not till some years after the founding of the community could he make +a fair beginning, although the first volume of the Paulist Sermons +appeared in 1861. Delays were inevitable from the difficulties +incident to the opening of the house and church in Fifty-ninth +Street, and these were aggravated by the war, which for over four +years bred such intense excitement as to interfere with any strong +general interest in matters other than political. But the very month +it ended, in April, 1865, Father Hecker started _The Catholic World._ +Its purpose was to speak for religion in high-grade periodical +literature. The year following he founded The Catholic Publication +Society, with the purpose of directing the entire resources of the +Press into a missionary apostolate. In 1870 he began _The Young +Catholic._ In literary merit and in illustrations it equalled any of +the juvenile publications of that period, and was the pioneer of all +the Catholic journals in the United States intended for children. And +finally, in 1871, he projected the establishment of a first-class +Catholic daily, securing within a year subscriptions for more than +half the money necessary for the purpose, when the work was arrested +by the final breaking down of his health. + +_The Catholic World_ was considered a hazardous venture. At the time +it was proposed, such modest attempts at Catholic monthlies as had +struggled into life had long ceased to exist. The public for such a +magazine seemed to be small. The priesthood had little leisure for +reading, being hardly sufficient in number for their most essential +duties; the educated laymen were not numerous, nor remarkable for +activity of mind in matters of religion; nearly the entire Church of +America was foreign by birth or parentage, and belonged to the +toiling masses of the people: "not many rich, not many noble." And, +Father Hecker was asked, whom are you going to get to write for the +magazine? How many Catholic literary men and women do you know of? +Prudence, therefore, stood sponsor to courage. The cautious policy of +an eclectic was adopted, and for more than a year the magazine, with +the exception of its book reviews, was made up of selections and +translations from foreign periodicals. The late John R. G. Hassard, +who had already succeeded as a journalist, was chosen by Father +Hecker as his assistant in the editorial work. Efforts were at once +made to secure original articles; but before the magazine was filled +by them three or four years were spent in urgent soliciting, in very +elaborate sub-editing of MSS., and in reliance on the steady +assistance of the pens of the Paulist Fathers. As a compensation, +_The Catholic World_ has introduced to the public many of our best +writers, and first and last has brought our ablest minds on both +sides of the water into contact with the most intelligent Catholics +in the United States. All through its career it has represented +Catholic truth before the American public in such wise as to command +respect, and has brought about the conversion of many of its +non-Catholic readers. Since its beginning it has been forced to hold +its own against the claims of not unwelcome rivals, and against the +almost overwhelming attractions of the great illustrated secular +monthlies, to say nothing of the vicissitudes of the business world; +and it has succeeded in doing so, Father Hecker's purpose in +establishing it has been realized, for it has ever been a first-rate +Catholic monthly of general literature, holding an equal place with +similar publications in the world of letters. He was its +editor-in-chief till the time of his death, except during three years +of illness and absence in Europe. He conducted it so as to occupy +much of the field open to the Apostolate of the Press, giving solid +doctrine in form of controversy, and discussing such religious truths +as were of current interest. He kept its readers informed of the +changeful moods of non-Catholic thought, and furnished them with +short studies of instructive eras and personages in history. These +graver topics have been floated along by contributions of a lighter +kind, by good fiction and conscientious literary criticism. Meantime, +the social problems which had perplexed Father Hecker himself in his +early life, have caught the attention of the slower minds of average +men, or rather have been thrust upon them; and their consideration, +ever in his own sympathetic spirit, now forms a prominent feature of +_The Catholic World._ + +_The Young Catholic_ was an enterprise dear to his heart. His +interest in it was constant and minute, and some of the articles most +popular with its young constituency were from his own pen. It has +always been edited by Mrs. George V. Hecker, assisted by a small +circle of zealous and enlightened writers. It has held its way, but +has had to encounter the not unusual fate of bold pioneers. It +created its own rivals by demonstrating the possibilities of juvenile +Catholic journalism, calling into existence more than a score of +claimants for the support which it alone at first solicited. The +lowest estimate of juvenile publications of a purely secular tone +yearly sold in America carries the figure far into the millions. Some +of these, and it is well to know that they are the most widely sold, +are first-rate in a literary point of view and employ the best +artists for the pictures. To say that they are secular but feebly +expresses the totally unmoral influence they for the most part exert. +They are the extension of the unreligious school into the homes of +the people. When Father Hecker and Mrs. George V. Hecker and their +associates began _The Young Catholic,_ this vast mirage of the desert +of life had but glimmered upon the distant horizon; they saw it +coming and they did their best to point Catholic youth away from it +and lead it to the real oasis of God, with its grateful shade, its +delicious fruits, and its ever-flowing springs of the waters of life. + +As already said, The Catholic Publication Society was begun a year +after _The Catholic World_ was started, its aim being to turn to the +good of religion, and especially to the conversion of non-Catholics, +all the uses the press is capable of. It was a missionary work in the +broadest sense seeking to enlist not only the clergy but especially +the laity in an organized Apostolate of the Press, to enlighten the +faith of Catholics and to spread it among their Protestant +fellow-citizens. Its first work was to be the issuing of tracts and +pamphlets telling the plain truth about the Catholic religion. Local +societies, to be established throughout the country, were to buy +these publications at a price less than cost, and distribute them +gratis to all classes likely to be benefited. To catch the eye of the +American people, to affect their hearts, to supply their religious +wants with Catholic truth, were objects kept in view in preparing the +tracts. Although some of them were addressed to Catholics, enforcing +important religious duties, nearly all of them were controversial. +More than seventy different tracts were printed first and last, and +many hundreds of thousands, indeed several millions, of them +distributed in all parts of the country, public, charitable, and +penal institutions being, of course, fair field for this work. They +were all very brief, few of them covering more than four small-sized +pages. "Three pages of truth have before now overturned a life-time +of error," said Father Hecker. The tract _Is it Honest?_ though only +four pages of large type, or about twelve hundred words, created a +sensation everywhere, and was answered by a Protestant minister with +over fifty pages of printed matter, or about fifteen times more than +the tract itself. One hundred thousand copies of this tract were +distributed in New York City alone. It is printed herewith as a +specimen, both as to style and matter, of what one may call the +aggressive-defensive tactics in Catholic controversy: + +IS IT HONEST +_To say that the Catholic Church prohibits the use of the Bible_-- +When anybody who chooses can buy as many as he likes at any Catholic +bookstore, and can see on the first page of any one of them the +approbation of the Bishops of the Catholic Church, with the Pope at +their head, encouraging Catholics to read the Bible, in these words: +"The faithful should be excited to the reading of the Holy +Scriptures," and that not only for the Catholics of the United +States, but also for those of the whole world besides? + +IS IT HONEST +_To say that Catholics believe that man by his own power can forgive +sin_--When the priest is regarded by the Catholic Church only as the +agent of our Lord Jesus Christ, acting by the power delegated to him, +according to these words, "Whose sins you shall forgive, they are +forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained?" +(St. John 20:23). + +IS IT HONEST +_To repeat over and over again that Catholics pay the priest to +pardon their sins_--When such a thing is unheard of anywhere in the +Catholic Church--When any transaction of the kind is stigmatized as +a grievous sin, and ranked along with murder, adultery, blasphemy, +etc., in every catechism and work on Catholic theology? + +IS IT HONEST +_To persist in saying that Catholics believe their sins are forgiven +merely by the confession of them to the priest, without a true sorrow +for them, or a true purpose to quit them_--When every child finds +the contrary distinctly and clearly stated in the catechism, which he +is obliged to learn before he can be admitted to the sacraments? Any +honest man can verify this statement by examining any Catholic +catechism. + +IS IT HONEST +_To assert that the Catholic Church grants any indulgence or +permission to commit sin_--When an "indulgence," according to her +universally received doctrine, was never dreamed of by Catholics to +imply, in any case whatever, any permission to commit the least sin; +and when an indulgence has no application whatever to sin until after +sin has been repented of and pardoned? + +IS IT HONEST +_To accuse Catholics of putting the Blessed Virgin or the Saints in +the place of God or the Lord Jesus Christ_--When the Council of +Trent declares that it is simply useful to ask their intercession in +order to obtain favor from God, through his Son, Jesus Christ our +Lord, who alone is our Saviour and Redeemer-- + +When "asking their prayers and influence with God" is exactly of the +same nature as when Christians ask the pious prayers of one another? + +IS IT HONEST +_To accuse Catholics of paying divine worship to images or pictures, +as the heathen do_--When every Catholic indignantly repudiates any +idea of the kind, and when the Council of Trent distinctly declares +the doctrine of the Catholic Church in regard to them to be, "that +there is no divinity or virtue in them which should appear to claim +the tribute of one's veneration"; but that "all the honor which is +paid to them shall be referred to the originals whom they are +designed to represent?" (Sess. 25). + +IS IT HONEST +_To make these and many other similar charges against Catholics_-- +When they detest and abhor such false doctrines more than those do +who make them, and make them, too, without ever having read a +Catholic book, or taken any honest means of ascertaining the +doctrines which the Catholic Church really teaches? + +Remember the commandment of God, which says: "Thou shalt not bear +false witness against thy neighbor." + +Reader, would you be honest, and do no injustice? Then examine the +doctrines of the Catholic Church; read the works of Catholics. See +both sides. Examine, and be fair; for AMERICANS LOVE FAIR PLAY. + +In preparing these little messengers of truth every style of writing +was used, narrative, allegory, dialogue, and positive argument. They +are as good reading to-day as when first issued, and the volume which +they form may be placed in an inquirer's hands with excellent effect. +To keep them agoing Father Hecker laid all his friends of any +literary ability under contribution, the series being opened by +Archbishop Spalding with a tract on _Religious Indifferentism._ Did +space permit, an entire list of the subjects dealt with might be +given, and the reader could the better see how they embrace the +entire controversy between Catholics and Protestants and infidels, +many of the tracts being masterpieces of popular argumentation. + +As to the business side of these enterprises, Father Hecker confided +it to Mr. Lawrence Kehoe, who was publisher of _The Catholic +World_ and of _The Young Catholic_ from their beginning until the +Paulists became their own publishers, shortly before Mr. Kehoe's +death. He was placed in charge of the Publication Society as manager +when it was started, and so continued until the formation of the +present firm, remaining then the active partner in its management. No +more ardent advocate of a good cause could be desired than Lawrence +Kehoe. Father Hecker cherished him as a friend, and he was his +zealous and efficient agent in his entire Apostolate of the Press. + +The purpose of the Publication Society was missionary, and the +intention was that its books, tracts, and pamphlets should be either +given away or sold at cost price, or below it. Therefore it was +necessary to secure funds for the running expenses. The reader has +seen that this was to have been done by the contributions of +subsidiary societies. To aid in the formation of these and to solicit +contributions in money, circulars were sent to all the clergy of the +United States. Only a few made any practical response. But the +meeting of the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1866, the same +year the Society was founded, was opportune. The bishops were induced +to take the matter up, and a decree, of which the following is a +translation, was enacted. After speaking of the need of supplying +Catholic literature at a low price the Council proceeds: + +"Since a society with this object in view, known as The Catholic +Publication Society, has been founded in New York, and has been so +far conducted with commendable diligence and with notable success, we +therefore consider it to be entirely worthy of the favor and +assistance of prelates and priests, as well as of the Catholic people +in general. That the whole country may the better and more certainly +share in its advantages, we advise and exhort the bishops to +establish branches of this Society in their dioceses, by means of +whose officers the publications of the Society may be distributed. +But as without great expenditure of money these societies cannot be +kept up and must fail of success, the bishops shall therefore appoint +a yearly collection for their support, to be taken up in all the +principal churches, or shall make other provision for the same +purpose according to their best judgment" (Con. Plen. Balt., Sec. 500). + +From the Pastoral Letter of the same Council we extract the following: + +"In connection with this matter [the Catholic Press] we earnestly +recommend to the faithful of our charge The Catholic Publication +Society, lately established in the city of New York by a zealous and +devoted clergyman. Besides the issuing of short tracts with which +this Society has begun, and which may be usefully employed to arrest +the attention of many whom neither inclination nor leisure will allow +to read larger works, this Society contemplates the publication of +Catholic books, according as circumstances may permit and the +interests of religion appear to require. From the judgment and good +taste evinced in the composition and selection of such tracts and +books as have already been issued by this Society, we are encouraged +to hope that it will be eminently effective in making known the +truths of our holy religion, and dispelling the prejudices which are +mainly owing to want of information on the part of so many of our +fellow-citizens. For this it is necessary that a generous +co-operation be given both by clergy and laity to the undertaking, +which is second to none in importance among the subsidiary aids which +the inventions of modern times supply to our ministry for the +diffusion of Catholic truth." + +How elated Father Hecker was by this action of the Council, and how +over-sanguine, as the event proved, of the future of the Society, is +shown by the following extracts from letters to a friend: + +"My efforts in the recent Council were completely successful, owing +to the many prayers offered to God--yours not the least. Could you +have seen the letters from different quarters, from good pious nuns, +and persons loving and serving and fearing God in the world, written +to me, and their writers all praying and doing works of mercy and +mortification for the purposes I had in view, you could not wonder at +my success. God did it. What is more, I was fully conscious of the +fact, and it is this that made my great joy. + +"The Catholic Publication Society has the unanimous consent, and +sympathy, and co-operation of the entire episcopate and clergy. Every +year there is a collection to be taken up in the principal churches +for its support. I have drawn an elephant, but I do not feel like the +man who did not know what to do with him after he had got him." + +"It is good in God to place me in a position in which I can act +efficiently. The disposition towards me is, I know, most pleasant and +favorable. I have been placed where I shall be at liberty to act and +direct action. Quietly pray for me as the Holy Spirit may suggest. On +my part I will also seek the same guidance. How good God is to give +it!" + +The Council had hardly adjourned when it began to be plain that in +legislating for The Catholic Publication Society the prelates had +been over-stimulated by the zeal of Archbishop Spalding and the +personal influence of Father Hecker himself, who was present in his +capacity of Superior of the Paulists. He went among the bishops and +pleaded for the Apostolate of the Press with characteristic vigor, +and with his usual success. Aided by the archbishop, he lifted the +Fathers of the Council for a moment above what in their sober senses +they deemed the exclusive duty of the hour. This was to provide +churches and priests, and schools and school-teachers, for the +people. Already far too numerous for their clergy, the Catholic +people were increasing by immigration alone at the rate of more than +a quarter of a million a year. Every effort must be concentrated, it +was thought, and every penny spent, in the vast work of housing and +feeding the wandering flocks of the Lord. And certainly the magnitude +of the task and the success attained in performing it can excuse the +indifference shown to the Apostolate of the Press, if anything can +excuse it. But it seemed otherwise to Father Hecker, as it does now +to us. For the Catholic people could have been better and earlier +cared for in their spiritual concerns if furnished with the abundant +supply of good reading which the carrying out of Father Hecker's plan +would have given them, and that at no great expense. What substitute +for a priest is equal to a good book? What vocation to the priesthood +has not found its origin in the pages of a good book, or at any rate +been fostered by its devout lessons? And all history as well as +experience proves that the best guarantee of the faith of a Catholic, +moving amidst kindly-disposed non-Catholic neighbors, is the +aggressive force of missionary zeal. The Publication Society, if +brought into active play, would have done much to create this zeal, +and would have supplied its best arms of attack and defence by an +abundance of free Catholic reading. It would have helped on every +good work by auxiliary forces drawn from intelligent faith and +instructed zeal. + +A closer view of the case shows that antecedents of a racial and +social character among the people had something to do with the apathy +we have been considering. To a great degree it still rests upon us, +though such organized efforts as the Catholic Truth Society of St. +Paul, Minnesota, and the Holy Ghost Society of New Orleans indicate a +change for the better. + +Had Father Hecker continued in good health there is a chance, though +a desperate one, that he might have overcome all obstacles. Many +zealous souls would have followed his lead. As a specimen we may name +the Vicar-General of San Francisco, Father Prendergast, who, with the +help of a few earnest friends, raised several thousand dollars in +gold in that diocese alone. But in 1871 Father Hecker's strength +began to fail, and in the following year his active life was done. As +already shown, it had been the intention to establish branch +societies everywhere, whose delegates would regularly meet and +control the entire work, giving the Church in America an approved, +powerful auxiliary dominantly made up of laymen. In that sense the +Society never was so much as organized, the number of branch +societies not at any time warranting such a step as a general meeting +of their representatives. The money actually collected was all spent +in printing and circulating the tracts and other publications given +away or sold below cost, Father Hecker and the Paulists managing the +entire work. When the collections gave out, Mr. George V. Hecker +contributed a large sum for continuing the undertaking. The result +was his finding himself in the publishing business, which he was +compelled to place as far as possible on a basis to meet the current +outlay. The Society, as far as its name went, thus became a Catholic +publishing firm, with Mr. Hecker mainly involved financially and Mr. +Kehoe in charge of the business. Mr. Hecker sunk a small fortune in +the Apostolate of the Press, much of it during the hard times between +1873 and 1876. The history of the whole affair is as curious as it is +instructive, and hence we have given a pretty full account of it. It +weighed heavy on Father Hecker's heart, though he astonished his +friends by the equanimity with which he accepted its failure. His +work, if it did not perish in a night like the prophet's gourd, +withered quickly into very singular form and narrow proportions. The +amazement of Protestant bigots at the appearance of the Catholic +tracts, speechless and clamorous by turns; the quaker guns of the +Second Plenary Council, and the bright dreams of a vigorous attack +upon the enemy all along the line and by all classes of clergy and +laity--how Father Hecker did in after years discuss these topics, and +how he did inspire all about him with his own enthusiastic hopes of a +future and more successful effort! When he went to Europe in 1873, +too feeble to hope for recovery, leaving the enterprise behind him in +the same condition as his own broken health, how unmurmuring was his +submission to the Divine and human wills which had brought all to +naught! + +Not more than a few words need be said of his undertaking to buy a +New York daily paper. It happened that in 1871 a prominent journal, a +member of the Associated Press, could be bought for three hundred +thousand dollars. In an instant, as it seems, Father Hecker grasped +the opportunity. By personal appeals to the rich men of the city more +than half the sum required was subscribed, Archbishop McCloskey +heading the list with a large amount. But soon the doctors had to be +called in, and the enterprise went no further. + +How Father Hecker appeared to men when advocating the Apostolate of +the Press, and how he spread the forceful majesty of Catholicity over +his personal surroundings, is shown by Mr. James Parton's words in +the article in the _Atlantic Monthly_ already quoted from: "The +special work of this [the Paulist] community is to bring the steam +printing-press to bear upon the spread of the Catholic religion in +the United States." The resistless missionary power latent in the +Church is thus spoken of by the same writer: + +"What a powerful engine is this! Suppose the six ablest and highest +Americans were living thus, freed from all worldly cares, in an +agreeable, secluded abode, yet near the centre of things, with twelve +zealous, gifted young men to help and cheer them, a thousand +organizations in the country to aid in distributing their writings, +and in every town a spacious edifice and an eager audience to hang +upon their lips. What could they _not_ effect in a lifetime of +well-directed work?" + +What follows, taken from a letter of Father Hecker's while sick in +Europe in 1874, shows one of his aims in the Apostolate of the Press. +It is suggestive of a result since attained, at least partially, in +more than one religious community in America: + +"Monsignor Mermillod desired, early in the fall, that I should see +Canon Schorderet, of this place [Fribourg in Switzerland], as he was +engaged zealously with the press. This was one of my principal +reasons for visiting this place. My surprise has been most gratifying +in finding that he has organized, or rather begun, an association of +girls to set types, etc., who live in community and labor for the +love of God in the Apostolate of the Press. He publishes several +newspapers and journals. The house in which the members live is also +the store and the publishing house. Each girl has her own room. They +are under the patronage of St. Paul. The canon is filled with the +idea of St. Paul as the great patron of the Press, _the first +Christian journalist._ What has long been my dream of a movement of +this nature has found here an incipient realization. Our views in +regard to the mission of the press, and the necessity of running it +for the spread and defence of the faith as a form of Christian +sacrifice in our day, are identical. You can easily fancy what +interest and consolation our meeting and conversation must be to each +other. His movement is the completion of The Catholic Publication +Society of New York." + +As there may be some curiosity about Father Hecker's principles as a +public writer, in point of view of ecclesiastical authority, we give +the following from a letter written just before the Vatican Council: + +"1. Absolute and unswerving loyalty to the authority of the Church, +wherever and however expressed, as God's authority upon earth and for +all time. + +"2. To seek in the same dispositions the true spirit of the Church, +and be unreservedly governed by it as the wisdom of the Most High. + +"3. To keep my mind and heart free from all attachments to schools, +parties, or persons in the Church, Hecker included, so that nothing +within me may hinder the light and direction of the Holy Spirit. + +"4. In case any conflict arises concerning what Hecker may have +spoken or written, or any work or movement in which he may be +engaged, to re-examine. If wrong, make him retract at once. If not, +then ask: Is the question of that importance that it requires +defence, and the upsetting of attacks? If not of this importance, +then not to delay and perhaps jeopardize the progress of other works, +and condemn Hecker to simple silence. + +"5. In the midst of the imperfections, abuses, scandals, etc., of the +human side of the Church, never to allow myself to think or to +express a word which might seem to place a truth of the Catholic +faith in doubt, or to savor of the spirit of disobedience. + +"6. With all this in view, to be the most earnest and ardent friend +of all true progress, and to work with all my might for its promotion +through existing organizations and authorities." + +________________________ + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +THE VATICAN COUNCIL + +IN 1867 Father Hecker visited Europe in company with Father Hewit for +the purpose of opening business relations between The Catholic +Publication Society and English, Irish, and Continental publishers, +as well as to attend the Catholic Congress of Malines held in the +summer of that year. The latter purpose we the chief inducement for +the journey. The Archbishop of New York favored the project of +holding a Catholic Congress in America, and encouraged Father Hecker +to study the proceedings at Malines with this end in view. Their stay +at Malines was full of instruction, as they heard there the renowned +orators, Dupanloup and Montalembert, as well as others of note. The +Catholic Congress of American laymen held in Baltimore a few years +ago, and whose good effects are still felt, would have been assembled +twenty years earlier if Father Hecker could have brought it about. +These meetings were part of his scheme for that moral organization of +Catholic forces which he knew to be so necessary for the fruitful +working of the _official_ unity of the Church. + +In the early part of the year 1869 Pius IX. wrote Father Hecker an +autograph letter commending the various religious works which he and +his community were engaged in, especially the Apostolate of the +Press, and giving them all his blessing. + +"I have good news to tell you," he wrote to a friend. "The Holy +Father has written me the 'tallest' kind of a letter, endorsing every +good work in which I am engaged. Hurrah for Catholicity at +Fifty-ninth Street! My private opinion is that the Holy Father has +gone too far in his endorsement of Hecker. He has made me feel +ashamed of myself and humiliated." + +When Pius IX. called together the Council of the Vatican Father +Hecker was urged by friends, among them several bishops, to go to +Rome for the occasion. The late Bishop Rosecrans, of Columbus, Ohio, +not being able to attend himself, appointed Father Hecker his +Procurator, or proxy. Before his departure he preached a sermon on +the Council in the Paulist Church, which was printed in _The Catholic +World_ for December, 1869. He devoted the greater part of it to +quieting the wild forebodings of timid Catholics and combating the +prognostics of outright anti-Catholics. He concluded by asking the +people to pray that the hopes of a new and brighter era for religion, +to date from this great event, might be fulfilled; for it was +commonly believed and expressly intended that the entire state of the +Church should be considered and legislated upon at the Council. The +breaking out of the Franco-Prussian war, as is well known, together +with the seizure of Rome by the Piedmontese, frustrated these hopes +as to all but the very first part of the work laid out for the +Council. + +Father Hecker arrived in Rome on the 26th of November, 1869. When the +preliminary business of organization had been finished it was +announced that the procurators of absent bishops would not be +admitted to the Council, as the number of prelates present in person +was exceedingly large. But, he writes home: + +"The Archbishop of Baltimore has made me his theologian of his own +accord. This gives me the privilege of reading all the documents of +the Council, of knowing all that takes place in it, its discussions, +etc. As his theologian I take part in the meetings and deliberations +of the American hierarchy, which is, as it were, a permanent council +concerning the interests of the Church in the United States, in which +I feel a strong and special interest." + +Father Hecker had ever been a firm believer in the doctrine of papal +infallibility, as was the case with all American Catholics, prelates, +priests, and people. Shortly before leaving for the Council we heard +him say: "I have always heard the voice of Rome as that of truth +itself." This he also showed very plainly in his farewell sermon. +Speaking of the dread of undue papal influence over the bishops in +the Council, he exclaimed: "All I have to say is, that if the Roman +Court prevail [in the deliberations of the Council], it is the Holy +Ghost who prevails through the Roman Court." But the tone of the +controversy on the subject of papal infallibility, which soon +deafened the world, was too sharp for his nerves, and he abstained +from mingling in it. As a matter of fact he determined to get away +from Rome early in the spring of 1870. If the reader would know what +we deem to have been Father Hecker's frame of mind about the +proceedings of the Council we refer him to Bishop J. L. Spalding's +excellent life of his uncle, the then Archbishop of Baltimore, whose +views of both doctrine and policy were, as far as we can judge, +shared by Father Hecker, who was his intimate and beloved friend. + +But his stay in the Eternal City, at this time more than ever before +the focus of all religious truth, as well as the object of all human +expectancy, had not been uneventful. Very much against his will he +preached one of the sermons of the course given during the octave of +the Epiphany, in the Church of San Andrea della Valle, and later on +another, on an important occasion, in place of Archbishop Spalding, +who had fallen ill. Much of his time he spent with the American +bishops and the distinguished priests who were with them; he renewed +the old-time friendships of his stay in Rome twelve years before, +seeing a good deal of Archbishop Connolly, of Halifax, N. S.; he made +new friends, too, among whom he names especially Mrs. Craven, the +author of the _Recit d'une Soeur;_ and he formed acquaintance with +leading men and women of all nationalities. + +"There is not a day passes," he wrote home, "that I do not make the +acquaintance of persons of great importance, or acquire the knowledge +of matters equally important for me to know; and I gain more in a day +than one could in years at other times. For we may say that the +intelligence, the science and sanctity of the Church are now gathered +into this one city. Yet my heart is in my work at home." + +He had two private audiences with Pius IX., which, though of course +brief, were very interesting; the Pope remembered him, and expressed +his interest in him and his work in America. The following extracts +from letters to his brother George, written very soon after reaching +Rome, recall an old friend: + +"I do not know whether I told you of my interview with Cardinal +Barnabo. He received me literally with open arms. After an hour's +conversation on several matters he ended by saying: 'The affection +and esteem which I had for you when you were here before has been +increased by your labors since then, and my door is always open for +you, and I shall always be glad to see you.' He entertains a high +idea of the importance of _The Catholic World."_ + +"I had a most pleasant interview a few evenings since with Cardinal +Barnabo," he writes in April, 1870, shortly before leaving. "Among +other things he said: 'You ought to be grateful to God for three +reasons: first, He drew you out of heresy; second, He saved you from +shipwreck in Rome; third, He has given you talents, etc., to do great +things for His Church in your country.' He takes great interest in +the Paulists." + +Not alone in Rome did he meet with friends, but what follows, written +home in December, 1869, tells that his name and his vocation had been +made familiar to many observant persons in Europe: + +"It surprises me to find my name familiar everywhere I have been on +my travels. But magazines, newspapers, telegrams, and what-not have +turned the world into a whispering gallery. But the less a man is +known to men the more he knows of God; so it seems to me, as a rule. +Yet great activity may flow as a consequence of intimate union with +Him whom theologians call _Actus Purissimus._ From the fact of his +being known, I entertain no better idea of Father Hecker than I ever +did; and could I get him again in the United States, he will be more +devoted than ever to his work." + +Father Hecker gave his view of the bearing of the Vatican Council on +the future of religion in a letter which will be found below. It +concerns what we have already spoken of at some length and what we +shall again refer to, namely, the relation between the inner and +outer action of the Holy Ghost as factors in the soul's +sanctification. We heard Father Hecker several times affirm that he +received special illumination from God on this subject while in Rome +during the Council, and that something like the very words in which +properly to express himself were then given to him. It was written in +the summer of 1872, but we quote it here before bidding adieu to Rome +and accompanying him in his short pilgrimage among the great shrines +of Italy: + +"These two months past I have been driven away from home to one +place and another by poor health. . . . The definition of the +Vatican Council completes and fixes for ever the external authority +of the Church against the heresies and errors of the last three +centuries. . . . None but the declared enemies of the Church and +misdirected Catholics can fail to see in this the directing +influence of the Holy Ghost. + +"The Vatican Council has placed the Church in battle array, unmasked +the concealed batteries of her enemies; the conflict will be on a +fair and open field, and it will be decisive. The recent hostility of +the governments of Europe, and especially of Italy, against the +Church, has shown the wisdom of the Vatican Council in preparing the +Church to meet the crisis. The definition leaves no longer any doubt +in regard to the authority of the Chief of the Church. + +"For my part I sincerely thank the Jesuits for their influence in +bringing it about, even though that were as great as some people +would have us believe. . . . This had to be done before the Church +could resume her normal course of action. What is that? Why, the +divine external authority of the Church completed, fixed beyond all +controversy, her attention and that of all her children can now be +turned more directly to the divine and interior authority of the Holy +Ghost in the soul. The whole Church giving her attention to the +interior inspirations of the Holy Spirit, will give birth to her +renewal, and enable her to reconquer her place and true position in +Europe and the whole world. For we must never forget that the +immediate means of Christian perfection is the interior direction of +the Holy Spirit, while the test of our being directed by the Holy +Spirit and not by our fancies and prejudices, is our filial obedience +to the divine external authority of the Church. + +"If for three centuries the most influential schools in the Church +gave a preponderance in their teaching and spiritual direction to +those virtues which are in direct relation to the external authority +of the Church, it must be remembered that the heresies of that period +all aimed at the destruction of this authority. The character of this +teaching, therefore, was a necessity. There was no other way of +preserving the children of the Church from the danger of this +infection. If the effect of this teaching made Catholics childlike, +less manly and active than others, this was under the circumstances +inevitable. + +"The definition of the Vatican Council, thanks to the Jesuits, now +gives us freedom to turn our attention in another direction, and to +cultivating other virtues. If one infidel was equal to two Catholics +in courage and action in the past, in the future one Catholic, moved +by the Holy Spirit, will be equal to half-a-dozen or a thousand +infidels and heretics. + +"The stupid Doellingerites do not see or understand that what they +pretend to desire--the renewal of the Church--can only be +accomplished by the reign of the Holy Spirit throughout the Church, +and that this can only be brought about by a filial submission to her +divine external authority. Instead of their insane opposition to the +definition of the Vatican Council and to the Jesuits, whose influence +they have exaggerated beyond all measure, they ought to embrace both +with enthusiasm, as opening the door to the renewal of the Church and +a brighter and more glorious future. . . . To my view there is no +other way or hope for such a future." + +He left Rome and his many warm friends there early in the spring of +1870, and, as he thought, for the last time. He was full of courage, +he was conscious of not only perfect agreement with every credential +of orthodoxy, but of interior impulses of a marvellously inspiring +kind. In a very familiar letter to his brother's family he says that +just before his departure, while standing in one of the great +piazzas, looking at the concourse of representatives of all nations +passing back and forth, gathered to take counsel with the Vicar of +Christ for the well-being of the human race, he was so exhilarated +that he could hardly refrain from calling out, _"Three cheers for +Paradise, and one for the United States!"_ + +"I return with new hope and fresher energy," he writes, "for that +better future for the Church and humanity which is in store for both +in the United States. This is the conviction of all intelligent and +hopeful minds in Europe. They look to the other side of the Atlantic +not only with great interest, but to catch the light which will solve +the problems of Europe. Our course is surely fraught with the +interests, hopes, and happiness of the race. I never felt so much +like acquitting myself as a Christian and a man. The convictions +which have hitherto directed my course have been deepened, confirmed, +and strengthened by recent experience here, and I return to my +country a better Catholic and more an American than ever." + +That he might say Mass daily and at convenient hours while in Rome, +crowded as it was at the time with bishops and priests, he obtained +leave to do so in his own rooms. He made little pilgrimages to the +great shrines of the Holy City, especially those of the Apostles and +the typical martyrs, not forgetting, of course, his favorite modern +saints, Philip Neri and Ignatius Loyola. The following are extracts +from letters home telling of his celebration of St. Paul's Conversion +and of the martyrdom of St. Agnes. The reader will remember that the +"association of women" here mentioned was one of his earliest ideas, +and one of the many whose realization Providence has given over, let +us hope, to some souls especially favored by Father Hecker's gifts: + +"I pray much for each member of the community, and for light to guide +it in the way of God. Within a short period much light has been given +to me, and the importance of our work and its greatness have +impressed me greatly, more than ever before. Yesterday I went to the +Basilica of St. Paul, being the feast of his conversion, especially +to invoke his aid. I felt that my visit was not in vain. . . . I +forgot no one of our dear community. . . . On the 21st I said Mass in +the catacombs of St. Agnes; it was the day of her feast. More than +twenty persons were present, friends and acquaintances. I gave eleven +communions, and made a little discourse at the close of the Holy +Sacrifice. The scene was most solemn and affecting. + +"What did I pray for? [during my Mass in St. Agnes's Catacomb]. For +you all, especially for the future. What future? How shall I name it? +The association of women in our country to aid the work of God +through the Holy Church for its conversion. My convictions become +fixed, and my determination to begin the enterprise consecrated. + +"At the close of the Mass I made a short discourse. Think of it, +preaching once more in the Catacombs, surrounded with the tombs where +the martyrs are laid and where the voice of the martyrs had spoken! +You can imagine that the impression was profound and solemn on us +all. It was a piece of foolhardiness on my part to open my lips and +speak, when everything around us spoke so impressively and solemnly +to our heads. I will attempt to interpret this speech: In the days of +Agnes, Christians were called upon to resist and conquer physical +persecution. In our day we are called upon to overcome intellectual +and social opposition. They conquered! We shall conquer! Agnes tells +us there is no excuse for cowardice. Agnes was young, Agnes was weak, +Agnes was a girl, and she conquered! One Agnes can conquer the +opposition of the nineteenth century. Such in substance was my +discourse. The whole scene caused every one to be bathed in tears." + +After leaving Rome he went straight to Assisi, for whose saint he had +ever felt a very powerful attraction. He thus describes his +impressions: + +"The people that I have seen about here have a milder countenance and +a more cheerful look, more refined and human than the Italians around +Rome. They are to the other Italians what the Swabians are to the +other Germans. It is easy for the Minnesinger of the human, to become +the Minnesinger of Divine love. + +"I could have kissed the stones of the streets of the town when I +remembered that St. Francis had trodden these same streets, and the +love and heroism which beat in his heart. . . . I said Holy Mass at +the tomb of St. Francis, and in presence of his body this morning--a +votive Mass of the Saint. It seems I could linger weeks and weeks +around this holy spot. . . . What St. Francis did for his age one +might do for one's own. He touched the chords of feeling and of +aspiration in the hearts of the men and women of his time and +organized them for action. St. Dominic did the same for the +intellectual wants of the time. Why not do this for our age? Who +shall so touch the springs of men's hearts and reach their minds as +to lead them to the desire of united action, and organize them so as +to bring forth great results? There is no doubt that the age wants +this. Who is there that is inspired from a higher sphere of life, and +sees into the future, so as to be able to speak to men and to invite +them to do the work of God in our day? Who takes all humanity into +his heart, and with the past and present at once in his mind can +inspire men to live and act for the divine future?" + +He also visited the Holy House at Loretto, and, passing through +Venice and Milan to see the great churches of these cities, "the +despair of all modern church-builders," as he says, he came finally +to Genoa. + +"I turned my steps," he writes, "to the general hospital; and why? +Because the interest of my heart was there, and has been there for +upward of twenty years. It is the spot where St. Catherine of Genoa +labored for the miserable, loved God, and sanctified her soul. Her +body is in a crystal case, uncorrupted, withered in appearance but +not unpleasant to the sight. When the curtain was withdrawn and I +could see her face and her feet, which were uncovered, I could not +help exclaiming with the Psalmist, 'God is wonderful in His saints!' +I cannot express what an attraction I have always felt for St. +Catherine of Genoa. She knew how to reconcile the greatest fidelity +to the interior attrait and guidance of the Holy Spirit with perfect +filial obedience to the external and divine authority of the Holy +Church. She knew how to reconcile the highest degree of divine +contemplation with the greatest extent of works of external charity. +She was a heroic lover of God, for she resisted His gifts, lest she +might forget the Giver in them, and be hindered the entire possession +of Him, and the complete union of her soul with Him. As a virgin she +was pure, a model as a wife, and as a widow a saint! Her writings on +the spiritual life are masterpieces, and though a woman, no man has +surpassed, if any has equalled, the eloquence of her pen." + +He procured an excellent copy of St. Catherine's portrait preserved +at the hospital, and brought it home with him. He had done the same +for Sts. Philip and Ignatius before leaving Rome. St. Catherine's +picture represents a handsome face, earnest, simple, and joyful; she +is dressed plainly as a devout woman living in the world, lovely to +look upon and inspiring love of God and man in the beholder. + +Father Hecker's stay in Europe during the winter of 1869-70 and the +following spring awakened in his soul aspirations towards a wide and +enduring religious movement in the Old World, similar to that which +he had started in the New. At the time he did not anticipate any +personal share in it other than encouragement and direction from +America. The reader will learn in the sequel that these aspirations +were again felt, and that with renewed force, when he returned to +Europe in ill health three years later. + +What follows is from a pocket diary, and from a letter home: + +"The work that Divine Providence has called us to do in our own +country, were its spirit extended throughout Europe, would be the +focus of new light and an element of regeneration. Our country has a +providential position in our century in relation to Europe, and our +efforts to Catholicize and sanctify it give it an importance, in a +religious aspect, of a most interesting and significant character." + +"I do not wish to cross the Atlantic ever again, and therefore would +like to finish with Europe and Italy. As for the notable men of the +day, I have seen many of them--enough of them. My present experience +in one way and another seems to have prepared me to lay a foundation +for action which will be suitable not only for the present but for +centuries to come. No one of my previous convictions have been +disturbed, but much strengthened and enlarged and settled. I see +nothing, practically, in which I am engaged, that, were it in my +power, I would now wish to alter or abandon. I shall return with the +resolution to continue them with more confidence, more zeal, more +energy." + +He arrived in New York in June, 1870. + +________________________ + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +THE LONG ILLNESS + +WE have now arrived at the last period of Father Hecker's life, the +long illness which completed his meed of suffering and of merit, and +gradually drew him down to the grave. It will not be expected that we +shall treat extensively of this subject; nor can one who writes in +the beginning of the '90s about the closing scenes of a life which +ended late in the '80s go very much into detail without bringing in +the living. As to Father Hecker's latter days in this world, it may +be said that his joy and courage and buoyancy of spirits, as well as +his hopeful outlook upon men and things, were all tried in the +furnace of extreme bodily suffering as well as of the most +excruciating mental agony. + +Four distinct epochs divide Father Hecker's life: one when in early +days he was driven from home and business and ultimately into the +Church by aspirations towards a higher life; another marks the +extraordinary dealings of God with his soul during his novitiate and +time of studies; the third was the struggle in Rome which produced +the Paulist community; the fourth and last was the illness which we +are now to consider. The closing scenes of his life are scattered +over more than sixteen years, filled with almost every form of pain +of body and darkness of soul. + +From severe colds, acute headaches, and weakness of the digestive +organs Father Hecker was a frequent sufferer. But towards the end of +the year 1871 his headaches became much more painful, his appetite +left him, and sleeplessness and excitability of the nervous system +were added to his other ailments. Remedies of every kind were tried, +but without permanent relief, and, although he lectured and preached +and did his other work all winter and most of the following spring, +his weakness increased, until by the summer of 1872 he was wholly +incapacitated. The winter of 1872-3 was spent in the South without +notable improvement, and early in the following summer, acting upon +the advice of physicians, he went to Europe. "Look upon me as a dead +man," he said with tears as he bade the community farewell; "God is +trying me severely in soul and body, and I must have the courage to +suffer crucifixion." He also assured us that whatever action should +be taken in adopting the Constitutions, then under consideration, had +his hearty approval beforehand. He was accompanied to Europe by +Father Deshon, from whom he parted with deep emotion at Ragatz, a +health resort in Switzerland. + +Father Hecker remained more than two years in Europe, trying every +change of climate and scene, and every other remedy advised by +physicians, and returned to New York in October, 1875, with +unimproved health. He had derived most benefit from a journey up the +Nile in the winter of 1873-4, and a short visit to the Holy Land in +the following spring. While in Europe his mind was busy, and he +managed to meet many of his old friends there, and formed new and +important acquaintances. In February, 1875, he published his +pamphlet, _An Exposition of the Church in View of the Present Needs +of the Age,_ which contains his estimate of the evils of our times, +especially in Europe, and the adequate remedy for them. On his return +to New York he was too weak to bear the routine of the house in +Fifty-ninth Street and lived with his brother George till the fall of +1879, when he removed to the convent, remaining with the community +till his death nine years afterwards. + +As to the physical sufferings of those last sixteen years, they were +never such as to impair Father Hecker's mental soundness. He never +had softening of the brain, as the state of his nerves before going +to Europe seemed to indicate; nor had he heart disease, as was for a +time suspected. His mental powers were intact from first to last, +though his organs of speech were sometimes too slow for his thoughts. +His digestion had been impaired by excessive abstinence in early +manhood, dating back to a time before he was a Catholic, and his +nervous system, also, had been injured by that means, as well as by +the pressure of excessive work in later life. Gradual impoverishment +of the blood was the result, and the dropping down of nervous force, +till at last the body struck work altogether. Four or five years +before his death Father Hecker became subject to frequent attacks of +angina pectoris, said to be the most painful of all diseases. During +the sixteen years of illness every symptom of bodily illness was +aggravated by the least attention to community affairs or business +matters, and also by interior trials which will presently be +described. + +He was not unwilling to trace his breaking down to excessive +austerity in former years. Once when asked for advice about corporal +mortification he answered: "Don't go too fast. Remember St. Bernard's +regret for having gone too far with such things in his youth. For my +part, for many years I practised frightful penances, and now I fear +that much of my physical helplessness is due to that cause." His +state was not one of utter debility, though that quickly resulted if +watchfulness were relaxed, or from application to responsible duties. +But his strength never was to much to speak of, "only so, so," to use +his own expressions, which signified a very small amount of the power +of exertion or endurance in the muscles and nerves. + +"What about my health?" he wrote from Europe. "There are days when I +feel quite myself, and then others when I sink down to the bottom. My +condition of mind and body often perplexes me, and there is nothing +left me but to abandon all into the hands of Divine Providence. The +end of it all is entirely in the dark, and were there not parallel +epochs in my past life, and similar things in the lives of some +others which I have read, my perplexity would be greater." + +And again, from Ragatz, in the summer of 1875: + +"My state of health is much the same. I found last week that my pulse +was bounding in a few hours from the sixties into the nineties +without any apparent cause. Yesterday I determined to consult the +leading physician here. He examined me, and, like all others, +attributes everything to my nerves, resulting from impoverished +blood. I say to myself: 1st, How long will the machine keep working +in this style? 2d, There will be a smash-up some day. 3d, Or perhaps +I shall be able to get up more steam and run it a while longer. Who +knows?" + +And in another letter from the same place: + +"Even here, freed from all [labors], it often seems to me that a good +breeze, if it struck me in the right place, would drive the soul out +of my body, so lightly is it connected with it, so slightly do they +hold together." + +As already said, his trip to Egypt had given him a temporary relief, +and this was due, so he supposed, to utter change of scene and to +solitude. When it was over he wrote as follows: + +"This trip has been in every respect much more to my benefit than my +most sanguine expectations led me to hope. It seems to me almost like +an inspiration, such have been its beneficial effects to my mind and +body. In Nubia there reigned profound silence and repose, and in +lower Egypt, although there is more activity and evidence of modern +life, still it is quiet and tranquil. I feel somewhat like one who +has been in solitude for three or four months." + +"My daily regime," he writes to his brother and Mrs. Hecker, from +Italy, "has not changed these two years which I have spent in Europe. +If I rise before nine I feel it the whole day. In the morning I awake +about seven for good, and take a cup of tea with some bread and +butter. I then read; sometimes, not often, I write a note in bed, and +rise about nine or ten. I take a lunch at twelve and dine at six. My +appetite is not much at any time. My sleep, so so. [All through his +illness he went to bed at nine or shortly after.] I feel for the most +part like a man balancing whether he will keep on swimming or go +under the water. Sometimes I take a nap two or three times a day--if +I can get it. There are weeks when I do not and cannot put my pen to +paper. To write a note is a great effort. . . . Though my strength is +so little my mind is not unoccupied, and I keep up some reading." + +Just in what way his spiritual difficulties accelerated his bodily +decline it is hard to say, for he was generally extremely reticent as +to his interior life. A few words dropped unawares and at long +intervals, and carefully taken down at the time, give fleeting +glimpses into a soul which was a dark chamber of sorrow, though it +was sometimes peaceful sorrow. To this we can fortunately add some +sentences written in an unusually confidential mood in letters from +Europe. Before his illness he was over-joyful, or so it seemed to +some to whom this trait of his was a temptation. "Why," it was said, +"religion seems to have no penitential side to Father Hecker at all." +From the day of his ordination until his illness began he might have +made the Psalmist's words his own: "There be many that say, Who shall +show us any good? Lord, Thou hast set upon us the light of Thy +countenance, Thou hast put gladness in my heart." But now the light +of that radiant joy had faded away, and the face of God, though as +present as ever before, loomed over him dark, threatening, and +majestic. He had studied spiritual doctrine too well not to be ready +for this trial, nor had it been sent to him without warning. +Nevertheless the sensible presence of God's love had been so vivid +and constant that he could alternate the joy of labor with that of +prayer with the greatest ease. And now it was an alternation, not of +choice but of dire compulsion, between bitter, helpless inaction, and +a state of prayer which was a mere dread of an all-too-near Judge. It +seemed to him as if he had boasted, "I said in my abundance I shall +not be moved for ever," and now he must end the inspired sentence, +"Thou hast turned away Thy face from me and I became troubled." When +this obscuration of the Divine Love first grew upon him the misery of +it was intolerable and was borne with extreme difficulty. The pain +was lessened at intervals as time passed on, and before a year had +elapsed, his letters from Europe, though they did not before complain +of desolation, now show its previous existence by hailing the advent +of seasons of interior peace. But from beginning to end of this +entire period of his life we have not found a word of his speaking of +joy. And again, even the peace would go and the desolation return; +the face of God, not any time smiling, had lost its calm regard and +was once more bent frowning upon him. The following extracts from +letters written from Switzerland in the autumn of 1874, and within a +month of each other, tell of these alternations of storm and calm: + +"As to my health these last ten days I cannot say much. My interior +trials have been such that it would be impossible that my health +should improve under them. As long as they last I must expect to +suffer. I see nothing before me but darkness, and there is nothing +within my soul but desolation and bitterness. Cut off from all that +formerly interested me, banished as it were from home and country, +isolated from everything, the doors of heaven shut, I feel +overwhelmed with misery and crushed to atoms. My being away from my +former duties is a negative relief; it frees me from the additional +burden and trouble which would necessarily fall upon me if I were +within reach." + +"There remains nothing for me but to confide in, to follow, and +abandon myself to that Guide who has directed me from the beginning. +I read Job, Jeremias, and Thomas a Kempis, and meditate on the +sufferings of Our Lord and the character of His death. I recall to +mind what I have read on these matters in spiritual writers and the +Lives of the Saints. I reflect how from the very nature of the +purification of the soul this darkness, bitterness, and desolation +must be; but not a drop of consolation is distilled into my soul. The +only words which come to my lips are 'My soul is sad unto death,' and +these I repeat and repeat again. At all times, in rising and in going +to bed, in company and at my meals, I whisper them to myself, while +to others I appear cheerful and join in the talk. At the most I can +but die; this is the lot of all, and no one can tell the moment when. + +"Withal, I try to have patience, resignation, endurance, and trust in +God, waiting on His guidance and leaving all in His hands." + +"Since my last I have had some relief from my interior trials, and no +sooner does this take place than my body recovers some of its +strength. It would not have been possible for me to have borne much +longer the desolation which filled my soul. Each new trial, when +passed, leaves me more quiet and tranquil. Past periods of my life +give me hope that this trial will also come to an end. What will that +be? How will it happen? and when? God alone knows. He that has led me +so many years still guides me, and resistance to His will is worse +than vain. Judging from that same past, my expectations to return to +my former labors are not sanguine. It seems to me sometimes that I am +cut off from these to be prepared for a deeper and broader basis for +future action. But whether this will be so or not, is in the hands of +God. Whatever He wills me to do, I must do it. My own will has become +null, and all that is left for me to do is to wait on His good +pleasure and His own time. To act or not to act, to suffer or not to +suffer, to speak or to keep silence, to return to my former labors or +never to return, to live on or die, all have become indifferent to +me. I am in God's hands, with no will of my own; for He has taken it, +and it is for Him to do with me whatever He pleases. If this be a +source of pain to others, none but God knows what it has cost me. +There as nothing, therefore, left but to wait in trust on God's will +and His mercy and good pleasure." + +And again the darkened heavens are above him: + +"Death invited, alas! will not come. What a relief it would be from a +continuous and prolonged death!" + +The obscurity of the drawing of the Holy Ghost, as well as of God's +designs, and his incessant fretting against this, partly involuntary +and, as he confesses, partly voluntary also, "disturbs my health and +reduces my strength." + +Next to the evil self-company of an unforgiven sinner there is no +loneliness so sad as that of the invalid. He needs company most who +is worst company for himself. Yet Father Hecker has not left a single +word which would suggest that during more than two years of absence +from all his life associates in religion, as well as from his blood +kindred, whom he loved with a powerful love, he felt the lack of +human companionship. One reason for this was his contemplative +nature, and this was the main reason. He was born to be a hermit, and +was an active liver only by being born again for a special vocation. +Another reason was that his mind was so constituted that, when +subjected to trial, it rested better when quite out of sight of +everybody and everything associated with past responsibilities. He +bade adieu to Father Deshon when the latter left him at Ragatz with +sorrow, but without reluctance; and when a year afterwards at was +suggested that one of the community should come to Europe and keep +him company, he refused without hesitation, saying that his companion +would be burdened with a sick man's infirmities, or the sick man +distressed by his companion's inactivity on his account. But towards +the very end of his life there were times when he felt the need of +congenial company and was extremely grateful for it. But this did not +happen often, and when it did it was because the waves of despondency +which submerged him were heavier and darker than usual. + +The following extract from a letter shows this state of mind: + +"As I get somewhat more accustomed to my separation from all that was +so dear to me, the strangeness of my position seems to me more and +more inexplicable. All the things which are going on in Fifty-ninth +Street were once all to me, and nothing appeared beyond. To be +separated from all; to look upon one's past as a dream; to become a +stranger to one's self, wandering from city to city, from country to +country, ever in a strange land and among strangers; to be attached +to nothing; to see no definite future; to be an enigma to one's self; +to find no light in any one to guide me, isolated from all except +God--who will explain what all this means? where it will end? and how +soon? As I become resigned to this state of things my health suffers +less. Occasionally my interior trials and struggles are almost +insupportable, but less so than if I were surrounded by those who +have an affection for me. To worry others without their being able to +give me any relief would only increase my suffering, and finally +become unbearable. All is for the best! God's will be done!" + +What he wrote to a friend suffering from illness he applied to +himself; he made spiritual profit, as best he might, from separation +from the men and the vocation he loved so well: + +"I can sympathize with you more completely in your sickness being +myself not well. To be shut off from the world, and cut off from +human activity--and this is what it means to be sick--gives the soul +the best conditions to love God alone, and this is Paradise upon +earth. Blessed sickness! which detaches the soul from all creatures +and unites it to its sovereign Good. But one's duties and +responsibilities, what of these in the meantime? We must give them +all up one day, and why not now? We think ourselves necessary, and +others try to make us believe the same; there is but little truth and +much self-love in this. 'What else do I require of thee,' says our +Lord in Thomas a Kempis, 'than that thou shouldst resign thyself +integrally to Me.' This is what our Lord is fighting for in our +souls." + +Yet in having his life-work torn away from him he was like a man +whose leg has been crushed and then amputated, the phantom of the +lost limb aching in every muscle, bone, and nerve. This was partly +the secret of his pain while in Europe, at the mere thought of his +former active life; it haunted him with memories of its lost +opportunities, its shortcomings in motive or achievement, or what he +fancied to be such, in view of the Divine justice, now always +reckoning with him. + +He was ever cheerful in word, even when the pallor of his face and +the blazing of his eyes betrayed his bodily and spiritual pain. "The +end of religion is joy, joy here no less than joy hereafter," he once +insisted, and he argued long and energetically for the proposition; +but meantime he was racked with inner agony and was too feeble to +walk alone. In his letters and diaries he speaks of his illness and +of its symptoms as of those of another person of whom he was giving +news. + +His wanderings in Europe were like gropings after the Divine will in +the midst of the spirit's night, often in anguish, often in +tranquillity, never in his former bounding joy, always with +submission, beforehand, at the moment, and afterwards. Although the +Divine Will gave a cold welcome, he sought no other refuge. + +"There are a thousand things," he writes, "that would worry me if I +would only let them, but with God's help I keep them on at arm's +length. His grace suffices, or in His presence all the things of this +world disappear. God alone has been always the whole desire of my +heart, and what else can I wish than that His will may be wholly +fulfilled in me. Having rooted everything else out of my heart, and +cut me off from all things, what other desire can I have than that He +who has begun the work should finish it according to His design. It +is not important that I should know what that design is; it is enough +that I am in His hands, to do with me whatever He pleases. To be and +to live in His presence is all." + +And again: + +"The mind quiet both as to the past and the future, contented with +the present moment: as to the past, leaving it out of sight; as to +the future, unsolicitous. As to the present, satisfied to be +outwardly homeless, cut on from all past friendships and relations. +The present gives me all the conditions required for preparation for +the future. Any time these two years past I would have made an entire +renunciation of all relations to my past labors and position, but +waited as a dictate of prudence. Now I feel ready to make it with +calmness and in view of all its consequences." + +"No sooner do I set my mind to pray than God fills it with Himself," +Father Hecker was once heard to say. And this power of prayer by no +means left him after 1872; only that the God who filled him was no +longer revealed as the Supreme Love, but as the Supreme Majesty. +"There was once a priest," he said, speaking of himself, "who had +been very active for God, until at last God gave him a knowledge of +the Divine Majesty. After seeing the Majesty of God that priest felt +very strange and was much humbled, and knew how little a thing he was +in comparison with God." Comparison with God! It was this that gave +him, as it did Job, a terror of the Divine justice beyond words to +express, and impressed that air of spiritual dejection upon him which +struck his old friends as so strongly in contrast with his former +happy and vivacious manners. "You will never know," he once said, +while being helped into bed after a very sad day, "how much I have +suffered till you are in heaven." Meantime this awful Deity, so +prompt to enter Father Hecker's mind, coming at times like a +withering blast from the desert, was still the only attraction of his +soul, the only object of his love. He could no more keep his mind off +God now than he could before, and now God killed him, and then He +made him alive. The ideas of the Divine goodness, patience, mercy, +and love which formerly welled up in abundant floods at the thought +of God, at the same thought now were dried up and disappeared. "Oh!" +he once exclaimed, "if I could only be sure that I shall not be +damned!" This was said unawares while listening to the life of a +saint. The reader will, therefore, understand that Father Hecker's +inner trouble was not a state of mere aridity, a difficulty of +concentration of mind on spiritual things, or a vagrancy of thought; +it was a perpetual facing of his Divine Accuser and Judge, a +trembling woe at the sight of Infinite Majesty on the part of one for +whom the Divine love was the one necessary of life for soul and body. +Yet he knew that this was really a higher form of prayer than any he +had yet enjoyed, that it steadily purified his understanding by +compelling ceaselessly repeated acts of faith in God's love, purified +his will by constant resignation of every joy except God alone--God +received by any mode in which it might please the Divine Majesty to +reveal Himself. He was, therefore, willing, nay, in a true sense, +glad thus to walk by mere faith and live by painful love. "I should +deem it a misfortune if God should cure me of my infirmities and +restore me to active usefulness, so much have I learned to appreciate +the value of my passive condition of soul." This he said less than +three years before his death. And about the same time, to a very +intimate friend: "God revealed to me in my novitiate that at some +future time I should suffer the crucifixion. I have always longed for +it; but oh, now that it has come it is hard, oh, it is terrible!" And +this he said weeping. + +One aspect of the Divine Majesty which threatened for years to +overpower him was the Last Judgment. "God has given me to see the +terrors of the day of judgment," he once said, "and it has tried me +with dreadful severity; but it is a wonderfully great privilege." +Humility grew upon him day by day. No one who knew him well in his +day of greatest power could think him a proud man, but his confidence +in his vocation, and in himself is God's representative, had been +immense. The following, from a memorandum, shows how he ended: + +"I told him how courageous I felt. _Answer:_ That is the way I used +to feel. I used to say, O Lord! I feel as if I had the whole world on +my shoulders; and all I've got to say is, O Lord! I am sorry you've +given me such small potatoes to carry on my back. But now--well, when +a mosquito comes in I say, Mosquito, have you any good to do me? Yes? +Then I thank you, for I am glad to get good from a mosquito." + +It will thus be seen that whatever diseases may have enfeebled Father +Hecker's body, his spirit suffered from a malady known only to great +souls--thirst for God. This gave him rest neither day nor night, or +allowed him intervals of peace only to return with renewed force. +Some men love gold too much for their peace of mind, some love women +too much, and some power; men like Father Hecker love the Infinite +Good too much to be happy in soul or sound in body unless He be +revealed to them as a loving father. And this knowledge of God once +possessed and lost again, although it breeds a purer, a more +perfectly disinterested love, leaves both soul and body in a state of +acute distress. "My soul thirsteth for Thee, my flesh longeth for +Thee, in a dry and desert land without water." + +Tried by these visitations, he was free to acknowledge that in past +times he had been favored above others: + +"Oh! there was a time," he said, "when I was borne along high above +nature by the grace of God, and I feared that I should die without +being subject to nature, and should never feel the need of the +supernatural. But for many years now I have been left by God to my +natural weakness and get nothing whatever except what I earn." + +The following words of his indicate the cleansing process of these +divine influences; it is from memoranda: + +"He said to me once, after he had been for nine or ten years subject +to almost unceasing desolation of spirit, 'all this suffering, though +it has been excruciating, has greatly purified me and was of the last +necessity to me. Oh, how proud I was! how vain I was! And these long +years of abandonment by God have healed me.' I think this was the +only time I ever knew him to connect his sufferings with fault. What +he said may have referred to the mere temper and frame of his mind +rather than to particular, specific faults. He undoubtedly thought +more highly of human nature before that desolation began than he did +at the end of it." + +Meantime he used every aid for the assuagement of his interior +sufferings, just as he conscientiously tried every means for the +restoration of his bodily health. Good books helped him greatly. He +recited his Breviary as he would read a new and interesting book, +underlining here and there, and noting on the margins. But during +most of his time of illness his infirmities made the Divine Office +impossible. Every day he read or had read to him some parts of the +Scriptures in English. "Without the Book of Job," he used to say, "I +would have broken down completely." Lallemant, St. John of the Cross, +St. Teresa, St. Catherine of Genoa, and other authors of a mystical +tendency he frequently used. But next to the Scriptures no book +served him so well during his illness as _Abandonment, or Entire +Surrender to Divine Providence_, a small posthumous treatise of Father +P. J. Caussade, S.J., edited and published by Father H. Ramiere, +S.J., with a strong defence of the author's doctrine by way of +preface. At Father Hecker's suggestion it we translated into English +by Miss Ella McMahon, and has already soothed many hearts in +difficulties of every kind. It is an ingenious compendium of all +spiritual wisdom, but it seemed to Father Hecker that submission to +the Divine Will is taught in its pages as it has never been done +since the time of the Apostles. The little French copy which he used +is thumbed all to pieces. He used it incessantly when in great +trouble of mind and knew it almost by heart. As he read its sentences +or heard them read he would ejaculate, "Ah, how sweet that is!" "Oh, +what a great truth!" "Oh, that is a most consoling doctrine!" just as +a man exhausted with thirst and covered with dust, as he drinks and +bathes at a gushing fountain in the desert, calls out and sighs and +smiles. + +Did he not find men here and there in his travels with whom he would +take counsel and who could comfort him? There is little trace of it, +though he never lacked sympathetic friends for his bodily ailments. +In truth he tried to maintain a cheerful exterior, though +occasionally he failed in his attempts to do so. Only once do we find +by his letters and diaries that he opened his mind freely on his +interior difficulties while in Europe, and that was to Cardinal +Deschamps, who gave him, he writes, very great comfort. + +No part of his sojourn in the Old World pleased and profited him so +much as his trip up the Nile in the winter of 1873-4. + +"In information of most various kinds," he writes, "it has been the +richest four months of my whole life. The value intellectually and +religiously as well as physically is incalculable. Given but one +trip, it would puzzle me to name any which can compare with that up +the Nile to Wady-Halfa. Nubia must be included. It has something of +its own which you can find neither in Egypt nor elsewhere: silence, +repose, almost total solitude, and its own peculiar people." + +His companions were few in number and congenial in tastes, the +climate mild and equable, and the people and country altogether +novel. The journey, which extended into Nubia, was made in a +flat-boat, the _Sittina Miriam el Adra--Our Lady Mary the +Virgin_--the sail propelling them when the wind was fair, the crew +towing them in calm weather; when the wind was contrary they tied up +to the bank. The progress was, of course, slow, and yet his diary, +the only one written during his illness with ample entries, shows +that every day gave new enjoyment. He was provided with letters which +enabled him to say Mass at the missionary stations along the river. +The wonderful ruins of the ancient cities of Egypt gave him much +entertainment. But his mind dwelt fondly on thoughts of Abraham, +Joseph, and the chosen people, and especially upon the Holy Family, +as well as the monks of the desert. He was much interested in the +Mohammedan natives; their open practice of prayer, the instinctive +readiness with which the idea of God and of eternity was welcomed to +their thoughts, and, withal, their utter religious stagnation, which +he traced to their ignorance of the Trinity, filled his mind with +questions. How to convert these sluggish contemplatives, what type of +Catholicity would be likely to flourish in the East, and how it could +be reconciled with the stirring traits of the West, busied his mind. +He often recalls his distant friends and contrasts new America with +old Egypt. He wrote home when opportunity served, as thus to Father +Hewit: + +"With the hope that this note will reach you in due season, I greet +you from this land from which Moses taught, and which our infant +Saviour trod, with a right merry Christmas and a happy New Year to +yourself and all the members of the community, all in the house, and +the parishioners of St. Paul's. In my prayers all have a share and in +the Holy Sacrifice of the altar. My heart and its affections are +present with you. Could I realize its desire, I would shed a +continuous flow of blessings on each one of you like a great river +Nile--the river which Abraham saw and whose banks were hallowed by +the footsteps of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Remember me especially in +all your prayers on these great festivals. Offer up a Mass for my +special intention on each of them." + +The excursion to Nubia and back did him so much good physically, and +left his mind with a peace which seemed so settled, that for a time +he had strong hopes of recovery; but he was soon undeceived. + +On the 15th of April Father Hecker left Cairo for Jerusalem, and +spent some weeks in the Holy Land, continuing to enjoy an interval of +spiritual relief. He writes: + +"In reciting the Gloria and the Credo, after having been in the +localities where the great mysteries which they express took place, +one is impressed in a wonderful manner with their actuality. The +truths of our holy faith seem to saturate one's blood, enter into +one's flesh, and penetrate even to the marrow of one's bones." + +The first greeting which he sent from the holy places was a letter to +his mother, full of expressions of the most tender affection and +gratitude, as well as of ardent religious emotions produced by moving +among the scenes of our Lord's life. He enclosed a little bunch of +wild flowers plucked from Mount Sion. He soon returned to Europe to +escape the hot summer of Palestine, and began his round of visits to +health resorts, shrines, and occasionally to a friend of more than +usual attraction. His brother John died about this time, and this +news drew from him a letter of encouragement and condolence to their +mother. To George Hecker and his wife he wrote often, his letters +being full of affection, of entire submission to the Divine Will, and +of religious sentiments. + +The following may be of interest as indicating the return of his +disconsolate frame of mind: + +"I have taken to writing fables. Here is one: Once upon a time a bird +was caught in a snare. The more it struggled to free itself, the more +it got entangled. Exhausted, it resolved to wait with the vain hope +that the fowler, when he came, would set it at liberty. His +appearance, however, was not the signal for its restoration to +smiling fields and fond companions, but the forerunner of death at +his hands. Foolish bird! why did you go into the snare? Poor thing; +it could not find food anywhere, and it was famishing with hunger; +the seed was so attractive, and he who had baited the trap knew it +full well, and that the bird could not resist its appetite. The +fowler is our Lord. The bait is Divine Love. The bird is the soul. O +skillful catcher of souls! O irresistible bait of Divine Love! O +pitiable victim! but most blessed soul; for in the hands of our Lord +the soul only dies to self to be transformed into God." + +In all his journeyings in search of beneficial change of air or for +the use of medicinal waters, he endeavored to take in the famous +shrines; as for places noted in profane history, or the usual resorts +of tourists, there is not the least mention of them in his letters, +unless an exception be made in favor of those in Egypt and some art +galleries in Europe. But, "attracted by St. Catherine," he went back +to her relics at Genoa once more. Drawn by St. Francis de Sales, he +made a visit to Annecy which had a soothing effect upon him, for that +saint was another of his favorites. He often went out of his way to +see a friend, or to seek the acquaintance of some man or woman of +reputation in religious circles, and he was himself surprised at the +number of those who had heard of him and wished to know him. He +readily formed acquaintances, and American, English, and French +fellow-travellers could easily have his conversation and company on +condition that they would converse on religious matters, or on the +graver social and racial topics. It was not a little singular that, +although suffering from weakness of the nervous system, he could talk +abstruse philosophy by the hour without mental fatigue. Discussing +such points as the different movements of nature and grace, the +various theories of apprehending the existence of God, or how to +bring about conviction in the minds of non-Catholics on the claims of +the Church, he could tire the strong brain of a well man. It was the +things below which tired him. He illustrated his conversation by +gleams of light reflected from his past experience. When +circumstances condemn such generous souls as Father Hecker to +inactivity, a favorite solace is picking up fragments of work or +recalling high ideas from the crowded memory of their former zeal, +often with much profit to those who listen. And this was no +idle-minded or boastful trait in him, as we see from the following: + +"Be assured I shall not follow my own will if I can help it. Every +dictate of prudence and wisdom will be my guide. Until the clouds +clear away I shall be quiet, waiting, watching and praying, seeking +for light wherever there is a reasonable prospect of obtaining it. In +the meanwhile my time is not misspent. The journeys which I have +made, the persons whom I have met on my way--these and a thousand +other things incident to my present way of life are the best of +educators for improving one's mind, for correcting one's judgments, +and for giving greater breadth to one's thoughts. . . . It seems to +me that I almost see visibly and feel palpably the blessing of divine +grace on the work of the community, in its harmony, in the success of +its missions, in the special graces to its members, in their +cheerfulness and zeal: all this, too, in my absence. My absence, +therefore, cannot be displeasing to the Divine Will; rather these +things seem to indicate the contrary, and they awake in my soul an +inexpressible consolation." + +But he said to one of his brethren afterwards: "Oh, father! I was sad +all the time that I was in Europe. Why so? Well, it was because I was +away from home, away from my work, away from my companions. And that +was why I attached myself while there to those persons who felt as we +did, and were of like views, and participated in our aims and +purposes." + +How he felt about his chances of recovery is shown by the following: + +"I have nothing further to say about my health than that I have none. +Were I twelve hours, or six, in my former state of health, my +conscience would give me no moment of peace in my present position. +It would worry me and set me to work. As it is I am tranquil, at +peace, and doing nothing except willingly bearing feebleness and +inertia." + +From Paris, June 2, 1874, he writes to George and Josephine Hecker of +a visit to Cardinal Deschamps in Brussels, where he met his old +director, Father de Buggenoms. He expressed himself fully to them +about the state of religion in Europe, and, although both were his +admirers and warm friends, it was only on the third day that he made +himself fully understood, and disabused their minds of reserves and +suspicions. But before leaving "a complete understanding, warm +sympathy, and entire approval" was the result. In one of the earlier + + + +CHAPTERs of this Life we have adverted to Father Hecker's difficulty +in making himself understood. On this occasion he suffered much pain, +for which, he says, the joy of the final agreement amply repaid him. + +He formed an intimate friendship with the Abbe Xavier Dufresne, a +devout and enlightened priest of Geneva, and with his father, Doctor +Dufresne, well known as the mainstay of all the works of charity and +religion in that city. The Abbe Dufresne became much attached to +Father Hecker. "The Almighty knows," he wrote to him, "how ardently I +wish to see you again, for no one can feel more than I the want of +your conversation, it was so greatly to my improvement." We have +received from the Abbe Dufresne a memorial of Father Hecker, which is +valuable as independent contemporary testimony. It is so appreciative +and so instructive that we shall give the greater part of it as an +appendix, together with two letters from Cardinal Newman written +after Father Hecker's death. + +The following is from a letter from Mrs. Craven, written early in +1875: + +"That we have thought of you very often I need not tell you, nor yet +that we have thought and talked of and pondered over the many and the +great subjects which have been discussed during this week of +delightful repose and solitude (though certainly not of silence). Let +me, for one, tell you that many words of yours will be deeply and +gratefully and usefully remembered, and that I feel as if all you +explained to us in particular concerning the inward life which alone +gives meaning and usefulness to outward signs and symbols (let them +be ever so sacred), and the ways and means of quickening that inward +life, all come home to me as a clear expression of my own thoughts by +one who had read them better than myself." + +Such was a devout and intellectual Frenchwoman's way of describing an +influence similarly felt by men and women of all classes, and of the +most diverse schools of thought, whom Father Hecker met in Europe. + +This was written on hearing news of the community: + +"It is consoling to see all these good works progressing [in the +Paulist community]. To me they sound more like an echo of my past +than the actual present. Before going up the Nile I used to say to +some of my friends, that I once knew a man whose name was Hecker, but +had lost his acquaintance, and I was going up the Nile to find him. +Perhaps I would overtake him at Wady-Halfa in Nubia! But I didn't. +Sometimes I think the search is in vain, and that I shall have to +resign myself to his loss and begin a new life. Tuesday of this week +my intention is to go to Milan and stop some days. I find friends in +almost every city. Friday last I dined with the Archbishop of Turin, +and have made the acquaintance of one or two priests here. +Occasionally I visit museums, picture galleries, etc.; and thus time +is outwardly passing by, until it pleases God to shed more light on +my soul, and to impart more strength to my body, and make clear my +path." + +Here are his impressions of Rome after its occupation by the +Italians, together with an account of an audience with the Holy +Father: + +"Rome is indeed changed, not so much outwardly, materially, as in +spiritual atmosphere. It has lost its Christian exorcism and returned +to its former pagan condition. The modern spirit, too, has entered it +with activity in the material order. The old order, I fear, is never +to return; that is to say, as it was; if it returns at all it will be +on another basis. The last citadel has given way to the invasion of +modern activity and push. Who would have dreamed of this twenty years +ago? The charm of Rome is gone, even to non-Catholics, for they felt +raised above themselves into a more congenial and spiritual +atmosphere while here, and their souls enjoyed it, though their +intellectual prejudices were opposed to the principles. The charm +they were conscious of forced them back again to Rome in spite of +themselves. But that charm has in a great measure gone. + +"The other evening I had a very pleasant private audience with the +Holy Father. Among other matters I showed him _The Young Catholic_ +which pleased him very much. He was struck with the size of the +jackass in the picture of Ober-Ammergau, and asked if they grew so +large in that country. I replied: 'Holy Father, asses nowadays grow +large everywhere.' He laughed heartily and said, _'Bene trovato.'"_ + +Father Hecker was in Rome when, in March, 1875, his old friend and +patron and first spiritual adviser, Archbishop McCloskey, was made +Cardinal. He was much rejoiced, and sent the Cardinal a rich silk +cassock, and gave a public banquet to Monsignor Roncetti and Doctor +Ubaldi, who were to carry the insignia of the cardinalate to New +York. We are indebted to the kindness of Archbishop Corrigan for a +copy of Father Hecker's letter of congratulation, the principal parts +of which we subjoin. The view of public policy concerning the College +of Cardinals expressed in this letter was developed at length in an +article published by Father Hecker in _The Catholic World,_ when +Cardinal Gibbons was appointed; it will also be found in his latest +volume, _The Church and the Age:_ + +"The choice of the Supreme Pontiff in making you the first Cardinal +of the hierarchy of the United States gives great satisfaction here +to all your friends. For as honors and dignities in the Church +proceed by way of distinguished merit and abilities, the qualities +which they have always recognized and esteemed in you are by the +event made known to the whole world. + +"This elevation to the cardinalate of an American prelate as a +cheering sign that the dignities of the Church are open to men of +merit of all nations, and it is to be hoped that every nation will be +represented in the College of Cardinals in proportion to its +importance, and in that way the Holy See will represent by its +advisers the entire world, and render its universality more complete. +The Church will be a gainer, and the world too; and I have no doubt +that your appointment to this office in the Church will be, from this +point of view, popular with the American people." + +His continued and insensibly increasing weakness of body, as well as +what seemed an unconquerable mental aversion to attempting even +partially to resume his former career in the United States, seemed to +settle negatively the question of his early return home. He began to +think that it was God's will that he should permanently transfer his +influence to the old World. His mind was full of the religious +problems of Europe, and the notion of Paulists for Europe, differing +in details from American Paulists but identical in spirit, soon +occupied his thoughts. The reader will remember Father Hecker's +conviction, expressed when leaving Rome after the Vatican Council, +that the condition of things in the Old World invited the apostolate +of a free community of wholly sanctified men, such as he would have +the Paulists to be. He now became persuaded, or almost so, that God +meant his illness to be the means of practically inaugurating such a +movement. By it the dim outlines of men's yearnings for a religious +awakening, which he everywhere met with among the European nations, +could be brought out distinctly and realized by an adaptation of the +essentials of community life to changed European conditions. He +thought he could select the leading spirits for the work, and, +without overtaxing his strength, teach them the principles and +inspire them with the spirit necessary to success. All this is +brought forward in his letters and discussed. But it was not to be in +his time. + +The following entries in his journal, made during the Lent of 1879, +have this European, or rather universal, apostolate in view: + +"The Holy Spirit is preparing the Church for an increased infusion of +Himself in the hearts of the faithful. This increased action of the +Holy Spirit will renew the whole face of the earth, in religion and +in society. Souls will be inspired by Him to assist in bringing about +this end. + +"The question is _how_ shall such souls co-operate with Him in +preparation for this extraordinary outpouring of divine grace? The +law of all extensive and effectual work is that of association. The +inspiration and desire and strength to co-operate and associate in +facilitating this preparation for the Holy Spirit must come to each +soul from the Holy Spirit Himself. + +"What will be the nature of this association and the _special +character_ of its work? The end to be had in view will be to set on +foot a means of co-operation with the Church in the conquest of the +whole world to Christ, the renewal of the Apostolic spirit and life. +For unity, activity, and choice of means reliance should be had upon +the bond of charity in the Holy Spirit and upon His inspirations. + +"The central truth to actuate the members should be the Kingdom of +Heaven within the soul, which should be made the burden of all +sermons, explaining how it is to be gained now. + +"Men will be called for who have that universal synthesis of truth +which will solve the problems, eliminate the antagonisms, and meet +the great needs of the age; men who will defend and uphold the Church +against the attacks which threaten her destruction, with weapons +suitable to the times; men who will turn all the genuine aspirations +of the age, in science, in socialism, in politics, in spiritism, in +religion, which are now perverted against the Church, into means of +her defence and universal triumph. + +"If it be asked, therefore, in what way the co-operation with the new +phase of the Church in the increase of intensity and expansion of her +divine life in the souls of men is to be instituted, the answer is as +follows: By a movement . . . springing from the synthesis of the most +exalted faith with all the good and true in the elements now placed +in antagonism to the Church, thus eliminating antagonisms and +vacating controversies. . . .' + +"Can a certain number of souls be found who are actuated +by the instinct of the Holy Spirit, the genius of grace, to form +an associative effort in the special work of the present time? +If there be such a work, and an associative effort be necessary, +will not the Holy Spirit produce in souls, certain ones at least, +such a vocation? Is not the bond of unity in the Holy Spirit +which will unite such souls all that is needed in the present +state of things to do this work?" + +________________________ + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +"THE EXPOSITION OF THE CHURCH" + +WHILE in Europe God opened Father Hecker's soul to the cries of the +nations. He was profoundly interested in the state of religion there, +and the persecutions suffered by Catholics in Germany, in +Switzerland, and in Italy during his stay, while it aroused his +sympathies, increased his desire to find a remedy, and a fundamental +one, for the evils from which the Church suffered. The peoples of the +Old World, with their differing tendencies, were incessantly +disputing in his mind. They were always displaying over against each +other their diverse traits of race and tradition, at the same time +that they were actually passing before his eyes in his constant +journeyings in search of health. + +What amazed and no less irritated Father Hecker was the political +apathy of Catholics. All the active spirits seemed to hate religion. +A small minority of anti-Christians was allowed entire control of +Italy and France, and exhibited in the government of those foremost +Catholic commonwealths a pagan ferocity against everything sacred; +and this was met by "timid listlessness" on the part of the Catholic +majority. These latter evaded the accusation of criminal cowardice by +an extravagant display of devotional religion. To account for this +anomaly and to offer a remedy for it, Father Hecker in the winter of +1875 published a pamphlet of some fifty pages, entitled _An +Exposition of the Church in View of Recent Difficulties and +Controversies and the Present Needs of the Age._ It is a brief +outline of his views, held more or less distinctly since his case in +Rome in 1857-8, but fully unfolded in his mind at the Vatican Council +and matured during his present sojourn in Europe; the reader has +already been given a summary of them in a letter treating of the +providential meaning of the Vatican decrees. + +What is the matter with Catholics, that they allow their national +life, in education, in art, in literature, in general politics, to be +paganized by petty cliques of unbelievers? How account for this +weakness of character in Catholics? The answer is that the devotional +and ascetical type on which they are formed is one calculated to +repress individual activity, a quality essential to political success +in our day. Energy in the world of modern politics is not the product +of the devotional spirit dominant on the continent of Europe. That +spirit in its time saved the Church, for it fostered submission when +the temptation was to revolt. + +"The exaggeration," says the Exposition, "of personal authority on +the part of Protestants brought about in the Church its greater +restraint, in order that her divine authority might have its +legitimate exercise and exert its salutary influence. The errors and +evils of the times [the Reformation era] sprang from an unbridled +personal independence, which could only be counteracted by habits of +increased personal dependence. _Contraria contrariis curantur._ The +defence of the Church and the salvation of the soul were [under these +circumstances] ordinarily secured at the expense, necessarily, of +those virtues which properly go to make up the strength of Christian +manhood. The gain was the maintenance and victory of divine truth, +and the salvation of the soul. The loss was a certain falling off in +energy, resulting in decreased action in the natural order. The +former was a permanent and inestimable gain. The latter was a +temporary and not irreparable loss." + +The passive virtues, fostered under an overruling Providence for the +defence of threatened external authority in religion, and producing +admirable effects of uniformity, discipline, and obedience, served +well in the politics of the Reformation and post-Reformation eras, +when nearly all governments were absolute monarchies; but the present +governments are republics or constitutional monarchies, and are +supposed to be ruled by the citizens themselves. This demands +individual initiative, active personal exertion and direct +interference in public affairs. Vigilant and courageous voters rule +the nations. Therefore, without injury to entire obedience, the +active virtues in both the natural and supernatural orders must be +mainly cultivated; in the first order everything that makes for +self-reliance, and in the second the interior guidance of the Holy +Spirit in the individual soul. This, the Exposition maintains, is the +way out of present difficulties. That it is the Providential way out, +is shown by most striking evidence: the diversion of the +anti-Catholic forces from the attack against authority to one against +the most elementary principles of religion--God, conscience, and +immortality; the drift of Anglo-Saxon and Teutonic minds of a +religious cast towards the Church, calling for spiritual attractions +in accordance with the independence of character peculiar to those +races; the hopeless failure of the post-Reformation methods to meet +the needs of the hour; and especially the Vatican decrees, which have +set at rest all controversy on authority among Catholics. The needs +of the times, therefore, call for virtues among Catholics which shall +display the personal force of Catholic life no less than that which +is organic. These must all centre around the cultivation of the Holy +Spirit in the individual soul. + +"The light the age requires for its renewal," says the Exposition, +"can only come from the same source. The renewal of the age depends +on the renewal of religion. The renewal of religion depends upon the +greater effusion of the creative and renewing power of the Holy +Spirit. The greater effusion of the Holy Spirit depends on the giving +of increased attention to His movements and inspirations in the soul. +The radical and adequate remedy for all the evils of our age, and the +source of all true progress, consist in increased attention and +fidelity to the action of the Holy Spirit in the soul. 'Thou shalt +send forth Thy Spirit and they shall be created: and Thou shalt renew +the face of the earth.'" + +The following extract gives the synthesis of the twofold action of +the Holy Spirit, showing how external authority and obedience to it +are amply secured by the interior virtues: + +"The Holy Spirit in the external authority of the Church acts as the +infallible interpreter and criterion of divine revelation. The Holy +Spirit in the soul acts as the Divine Life-giver and Sanctifier. It +is of the highest importance that these two distinct offices of the +Holy Spirit should not be confounded. The supposition that there can +be any opposition, or contradiction, between the action of the Holy +Spirit in the supreme decisions of the authority of the Church, and +the inspirations of the Holy Spirit in the soul, can never enter the +mind of an enlightened and sincere Christian. The Holy Spirit, which +through the authority of the Church teaches divine truth, is the same +Spirit which prompts the soul to receive the divine truths which He +teaches. The measure of our love for the Holy Spirit is the measure +of our obedience to the authority of the Church. . . . There is one +Spirit, which acts in two different offices concurring to the same +end, the regeneration and sanctification of the soul. + +"In case of obscurity or doubt concerning what is the divinely +revealed truth, or whether what prompts the soul is or is not an +inspiration of the Holy Spirit, recourse must be had to the Divine +Teacher or criterion, the authority of the Church. For it must be +borne in mind that to the Church, as represented in the first +instance by St. Peter, and subsequently by his successors, was made +the promise of her Divine Founder, that 'the gates of hell should +never prevail against her.' No such promise was ever made by Christ +to each individual believer. 'The Church of the living God, the +pillar and ground of Truth.' The test, therefore, of a truly +enlightened and sincere Christian will be, in case of uncertainty, +the promptitude of his obedience to the voice of the Church. + +"From the above plain truths the following practical rule of conduct +may be drawn: The Holy Spirit is the immediate guide of the soul in +the way of salvation and sanctification; and the criterion, or test, +that the soul is guided by the Holy Spirit, is its ready obedience to +the authority of the Church. This rule removes all danger whatever, +and with it the soul can walk, run, or fly, if it chooses, in the +greatest safety and with perfect liberty, in the ways of sanctity." + +"The practical aim of all true religion is to bring each individual +soul under the immediate guidance of the Divine Spirit. The Divine +Spirit communicates Himself to the soul by means of the sacraments of +the Church. The Divine Spirit acts as the interpreter and criterion +of revealed truth by the authority of the Church. The Divine Spirit +acts as the principle of regeneration and sanctification in each +Christian soul. + +"Such an exposition of Christianity, the union of the internal with +the external notes of credibility, is calculated to produce a more +enlightened and intense conviction of its divine truth in the +faithful, to stimulate them to a more energetic personal action; and, +what is more, it would open the door to many straying but not +altogether lost children, for their return to the fold of the Church. +The increased action of the Holy Spirit, with a more vigorous +co-operation on the part of the faithful, which is in process of +realization, will elevate the human personality to an intensity of +force and grandeur productive of a new era in the Church and to +society; an era difficult for the imagination to grasp, and still +more difficult to describe in words, unless we have recourse to the +prophetic language of the inspired Scriptures." + +It is thus made plain that Father Hecker does not deny the harmony +between the devotional spirit and practices prevalent in different +ages of the Church; but he calls attention to the fact that the +dominant note of one age is not always the same as that in another. +And in using the words criterion and test, descriptive of the Church, +he would convey their full meaning: not merely a plumb-line for the +rising wall but divine accuracy itself made external. His outer +criterion is to the inner life what articulate speech is to the human +voice. + +"The Exposition is nothing else," he writes home, "than a general +outline of a movement from without to within; as in the sixteenth +century the movement was one from within to without. This was +occasioned by the nature of the attack of Protestantism. The Church +having with increased [external] agencies protected what was +assaulted, can return to her normal course with increased action. I +give an indication of the nature of this movement: + +"An increased action of the Holy Spirit in the soul in consequence of +this greater attention directed to the interior life, and a more +perfect explanation of the same. An exposition of the relation of the +external to the internal in the Church. The action of the Holy Spirit +in the soul and His gifts are the remedies for the evils of our +times. The development of the intelligible side of the mysteries of +faith, and the intrinsic reasons of the truths of divine revelation. +Such a movement will open the door for the return of the Saxon races. +The Latin-Celts in relation to the development of the hierarchy, +discipline, worship, and aesthetics of the Church are considered. +Causes of Protestantism--antagonism and jealousy of races; present +persecutions. The Saxon idea of the Catholic Church. Reason for +it--they see only the outward and human side of the Church. Return of +the Saxons in consequence of the new phase of development--the +display of the inward and the divine to their intelligence. The +transition of races; in the future the Saxon will supernaturalize the +natural, the Latin-Celts will naturalize the supernatural. The plan +and suggestions given are the way to escape the extermination of +Christianity by the Saxons, and the denial of Christianity by the +apostasy of the Latins. The union of these races in the Church, with +their civilization and force, is the means of spreading Christianity +rapidly over the whole world. + +"In the Exposition I follow simply the footsteps of the Church as +indicated in her history, in the Encyclicals of Pius IX., and the +Vatican Council. The Church is God acting directly on the human race, +guiding it to its true destiny, the road of all true progress." + +The Exposition, as already said, had been talked to all comers by +Father Hecker, and in various parts of Europe, but was put into shape +in the autumn of 1874, while he was in the north of Italy. He took it +to Rome and offered it to the Propaganda Press. No fault was found +with it; many high dignitaries, some of them members of the +Congregation of the Sacred Palace, which has charge of the +censorship, heartily approved of it and would have it published at +once; but at the last moment this was decided by the authorities to +be inexpedient. It was then sent to London, and Pickering brought it +out anonymously, and it was at once put into French by Mrs. Craven. +It was published as a leader in _The Catholic World_ about the same +time, and in 1887 formed the first chapter of _The Church and the +Age,_ a compilation of Father Hecker's more important later essays. + +The Exposition contributes to the solution of the race problem as it +affects religion. A glance at Europe shows the radical difference +which is symbolized by the terms Transalpine and Cisalpine, Latin and +Teutonic. The one group of races most readily clings to the interior +virtues of religion, the other to external institutions. The problem +is how to reconcile them, how to bring both into unity. Father Hecker +believed that the Latin race had crowned its work in the Vatican +Council and done it gloriously, and that the time had arrived to +invite the Teutonic race to develop its force in the interior life of +the Church. There are passages in the following letter which indicate +the weight of this racial problem to him, as well as the supernatural +earnestness which he brought to the study of it. It serves to explain +a remark he once made: "I wrote the Exposition while I was having +very many lights about the Holy Ghost--I couldn't help but write it." + +"PARIS, June 11, 1874. + +"DEAR GEORGE AND JOSEPHINE: There is not much for me to add to my +letter of the third of this month. My preparations are made to go to +Mayence during the Catholic Assembly, which commences on the +fifteenth and lasts three days. There I shall meet several persons +whom I am interested in and wish to see. Besides, ecclesiastical +affairs in the German Empire are in a very critical state, and this +must add to the interest of the Assembly. Meeting, as I frequently +do, the leading minds of Europe, enables me to compare views, +appreciate difficulties, and hear objections. + +"It is just as difficult to get the Celtic [and Latin] mind to +conceive and appreciate the internal notes of the Church, and the +character of her divine interior life, as it is to get the Teutonic +mind to conceive and appreciate the divine external constitution of +the Church, the importance, and essential importance, of her +authority, discipline, and liturgy. But the weakness of the former, +and the persecutions now permitted by Divine Providence to be visited +on the latter, are teaching them both the lessons they need to learn. +To complete the development of the truth, of the Church, each needs +the other; and Divine Providence is shaping things so that in spite +of all obstacles, natural and induced, a synthesis of them both is +forming in the bosom of the Church. The work is slow but certain, +concealed from ordinary observation because divine; but exceedingly +beautiful. Underneath all the persecutions, the oppression, the false +action, the whole outwardly critical condition of the Church and +society, there is an overpowering, counteracting, divine current, +leading to an all-embracing, most complete, and triumphant unity in +the Church. To see how all things--wicked men as well as the good, +for God reigns over _all_--contribute to this end and are made to +serve it, gives peace to the mind, repose to the soul, and excites +admiration and adoration of the Divine action in the world. + +"To have a conception of this all-embracing and direct action of God +in the affairs of this world, and by the light of faith to see that +the Church is the dwelling place of His holiness, majesty, mercy, and +power, and is the medium of this action, at first stupefies, +overwhelms, and, as it were, reduces the soul to nothing. By degrees +and imperceptibly it is raised from its nothingness; timidly the soul +opens its eyes and ventures to cast a glance, and then to contemplate +the Divinity which everywhere surrounds it, as air and light do our +bodies. The contemplation of the Divine action becomes its only +occupation and it is an irresistible one. All the life, mind, and +strength of the soul is involuntarily absorbed in this direction, +leaving the body scarcely sufficient strength to continue its +ordinary functions. + +"How far will the body regain its former strength? What will be the +relation of the soul with its former occupations? Will this +additional light require other conditions? Was this light given for +another and wider field of labor? These and many other questions must +arise in the soul, which in due season will be answered. Its present +duty is to practise conformity to God's will, patience, detachment, +discretion, and confidence." + +There is hardly any part of this Life which does not assist one in +understanding the Exposition, especially the chapters on the idea of +a religious community and that giving his spiritual doctrine. Many +leading spirits hailed it with joy, among them Margotti, the editor +of the _Unita Cattolica_ of Turin, and Cardinal Deschamps. The former +made Father Hecker's acquaintance during a visit to Turin, and became +a warm admirer of him and his views. He compelled him to leave the +hotel and lodge at his house during his stay in that city. When the +Exposition came out he gave it two long and highly commendatory +notices in his journal, at the time the most influential Catholic one +in Italy, and published three chapters entire. + +We have a copy of the Exposition annotated, at Father Hecker's +request, by the late distinguished Jesuit, Father H. Ramiere. These +comments are valuable and suggestive. While modifying Father Hecker's +judgment as to the causes of the deterioration of Catholic manliness, +Father Ramiere recognizes the fact. The remedies receive his emphatic +approval, as also the author's explanation of the synthesis of the +inner and outer action of the Holy Ghost in the Church. + +When _The Church and the Age_ appeared the English Jesuit magazine, +_The Month,_ in its issue of July, 1888, gave the book a very full +and favorable review, endorsing all the principles of the Exposition. +After saying that the Vatican decrees mark a special epoch in the +evolution of Christianity, and close a period of attack--one of the +sharpest which the Church has ever sustained--upon her external +authority, the reviewer continues: + +"It completed the Church's defence, and left her free to continue +unimpeded her normal course of internal development. . . . The author +displays remarkable breadth of thought, and the book contains many +passages which are not only eloquent as a defence of Catholicity, but +which cannot fail to impart instruction to the reflecting reader. We +think it deserving of a wide circulation among both clergy and laity, +and it is with a desire to further such a result that we propose to +explain at some length the views which we have already touched upon. +. . . We want a Catholic individualism, which necessarily requires a +clear and recognized authority as a safeguard against the errors to +which individualism exposes itself, but which, on the other hand, can +never be begotten by the mere principle of authority as such." + +The _Literarischer Handweiser,_ a German Catholic critical review, +published in Muenster, having a high character and wide circulation, +gave an equally favorable estimate of Father Hecker's views in a +notice of _The Church and the Age._ + +The following extracts from letters will close our consideration of +the Exposition, which we have thought worthy of so careful and full a +study because it is the remedial application of Father Hecker's +spiritual doctrines to the evils of European Catholicity: + +"It is consoling to see men of different opinions and of opposite +parties in the Church regarding my pamphlet as the programme of a +common ground on which they can meet and agree. + +"I have had several interviews with Cardinal Deschamps. He invited me +to spend the evenings with him, as we are old and very close friends. +On all points, main points, our views are one. And it is singular how +the same precise ideas and views have presented themselves at the +same time to the minds of us both. In matters which regard my +personal direction, I have consulted him several times, and fully. He +has always taken a special interest in my welfare in every sense. His +counsel has given me great relief, increased tranquillity, and will +be of great service. He remains here eight or ten days longer, and I +will see him as often during that period as I can." + +A distinguished Swiss orator and prelate, since made cardinal, told +Father Hecker of a devout priest who gave a large number of retreats +to the clergy: "'When I saw him last,' said Monsignor to me, 'he said +that since we had met he had given retreats to seven hundred or eight +hundred priests, and that he had read to them the Exposition of the +Church which I gave him at my last interview with him.'" + +"It will take time to understand the ideas in the Exposition. It will +take still longer time to see their bearing, application, and +results. Few at first will seize their import; by degrees they will +take in a wider circle. The difficulties of the times, the anguish of +many souls in the midst of the present persecutions, etc., will draw +attention to any project or plan or system that offers a better +future." + +________________________ + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +IN THE SHADOW OF DEATH + +"I LOOK back," wrote Father Hecker in the summer of 1879, "on these +three years as one continuous and dreadful interior struggle." This +shows that the shadows were too deep and broad for the intervals of +peace, which we know from his letters he had now and then enjoyed, to +banish the impression of constant gloom. And Father Hecker's +readiness to return home upon positive request will be the better +appreciated when we remember how very painful to him was the very +thought of his past occupations. Nor was his bodily health in a +hopeful condition. While at Ragatz in the month of June, 1875, he met +a distinguished physician from Paris, an excellent Catholic, whom +he had been strongly advised to consult before. Glad of the chance, +he submitted to a thorough examination, and received from him a +written statement to the effect that it would be dangerous to take up +any steady occupation, and that he should be entirely free from care +for at least a year; otherwise a final break-down was to be expected. +This seemed effectually to bar all thoughts of return. And such was +his own settled conviction, as is shown by the following, written +about the end of June: + +"Where could I find repose? Not in the community; not at my +brother's: nowhere else to go. Then, again, I would be constantly +required to give opinions and counsel in the affairs of the +community, which would require an application beyond my strength. +There is no other way than for me to remain contented in Europe, +with my feebleness and obscurity, in the hands of God." + +But on July 29 he received a letter which compelled him to decide +between tranquillity of spirit and bodily comfort--perhaps life +itself--on the one hand, and the call of his brethren on the other. +He decided without a moment's hesitation and with the utmost +equanimity. We quote from a letter to George Hecker: + +"Three days ago a letter from Father Hewit reached me urging my +immediate return in such strong language and with such considerations +that I wrote a reply expressing my readiness to return at once. On +re-reading the letter I found its tone so urgent that I sent a +telegram to the above effect. . . . In God's hands are my being, my +soul, and all my faculties, to do with them and direct them as He +pleases. To return to the United States and there arrange things to +His pleasure, or to leave me here. I am indifferent, quiet, entirely +ready either not to act or to act." + +And so in October, 1875, Father Hecker was again in New York. He +begged the Fathers to allow him to stay with his brother for the +present, "for my nerves could not stand the noise, the routine, and +the excitement of the house in Fifty-ninth Street." And when he did +return to the convent to live, which was four years afterwards, he +was quite sure that his end was at hand, though it did not come till +nine years later. + +During all the thirteen years between Father Hecker's return to +America and his death, his daily order of life was pretty much the +same as he described it in one of his letters from Europe, already +given to the reader. He did not resort any longer to change of place +or climate as a means of recovery; he had tried that long enough. His +physician, the one who served the community, assisted him constantly +with advice and remedies, and once or twice he tried a sanitarium; he +was apt to try anything suggested, being credulous about such +matters. But his strength of body slowly faded away. He was more +disturbed than surprised at this, and fought for life every inch of +the way. + +"If I were a Celt," he once said with a smile, "I should more readily +resign myself to die, but I am of a race that clings fast to the +earth." His persistent struggle was sometimes calm, but was generally +sharpened by a horrible dread of death, which fastened on his soul +like a vampire, and gave a stern aspect to his self-defence. His +patience in suffering was most admirable, though seldom clothed in +the usual formalities. "Perhaps, after all," he would sometimes say, +"God will give me back my health, for I have a work to do." + +Though anything but an ill-tempered man, Father Hecker was yet by +nature ardent and irascible and quickly provoked by opposition, but +God gave him such a horror of dissension that he would not quarrel, +though it was often plain that his peaceful words cost him a hard +struggle. Occasionally he lost his temper for a little while, and +this was when compelled to attend to business under stress of great +bodily or mental pain. We do not think that he was ever known to +attempt to move men by anger, or even sternness. "If you ever tell +any one about me," he said, "say that I believed in praising men more +than in condemning them, and that I valued praise as a higher form of +influence than any kind of threatening or compulsion." Nor did he +resort to the formalities of obedience to secure his end. "Why don't +you put me under obedience to do this?" asked a father who did not +exactly approve of a proposal Father Hecker had made to him. The +answer was given with a good deal of heat: "I have never done such a +thing in my life, and I am not going to begin now!" Nor had he any +use for bitter speech even in cold blood. "One thing," he said in a +letter, "I will now correct; a sneer--intentionally or consciously-- +is a thing that, so far as my memory serves, I am as innocent of as a +little babe." Yet he could be sarcastic, as the following memorandum +shows: "Cardinal Cullen once said to me, after I had made a journey +through Ireland, 'Well, Father Hecker, what do you think of Ireland?' +I answered: 'Your Eminence, my thoughts about Ireland are such that I +will get out of the country as soon as I can; for if I expressed my +sentiments I should soon be put into jail for Fenianism!'" This was in +1867 while Fenianism was rampant. Of course he did not approve of it, +but the sights he saw taught him its awful provocation. And once when +unduly pressed with the dictum of an author whose range of power was +not high enough to overcome Father Hecker's objections, he said: "I +am not content to live to be the echo of dead men's thoughts." But it +was not by skill in the thrust and parry of argumentative fence that +Father Hecker won his way in a discussion, but by the hard drive of a +great principle. The following memorandum describes the effect of +this on an ordinary man: + +"It is rather amusing when Father Hecker asks me some of his stunning +questions on the deepest topics of the divine sciences. I look blank +at him, I ask him to explain, I fish up some stale commonplace from +the memory of my studies--and he then gives me his own original, his +luminous answer." + +And both his choice of subjects in conversation and his natural +manner were according to his temperament, which was meditative. This +gave his countenance when at rest a peaceful cast until within a few +years of the end, when "death's pale flag" cast upon it a shade of +foreboding. We have a photograph of him taken when he was about +forty-five and in average good health, showing a tranquil face, full +of thought and with eyes cast down; to the writer's mind it is the +typical Isaac Hecker. But this expression changed in conversation, +when not only his words but his gestures and his glances challenged a +friendly but energetic conflict of opinion. + +If it be asked, how did Father Hecker recreate himself during those +mournful years, the answer is that recreation in the sense of a +pleasurable relaxation seemed contrary to his nature whether in +sickness or in health. It was once said to him, "Easter week is +always a lazy time." "No, it is not," he answered. "I never have +known a time, not a moment, in my whole life, when I felt lazy or was +in an idle mood." He found himself obliged, however, to get out of +the house and take exercise, walking in the park leaning on the arm +of one of the community, or, if he was more than usually weak, being +driven in his brother's carriage. There were occasions when to kill +time was for him to kill care--to call his mind away from thoughts of +death and of the judgment, the dread of which fell upon him like +eternal doom. Then he would try to get some one to talk to, or to go +with him and look at pictures and statues; or he would work at +mending old clocks, a pretty well mended collection of which he kept +in his room against such occasions. In the park he would often go and +look at the beasts in the menagerie, and he spoke of them +affectionately. "They bring to my mind the power and beauty of God," +he said. He came to meals with the community, at least to dinner, +until five or six years before his death, when his appetite became so +unreliable that he took what food he could, and when he could, in his +room. He also attended the community recreations after meals until a +few years before the end; but it was often noticed that the process +of humiliation he was undergoing caused him to creep away into a +corner, sit awhile with a very dejected look, and then wearily go +upstairs to his room. When he was urged not to do this, "I cannot +help it to save my life," was all the answer he could give. He +finally gave up the recreations almost entirely. + +But he hated laziness. "I am so weak," he once said, "and my brain is +so easily tired out that I am forced to read a great deal to recreate +myself. That's why you see me reading so much." The book in which he +was at the moment seeking recreation was a ponderous work on +metaphysics by a prolix Scotchman, treating in many dreary chapters +of such amusing topics as the unity of the act of perception with the +object perceived! As may be supposed of such a man, whose illness +forbade action and whose interior trials made contemplation an agony, +he chafed sometimes at his enforced inactivity, though he was never +heard, as far as we can get evidence, openly to complain of it. + +Time and stagnation of bodily forces did not alter his progressive +ideas. + +"Is it not wiser," he said, "to give one's thought and energy to +prepare the way for the future success and triumph of religion than +to labor to continue the present [state of things], which must be and +is being supplanted? Such an attitude may not be understood and may +be misinterpreted, and be one of trial and suffering; still it is the +only one which, consistently with a sense of duty, can be taken and +maintained." + +A bishop on his way to Rome once called on Father Hecker. "Tell the +Holy Father," he said to him, "that there are three things which will +greatly advance religion: First, to place the whole Church in a +missionary attitude--make the Propaganda the right arm of the Church. +Second, choose the cardinals from the Catholics of all nations, so +that they shall be a senate representing all Christendom. Third, make +full use of modern appliances and methods for transacting the +business of the Holy See." Sometimes he discussed the activity of +modern commerce as teaching religious men a lesson. He once said: + +"When Father Hecker is dead one thing may be laid to his credit: that +he always protested that it is a shame and an outrage that men of the +world do more for money than religious men will do for the service of +God." + +No glutton ever devoured a feast more eagerly than Father Hecker read +a sermon, a lecture, or an editorial showing the trend of +non-Catholic thought. After his death his desk was found littered +with innumerable clippings of the sort, many of them pencilled with +underlinings and with notes. These furnished much of the matter of +his conversation, and doubtless of his prayers. Once he wrote to a +friend: + +"Nobody is necessary to God and to the accomplishment of his designs. +Yet at times I wish that I had the virtue that some creatures have; +when cut into pieces each piece becomes a new complete individual of +the same species. I should cut myself into at least a dozen pieces to +meet the demands made upon me. What a splendid thing it is to think +of our Lord going about doing wonders, eternal and infinite things, +and all the time seeming to be unoccupied. The truly simple soul +reduces all occupations to one, and in that one accomplishes all." + +And his organizing faculty would busy itself in various schemes, +which, if they could not cure his weak body, could relax with a +fancied activity his tired soul. Thus in a letter he said: + +"Why should we not form a league for the cause of our Lord, to whom +we owe all? Unreserved devotion to His cause with patience, +perseverance, humility, and sweetness, are weapons that no man or +woman or thing can withstand. Our Lord has promised that if we +believe in Him we shall do greater works than He did. Let us believe +in Him, and clothe ourselves through faith in Him with His virtues, +and who shall resist us? + +"The first of all successes is Christ's triumph in our souls. +Everything that leads to this, humiliations, afflictions, calumnies, +contempt, mortifications, all work for us a glory exceeding the +imagination of man. To suffer for Christ's sake is the short-cut in +the way of becoming Christ-like." + +The following anecdote of his missionary days shows Father Hecker's +contempt for lazy devotion. Once, when upon a mission, a young priest +just returned home from Rome, where he had made his studies, +expressed his desire to get back again to Italy as soon as possible, +saying, "I find no time here to pray." Father Hecker felt indignant, +for it did not seem to him that the young man was very much occupied. +"Don't be such a baby," said he. "Look around and see how much work +there is to be done here. Is it not better to make some return to +God--here in your own country--for what He has done for you, rather +than to be sucking your thumbs abroad? What kind of piety do you call +that?" + +He took a personal interest in all the members of the community, and +this was greatly heightened if any one fell sick. We remember his +excitement when it was announced that one of the Fathers, who had +been sent to a hospital for a surgical operation, had grown worse and +was in danger of death. He began to pace his room, to question +sharply about doctors and nurses, and immediately ordered Masses to +be said and special prayers by the community; and this father he had +seen very little of and hardly knew from the others. "I cannot tell," +he wrote to a friend at the time of Father Tillotson's illness, "I +dare not express, how much I love him, what he is to me." Always +tender-hearted, the nearer he came to the end and the more he +suffered the more gentle were his feelings towards all, the more +kindly grew his looks, but also the more sad and weary. He was always +careful to express thanks for favors, small or great. The following +is from a letter to a friend: + +"Your last note contained at the end a kind invitation. Don't be +troubled; I'm not coming! Do you know that sometimes I am tempted to +think that I am necessary? Sometimes the thought has come to me that +I might run away from home a week or so. Then I have driven the +thought away as I would a temptation. But I wished to thank you none +the less for your invitation, though I should never see you again. _I +have an uncontrollable horror of ingratitude."_ + +During his long years of illness Father Hecker's reading continued +upon the lines he had ever followed, the Scriptures holding, of +course, the first place. Besides reading or having read to him +certain parts adapted to the spiritual probation he was undergoing, +such as Job, the Passion of our Lord, and chapters of the sapiential +books, he also took the entire Scriptures in course, going slowly +through them from cover to cover and insisting on every word being +read, genealogies and all. He would sometimes interrupt the reader to +make comments and ask questions. The last words that he listened to +at night were the words of Scripture, read to him after he had got +into bed. He declared that they soothed him and settled his mind and +calmed its disturbance, and this was easily seen by his looks and +manner. Some who knew him well thought from his comments that God +gave him infused knowledge of a rare order about the sense of +Scripture. Once he said: + +"When you were reading Ezechiel last night, oh, you cannot understand +what thoughts I had! During the past six months I have learned how to +understand him. I say within myself: 'O Ezechiel! Ezechiel! no one +understands, no one understands you in this world, except one here +and there.'" + +Next to Scripture came St. Thomas and St. John of the Cross, the one +for dogmatic and philosophical, the other for devotional uses. It +must have been soon after returning to America as a Redemptorist that +he procured a copy of Alagona's Compendium of St. Thomas, submitted +it to Bishop Neumann, whose learning was in high repute, and obtained +his assurance of its accuracy. That little book is a curiosity of +underlining and various other forms of emphasizing. It was with him +till death. From it he referred to the full works of St. Thomas for +complete statements, but he loved to ponder the brief summary of the +abridgment and work the principles out in his own way. St. John of +the Cross and Lallemant, as already stated, were his hand-books of +mysticism and ascetic principles. The former he caused to be read to +him in regular course over and over again, enjoying every syllable +with fresh relish. In later days the _Life of Mary Ward,_ by Mary +Catherine Chambers, and _The Glories of Divine Grace,_ by Scheeben, +afforded him special pleasure. Books which told of the religious +tendencies of minds outside the Church were sure to interest him. He +studied them as Columbus inspected the drifting weeds and the wild +birds encountered on his voyage of discovery. Those who served him as +readers sometimes found this kind of literature pretty dry, just as +Columbus's crew doubtless found it idle work to fish up the floating +weeds of the sea. The following sentences occur in a diary written +while in Europe in 1875. It is a statement of his opinion of the +objective points at which Catholic teachers and writers of our day +should aim: + +"In dogmatic theology, when treating of the doctrine of the fall of +man keep in view the value of human nature and the necessity of +divine grace preceding every act of Christian life. + +"In moral theology, stimulate the sense of personal responsibility. + +"In ascetic theology, fidelity to the Holy Spirit. + +"In polemic theology, develop the intrinsic notes of the Church." + +As to novels, he fully appreciated their power over minds, but we +believe that he did not read half a dozen in his whole life, and +these he treated as he did graver works: he studied them. "To read is +one thing, to study is another," says Cardinal Manning; but all +reading was study to Father Hecker. We remember one novel which he +read, slowly and most carefully, underlining much of it and filling +the margins of every page with notes. "Why don't you read novels, as +other people do?" he was asked. "Because life is more novel than any +fiction, for fiction is but an attempt to paint life," he answered. +No printed matter of any kind, much less a book, ever could be a +plaything to Isaac Hecker. He often made more of the sentences on a +scrap of newspaper, and studied them far harder, than the writer of +them himself had done. A man whose play and work are in such problems +as, how God is known, how the Trinity subsists, what beatitude is, +how God's being is mirrored in man's activity, has too real a life +within him and about him to tarry long in fiction or in any of the +by-roads of literature. Poetry, however, in its higher forms, or with +a strong ethical tendency, he was very fond of. Perhaps his favorite +among the poets was Coventry Patmore. + +After returning to New York Father Hecker, besides supervising the +editorial work of _The Catholic World,_ wrote an occasional article +for its pages. The more important of these, twelve in number, with +the Exposition as a leader, were published in a volume already +mentioned, _The Church and the Age._ This book appeared in 1887, and +contains his views of the religious problems in Europe and America, +and also some controversial writings against orthodox Protestantism +and Unitarianism. These are well-written, clean-cut, and aggressive +pieces of polemical writing, whether against the errors of +Protestants or of infidels. _The Church and the Age_ is the best +exhibit of the author's opinions and principles on topics of +religious interest and those of race and epoch having a religious +bearing. He has left a considerable amount of unpublished matter, +notably some essays on how God is known, the reality of ideas, and +the Trinity, together with much on spiritual subjects. Let us hope +that these and more of his unpublished writings will some day be +given to the public. He always found difficulty in preparing matter +for the press. Using a pencil and a rubber eraser, he often +positively wore the paper through with writing, correcting, and +writing again. He seemed scrupulous about such matters, and in these +circumstances he lacked the immediate expression of his thoughts +which came to him so spontaneously in his letters and diaries, as +well as in his public speaking. But he dictated readily, and with a +result of reaching quickly the form of words he would finally be +content with. By this means he prepared his articles on Doctor +Brownson, which appeared in _The Catholic World_ between April and +November, 1887. + +His intercourse with the members of the community was naturally much +interfered with by his illness. But he loved to listen to them +speaking of their work, was greatly interested in the building and +decorating of the new church, and when the missionaries came home was +eager to hear them tell of their success. He would invariably suggest +that we should study how to extend our preaching outside the regular +missions, so as to take in non-Catholics. He was also alive to +opportunities for stimulating others, in and out of the community, to +do literary work. At Lake George, where he spent his summers with the +community, he was able to have a familiar contact with us all, +especially the students, whom he enlisted in working about the +grounds or the house, helping as best he could. But after his illness +began he ever showed a certain constraint of manner when the +conversation took a grave turn, a kind of shyness, which a judge of +character might interpret as meaning, "I am afraid you'll +misunderstand me; I am afraid you'll think I am a visionary." + +________________________ + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +CONCLUSION + +FATHER HECKER'S prayer during all these years was a state of what +seemed almost uninterrupted contemplation of varied intensity. He +attended the evening meditation of the community as long as he had +strength to do so, frequently giving a commentary on the points read +out at the beginning, simple, direct, and fervent. He was exceedingly +fond of assisting at High Mass on Sundays and feast days, and he had +a small oratory built between the house and the new church, from +which, by passing a few steps from his room, he could hear the music +and see the function through a window opening into the sanctuary. +This often overpowered him with emotion, which was sometimes so +strong as to drive him back to his room and into bed. Once a week and +on the more solemn festivals was as often as he could say Mass, or +even hear it, on account of his extreme weakness in the mornings. For +the last three or four years of his life to say Mass at all became a +struggle which was as curious as it was distressing to witness. Those +who had often read of such things in the lives of the servants of God +were nevertheless amazed at the sight of them in Father Hecker. The +following is from a memorandum: + +_"Father Hecker:_ Do you know what it is to be in spontaneous +relations with God--where the Divine Object works upon the soul +spontaneously? It is that which prevents me from saying Mass, because +I make a fool of myself. At any point I am apt to be so influenced by +God as to be utterly deprived of physical force, to sink down +helpless. At my brother's house they expect it and get me a chair. A +few moments on a chair, and I am ready to go on. Now, if I yield to +this I know that I shall be thrown into a clean helpless state, and I +have a practical work to do. _Question:_ Does this effect come at +receiving Communion? _Answer:_ I don't know, as I have never yet +received Communion out of Mass. But I am afraid of it. Any such thing +is apt to throw me off, and I am afraid. _Question:_ But suppose it +to be God's will that you should say Mass notwithstanding this +difficulty? _Answer:_ Then let Him bring it about." + +At one time several months passed, months of very low vitality in +body and awful darkness of soul, during which he neither said Mass +nor received Communion. The following memorandum describes how this +period, perhaps the most painful of his life, was ended: + +"Christmas, 1885.--For the first time since early summer Father +Hecker undertook to say Mass: I assisted him, and a stormy time we +had of it. It was at five in the morning and in the oratory. He +wanted to have the door locked, but there was no key. 'Don't speak a +word to me,' he said while he was dressing in his room. Arrived in +the oratory, he sank down upon a bench as if some one had struck him; +he threw his birettum down on the floor, and began to weep and cry in +a very mournful way and aloud. But he quickly recovered, and rested +as if he were preparing to be hanged. I supported him over to the +altar, and as he began the _Judica_ he blubbered out the words like a +school-boy being whipped. Most of the Mass he said out loud, hardly +holding in his sobs anywhere except from the _hanc igitur_ till near +the _Pater Noster._ His calmest time was during that most solemn +part, and at his Communion. Three or four times he was forced to sit +down on a chair I had provided for him on the predella. At the +_Memento_ for the living he was deeply affected and patted the floor +with his foot, sobbing aloud and acting like a child with an +unendurable toothache. He was afraid of the _Pater Noster_ and asked +me to say it with him, which I did; also various words and sentences +in other parts of the Mass. I have heard him say that the _Pater +Noster_ is a prayer which breaks him down. After he was through he +insisted on trying to say the Pope's prayers. We said the Hail Marys +and the Hail, Holy Queen, together, and I recited the prayer for him. +I had to take off his vestments the best I could while he sat, and +when I got him down to his room and into bed, he was in a state of +nearly complete unconsciousness. After saying my three Masses, I saw +him again at about 8.30, found him up and dressed and very bright, +and he has been particularly so all day." + +What follows is from a letter dated early in 1886, and seems to refer +to the occasion above described. He speaks of himself in the third +person: + +"And he [Father Hecker] was never so occupied as now, although he is +doing nothing and has been in that condition for months. Though he +does hear Mass, he does not, because he cannot, say it--without +showing what a _big fool_ he is. However he has begun again to say +it. If it had not been for human respect he would not have said it +last Sunday; he was too feeble. God is killing him by slow fire, by +inches. He dies terribly hard." + +If Father Hecker had had an unimpaired physical system when his +interior trials came, he might have resisted the nervous depression +which they caused, at least well enough to maintain an active part in +his undertakings. Or if his bodily weakness, resulting from his early +austerities, had been accompanied with interior equanimity, he might +have held up. A rickety ship can, with care and skill, get into port +if the engine is sound, and so can a sound ship with a broken-down +engine sail home, however slowly. But with both a rickety ship and a +disabled engine the port should be near at hand or there is danger of +shipwreck. That Father Hecker did not die long before he did, was +due, apart from God's special designs, to the extraordinary skill and +care of Doctor James Begen, who was also an attached friend. Mr. +Anthony Ellis, one of his former penitents, served him in his +sick-room out of pure love from 1879 until his death, which preceded +Father Hecker's by about a year. He had a kind-hearted successor in +Mr. Patrick McCann. + +Father Hecker's beloved brother George died on February 14, 1888. He +had been ailing for some time and Father Hecker went to see him +frequently. . . . "George and I," he once said, "were united in a way +no words can describe. Our union was something extremely spiritual +and divine." The following memorandum tells how Father Hecker +received the news: + +"George Hecker died about nine o'clock last night, and when I +informed Father Hecker of it this morning he was deeply moved. 'Don't +say a word to me!' he cried, 'not a word. Read something! Read +something quick!' I stepped over to the table and took the Scriptures +and began to read the thirteenth chapter of St. John, read it +through, and another chapter. By that time he calmed down. He only +wept twice, except a few little sobs, and went out riding as usual +this afternoon. He is profoundly moved. 'I knew it,' he said this +morning; 'I saw it, I saw it last night--it seemed to me that I saw +it. I came near coming to your room at half-past ten, but concluded +not to do so.' Another time to-day he said: 'If God enables me to +bear this I hope I shall be able to do my allotted work.'" + +He bore it well, but it added very much to a burden already too +heavy. For some weeks afterwards he now and then moaned and wept for +his brother, and this happened occasionally till summer came. Those +who attended Father Hecker could not but be convinced, from what they +saw and heard, that God allowed George to visit his brother more than +once after his death, and these supernatural interviews were +productive of mingled consolation of soul and pain of body to the +survivor. George Hecker was worthy of his brother's love. He was a +noble character, full of that sort of religion nowadays most needed. +His piety flourished in the withering atmosphere of wealth and in the +turmoil of commercial life. Industry, thrift, enterprise, quick +perception of opportunities, determination, a keen sense of his +rights and a bold hand to defend them, manly frankness, were +conspicuous traits in him and made him a rich merchant. But all these +qualities served him as well for high spiritual ends. He was +essentially and dominantly a spiritual man, fond of prayer, regular +in all religious duties. He was as honest as the day, and all for +conscience' sake and the love of God. His understanding was wide and +clear, his heart tender, simple, and courageous. He loved his wife +and children, he loved his brother Isaac, with an absorbing +devotedness, and these loves were blended and mingled into one with +the love of God. His charities are known to the reader, but they +should be understood as the result not merely of affection for his +brother, or even of faith in his apostolate, but also from his own +perception of the intrinsic worth of the undertakings themselves. We +know not what quality could be added to George Hecker to make him a +model Christian of our day. + +His death had a serious effect on Father Hecker's state of body and +mind. But from the previous autumn and during the winter following he +had failed rapidly. In fact, he had requested and received the last +Sacraments from Father Hewit on September 15, 1887; but this was on +account of an alarming irregularity of the heart's action, which was +but temporary. He had no long distance to drop at any time to get to +the bottom, and it became evident in the summer of 1888 that the end +was not far off. He could not stand the strong air of Lake George +that summer, and came home after being there but a couple of weeks. +He tried the sea-side with even worse success; and the short journeys +he made were extremely painful. The paroxysms of angina pectoris +became more frequent and daily left their victim less able to rally. +Patience strained to the uttermost by physical suffering, the mind +distressed, fits of despondency and of indescribable gloom, the +weight of a body of death--all this he had borne for sixteen years, +with only occasional intervals of peace. There was little left to +suffer except death. His bodily resistance grew weaker towards the +end of his last summer on earth, and he lost flesh rapidly. The +fulness of his face was gone by autumn, and a wan look, as of +decaying force, was stamped upon it. He suffered in literally every +member of his body, by turns or simultaneously. We find the following +memorandum: + +"_Question:_ What's the matter with the back of your head? [he was +rubbing it with extract of witch hazel]. _Answer:_ It is sore, it +hurts me. _Q._ Well! As soon as one part is better another gets out +of order? etc. _A._ Do you know it was all revealed to me and +foretold [beginning to weep]. _Q._ When? In your novitiate? _A._ Yes. +_Q._ But not all the details of your sufferings? A. Yes, all the +details. But I will not say another word about it. _Q._ But you ought +to, etc. [He refused to say more.]" + +Little by little during the latter years Father Hecker's visitors had +become very few. An occasional call was received from an old friend, +lay or cleric, and this was not apt to be repeated, so painful was +the contrast between the former Father Hecker and the present one. +Instead of the active and powerful man, of contagious courage and +hopefulness, they saw a tall, wan old man bending with the weight of +years and of suffering, but still majestic in his look and bearing, +with a white beard, and soft, attractive eyes. The quick movement, +the joyous greeting, even the smiling serenity, had passed away, and +instead an air of sadness had come, or of enforced cheerfulness. + +The following memorandum, taken over two years before his death, +tells of a relief which he hoped would be permanent; but such was not +to be the case: + +"Father Hecker said to-day: 'Only within the last three days has God +released me from the sensation that I might die any instant. Oh! how +I have suffered from that feeling for ten years. I did not know +whether I should ever be delivered from it. Now, little by little God +is lifting it off from my soul. For ten years I have been under this +cloud. Oh, how terrible a suffering it has been!' This he said, his +hands covering his face; he had interrupted me to say it while I was +reading St. John of the Cross. 'Oh!' he added, 'how I could weep for +my sins,' and so on for a few more words." + +The clouds soon settled down again. The following was noted a little +over a month after the above: + +"Father Hecker said to me to-day: 'There was a time when I seemed to +know God so clearly and to be so conscious of His attraction that my +whole thought and wish was death; to break the chain of life to be +united to God in Paradise. Now it is altogether different; nothing +but darkness and depression.'" + +Here is another memorandum, taken some time before the above: + +"Father Hecker said: 'God is now visiting me with the profoundest +desolation of spirit. I have the most deadly terror of death; if I +yielded to it I should tremble from head to foot. Yet there is a +spell on me which makes me wish that I may die without sensible faith +and deprived of every present spiritual comfort. . . .' He also said +many things about his continued and unbroken desolation of spirit +these several years back. 'Yet,' said he, 'I never knew that God +would permit me to come so near to Him and see so much of Him as I +have.' Then he made me read to him the first chapter of the Book of +Job. . . . After he had gone to bed I read to him part of an article +in _The Month_ on the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and he +discoursed meantime to me most profoundly on that topic. And he +added: 'One reason why I have always been so much interested in the +doctrine of the Holy Ghost acting in the soul is a practical one, +because I myself have never had any other director, though I have +more than once opened my mind entirely to others and profited by +their advice, but none was or could be really my director. Hence, +too, I am so much attracted to saints who have had to struggle on +alone like St. Catherine of Genoa, who was without a director for +twenty-five years.'" + +Towards the close of October, 1888, two months before death, Doctor +Begen saw that the end was approaching. This was evident from a +sudden and general failure of strength, the appetite, not much at any +time, seeming now to vanish quite away, although Father Hecker's +strong will forced down a little nourishment. This loss of strength +caused the heart to work badly and to give an occasional sudden +alarm. Internal congestions followed, relaxing the bowels and causing +much bodily annoyance. Meantime he was hardly ever out of his room +and many days he spent entirely in bed. His fits of depression of +spirits were more frequent than usual and more saddening. He no +longer rested at all, what sleep he got being produced by drugs and +serving but to pass the time unconsciously. From the beginning of +December he was apt to fall into a semi-comatose state, though +generally in full use of his faculties. Some days before he died he +seemed to realize that the long struggle was nearly over, and he no +longer talked to the doctor or others of the medicines or of his +bodily ailments, nor did he seem to think of them; and his mind +appeared to have suddenly grown peaceful. The Scriptures as well as +other books were read to him, as usual, up to the very evening before +he died. On the night of the 20th of December, two days after his +sixty-ninth birthday, the last sacraments were administered, Father +Hecker receiving them without visible emotion but in full +consciousness. During the following day he was quiet and apparently +free from acute pain, the benumbed body refusing to suffer more; but +the mind calm and attentive. When the morning of the 22d came all +could see that his time was near at hand. In the middle of the +forenoon the members of the community were gathered at the bedside, +the prayers for the dying were read and the indulgence was given. As +this was over the doctor arrived, and Father Hecker, who had +gradually lost advertence to all around him, was roused by him into +full consciousness, and gave the community his blessing, feebly +raising his hand to make the sign of the cross and uttering the words +in a light whisper. Then he sank away into unconsciousness and in an +hour ceased to breathe. + +And so Father Hecker died. Our beloved teacher and father, so +blameless and brave, so gentle and daring, so full of God and of +humanity, entered into his eternal beatitude. + +Dying on Saturday, and so near Christmas, the funeral was delayed +till Wednesday, the feast of St. Stephen, the body being embalmed. +Christmas afternoon it was placed in the church and was visited and +venerated by great throngs of people. A vast concourse attended the +Requiem Mass the next morning, which was sung by Archbishop Corrigan +surrounded by many priests, an eloquent sermon being preached by +Father T. J. Campbell, the Provincial of the Jesuits. The body was +placed in the vaults of the old cathedral. + +The life we have been following is a harmonious whole from beginning +to end. The child tells of the youth, the youth promises a noble man, +and the promise is more than fulfilled. He was guileless; no dark +ways of forbidden pleasure ever heard the sound of his footstep. +There was no barter of conscience for ambition's prize. He was +fearless; from beginning to end there was no halt from want of +courage. Nor did he rush forward before the light came to show the +road, though he often chafed and panted to hear the word of Divine +command; he never moved at any other. But when the voice of God bade +him forward he never flinched at any obstacle. The ever-recurring +persuasion that there were so few who saw God's will as he saw it cut +him to the heart, and the mystery of the Divine times and moments +grew upon him with fatal force till the end, until he drooped and +pined away with grief that he could but taste the first-fruits. Yet +he was ever submissive to the Divine Will, to live, to die, to begin, +to end the work, to be alone or to be of many brethren, to lead or to +follow. Though a most active spirit, he was yet contemplative, and to +unite the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in the inner and outer +life was the end he always kept in view; but he was distinctively an +interior man. + +Few men since the Apostles have felt a quicker pulse than Isaac +Hecker when the name of God was heard, or that of Jesus Christ or the +Holy Spirit. Few men have had a nobler pride in the Church of Christ, +or felt more one with her honor. Few men have grown into closer +kinship with all the family of God, from Mary the great mother and +the holy angels down to the simplest Catholic, than Isaac Hecker. But +his peculiar trait was fidelity to the inner voice. "There are some," +he once said, "for whom the predominant influence is the external +one, authority, example, etc.; others in whose lives the interior +action of the Holy Spirit predominates. In my case, from my +childhood, God influenced me by an interior light and by the interior +touch of his Holy Spirit." The desperate demand of Philip, "Lord, +show us the Father and it is enough," was Father Hecker's cry all +through early life. After the founding of his community, in 1858, his +life was like an arctic year. From that date till 1872 there was no +set of sun. The unclouded heavens bent over him ever smiling with +God's glorious light; and its golden tints lit up all humanity with +hope and joy. Then the sun went down to rise no more. The heavens +were dark and silent, or rent asunder with wrathful storms, only a +transient flash of the aurora relieving the gloom. When the light +dawned again it was to beam upon his soul in the ecstasies of +Paradise. + +We know not what to say of his faults, nor can we think that he had +any that were not to be traced to his eager love of God's cause, such +as his overpowering men with pleading for God in their souls; or too +easily crediting unworthy men who prated to him of liberty and the +Holy Spirit; or over-fondness during his illness for playing in the +lists of fancy at an apostolate denied him in the battle of active +life; he repined at being forced to plan great battles in a +sick-room. He could not help betraying a heart heaving with a pent-up +ocean of zeal, while he was creeping about helplessly, often too +feeble to speak above his breath. A lover of liberty, its only boon +to him at last was liberty to accept and rivet upon himself the chain +of patient love. + +Some may say "Hecker was before his time." But no man is before his +time if, having a divine message, he can get but one other to accept +it, can arrest men's attention, can cause them to ponder, to ask why +or why not, whether this be the day or only its vigil. The sower is +not before his time though he dies before the harvest; there is a +time to sow and a time to reap. + +And now the tree is dead, but its ripe fruits are in our bosoms +bearing living seeds, which will spring up in their time and give +fruit again each according to its kind. + +The life of Father Hecker is a strong invitation to the men of these +times to become followers of God the Holy Ghost, to fit their souls +by prayer and penance in union with Christ and his Church, for the +consecration of liberty and intelligence to the elevation of the +human race to union with God. We do not bid him farewell, for this +age, and especially this nation, will hail him and his teachings with +greater and greater acclaim as time goes on. As God guides His Church +to seek her Apostolate mainly in developing men's aspirations for +better things into fulness of Catholic truth and virtue, Isaac Hecker +will be found to have taught the principles and given the methods +which will lead most surely to success. + +THE END + +________________________ + + + + +APPENDIX + +________________________ + +LETTERS FROM CARDINAL NEWMAN + +I + +THE ORATORY, BIRMINGHAM, February 28, 1889. + +MY DEAR FATHER HEWIT: I was very sorrowful at hearing of Father +Hecker's death. I have ever felt that there was this sort of unity in +our lives--that we had both begun a work of the same kind, he in +America and I in England, and I know how zealous he was in promoting +it. It is not many months since I received a vigorous and striking +proof of it in the book he sent me [_The Church and the Age_]. Now I +am left with one friend less, and it remains with me to convey +through you my best condolement to all the members of your society. + +Hoping that you do not forget me in your prayers, +I am, dear Father Hewit, +most truly yours, +JOHN H. CARD. NEWMAN. + +II + +THE ORATORY, BIRMINGHAM, March 15, 1890. + +DEAR FATHER HEWIT: In answer to your letter I am glad to be told what +is so interesting to me, viz., that the Life of Father Hecker is in +preparation. I had a great affection and reverence towards him, and +felt that which so many good Catholics must have felt with me on +hearing of his illness and death. I wish, as you ask me, that I could +say something more definite than this of his life and writings, but +my own correspondence with friends, and especially the infirmities of +my age, burden me and make it impossible for me to venture upon it. +This, alas! is all that I have left me now by my years towards the +fulfilment of welcome duties to the grateful memory of an effective +Catholic writer (I do not forget his work in England) and a +Benefactor, if I may use the term, to the Catholic Religion, whose +name will ever be held in honor by the Catholic Church. + +Yours most truly, +J. H. N. + +________________________ + + + + +RECOLLECTIONS OF FATHER HECKER BY THE ABBE XAVIER DUFRESNE, OF GENEVA + +I + +I first knew Father Hecker in 1873, meeting him at a Catholic +Congress held at Ferney and presided over by Monsignor Mermillod. +Father Hecker visited Geneva several times after that, living in the +closest intimacy with our family. He spent several weeks on a visit +with my father, Dr. Dufresne, at a chalet situated on Salane mountain +above Geneva, being at the time in feeble health and seeking recovery +by a prolonged sojourn in Europe. For this enforced inactivity he +recompensed himself by continual and earnest conversations, for the +purpose of gaining to his ideas all whom he believed capable of +understanding them, whether Protestants or Catholics. There was about +him an indescribable charm which mysteriously drew one to him and +penetrated one with his influence. Although he did not know French +thoroughly and preferred to use English, yet he spoke with such +power, elevation, exuberance, and depth of thought that he captivated +his hearers. + +When I made Father Hecker's acquaintance I had just lost my eyesight, +being at the end of my ecclesiastical studies, and not yet ordained. +He did my soul much good by teaching me a kind of holiness which was +joined to lively intelligence and the most energetic activity. Father +Hecker remains to me not only the type of an American priest, but of +the modern one, the kind needed by the Church for the recovery of the +ground lost as a result of Protestantism and infidelity, as well as +to enable her to start anew in her divine mission. + +II + +The principal impression produced by Father Hecker on those who came +in contact with him was one of sanctity. In his company one felt his +whole being influenced as if by something venerable and supernatural, +and a constant inclination to correspond to the action of the Holy +Spirit and submit the human will to the divine. In conversing with +him about spiritual things one was transported into a higher region, +the heart growing warmer and the conscience more sensitive. Father +Hecker plainly inclined by habit to the type of character given us by +Jesus Christ. He suffered much, both physically from weakness of +nerves and morally on account of enforced inactivity, yet he not only +never complained but was always cheerful. This was the greater merit +in him because he seemed by nature impatient of opposition and +contradiction. He had a sagacious mind and easily discovered the +faults of others, but, although he spoke of men and affairs with +openness and candor, he yet ever sought for favorable interpretations. +Like St. Francis de Sales, he knew how to judge of people and yet +remain full of charity for his neighbor. Profoundly individual, and +profoundly attached to his ideas, like all Anglo-Saxons, and in fact +like all who have acquired the Protestant habit of free inquiry, he +nevertheless had for the Church a docility almost naive and +infantile; and this was because he recognized in her the authority +and the action of the Holy Spirit. + +It may be said of him without exaggeration that he was every moment +ready, if it became necessary, to bear witness to the divinity of the +Church by martyrdom, and in fact he often made that declaration. In +him the most heroic virtue was faith. He had come into the Catholic +Church in spite of the most extreme natural repugnance, and he +remained in it, overcoming the perpetual objection of Protestants +that Catholicity could not be the truth because Catholic countries +had become the least powerful and the least prosperous in the +civilized world. On this point he loved to expound the text of +Scripture which says that it is better to lose an eye and an arm and +enter into the kingdom of heaven, than to save both, and fall into +hell. His piety was wholly interior. It consisted in the perpetual +exercise of the presence of God. He had a natural disinclination for +devotional practices as they are in vogue among the southern races. + +His tendency was to spiritualize as much as possible all the +devotions in use in the Church. His own principal one was to the Holy +Ghost and His divine Gifts. He never spoke of the Incarnation and the +Eucharist without deep emotion and a contagious love. As to devotion +to the Blessed Virgin, he explained it in a most elevated manner, +ever showing, and with great dignity and nobility of manner, how it +flowed from the principle of the divine maternity. The last book he +sent me was one on the Blessed Virgin written by an American priest. +Since Father Hecker's death I have never failed a single day to +invoke him in my prayers, and to his intercession I attribute many +graces obtained, some of them very important. + +III + +Father Hecker had a marvellous openness of heart. I heard him relate +several times the story of his life, his conversion, his joining the +Redemptorists, his case before the Roman Congregations, and the +founding of the Paulist community. I can still recall the banks of +the Lake of Geneva at the Villa Bartoloni, where Father Hecker, +walking with a friend and myself, told us of his leaving the +Redemptorist order. It was the way in which he talked of so delicate +a matter that enabled me to appreciate that the man was a saint. He +liked to repeat, while on this subject, what Cardinal Deschamps had +said of him: "Here is a man who has been able to leave our +Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer without committing even a +venial sin." + +In my opinion, Father Hecker was, after Pere Lacordaire, the most +remarkable sacred orator of the century. This does not apply to his +writings, for his ideas lost much of their force in the process of +getting into print. Like all natural orators his chief quality was a +power of drawing and persuading, which, to use an expression often +applied to Pere Lacordaire, had something magnetic about it. He had a +prodigious gift of showing his Protestant or infidel hearers that +their own hearts and their own reason aspired by instinct towards the +Catholic truth which he was teaching them. In that way he drew his +hearers to discover the truth in their own minds instead of receiving +it by force of argument or any extrinsic authority. To acquire this +power he had made a great study of the Gospel, and, sustained by +Divine grace, he went about the exposition of the truth as Jesus +Christ did. One of the most original aspects of his mind was that he +joined the practical sense of the American to the taste and aptitude +of the European for speculation. He had not been able to make a +complete course of studies because he had spent several years in +commercial life, but he had great natural gifts for metaphysics, +theology, and above all mysticism. + +Unlike the English converts of the Oxford school, he had reached +Catholicity by way of liberal Protestantism, which he had renounced +because it could not satisfy the religious aspirations of his nature. +It would be interesting to study his case in connection with those of +Newman and Manning, for it shows that souls are led to Catholicity by +all roads, even the most opposite, and that minds most inclined to +rationalize can be drawn to the Church as easily as those of a +conservative or traditional temperament. + +IV + +But I wish to dwell especially on what preoccupied Father Hecker's +mind and formed the fundamental theme of his eloquent words. We were +just on the morrow of the Vatican Council, of the defeat of France by +Prussia, and in the first agonies of the Culturkampf in Germany and +Italy. Now, if one remembers that Father Hecker was of an American +family originally from the town of Elberfeld, Prussia, he can better +understand the gravity of the problem which weighed upon his mind, as +upon that of so many others. Must we admit, it was asked, that the +Council of the Vatican has affixed its seal upon the decadence of +Catholicity, binding the Church to the failing fortunes of the Latin +races? Must Protestantism finally triumph with the Saxon races? And +here Father Hecker's faith did not halt an instant, but grasped the +difficulty in all its terrible magnitude. His solution may be +questioned by some, but I believe that no one will dispute that the +mind which conceived it was of the first order. + +Father Hecker remarked, as did many others, that, starting from the +sixteenth century, the Church, although ever exerting a considerable +influence, no longer appeared at the head of the world's activity. +This was in contrast with what she had done in the era of the +conversion of the Roman Empire, during that of the invasion of the +barbarians, and amid the immense religious movement which +characterized the apogee of the Middle Ages. Father Hecker discovered +the cause of this lessening influence in the fact that since the +sixteenth century the Church had been compelled to stand upon the +defensive. This had greatly paralyzed her power of initiation and her +liberty. As a consequence of the Protestant heresy, which threatened +the utter destruction of the principle of authority, the Church had +been forced to concentrate on that side of her fortress all her means +of defence. In order to protect herself from the excesses of the +principle of individuality and free inquiry, she had been obliged to +resort to a multitude of restrictive measures, which were conceived +in a very different spirit from that which animated her in previous +centuries. In the sixteenth century the Church placed before +everything else the idea of authority. She sacrificed the development +of personality to fostering the association of men whose wills were +absolutely merged by discipline in one powerful body. It can be seen +at a glance how intimately and profoundly the spirit of the dominant +religious orders of the later era differs from that of the great +orders of the Middle Ages, in respect to the expansion of nature and +the development of individuality. The needs of the sixteenth century +were altogether different from those of the ages preceding it, and to +meet those needs God inspired St. Ignatius with the idea of a +different type of Christian character. The result was the triumphant +repulse of Protestantism from all the southern nations. But the +victory was gained at the price of real sacrifices; the Catholics of +the recent centuries have not displayed the puissant individuality of +those of the Middle Ages, the types of which are St. Bernard, St. +Gregory VII., Innocent III., St. Thomas Aquinas. The Divine Spirit +often exacts the sacrifice of certain human qualities for the +preservation of the faith; and it is in this sense that we should +interpret the mysterious words of Jesus Christ, that it is better to +lose an eye and an arm and not fall into hell, than to save an eye +and an arm and be lost eternally. + +The Council of the Vatican, Father Hecker maintained, by giving to +the principle of authority its dogmatic completion, has placed it +above all attacks, and consequently has brought to a close the +historical period in which it was necessary to devote all efforts to +its defence. A new period now opens to the Church. She has been +engaged during three centuries in perfecting her external organism, +and securing to authority the place it should have in working out her +divine life; she will now undertake quite another part of her +providential mission. It is now to be the individuality, the +personality of souls, their free and vigorous initiative under the +direct guidance of the Holy Spirit dwelling within them, which shall +become the distinctive Catholic form of acting in these times. And +this will all be done under the control of her divine supreme +authority in the external order preventing error, eccentricity, and +rashness. + +The Latin races were fitted by nature to be the principal instruments +of the Holy Spirit during the period just passed. In the new one the +Anglo-Saxon and Teutonic races, of a nature strongly individual and +independent, will take their turn as instruments of Divine +Providence. This is not saying that the development of the Church is +the result of the natural aptitudes of races, but that God, who has +created these aptitudes, takes them one after the other, and at the +hours He chooses, and causes them to serve as instruments for +carrying out His designs. It was thus, from the fourth to the seventh +century, that He made use of the metaphysical subtilty implanted by +Him in the Greek genius, issuing in all those great definitions which +have fixed not only the substance but the verbal form of Catholic +dogma. Hence the first general councils were all held in the East. + +Father Hecker cherished hopes for the conversion of the Teutonic and +Anglo-Saxon races. Doubtless God could convert them suddenly, but +considering the way heretofore followed that conversion will be +brought about insensibly and by the two following instrumentalities: +On the one hand, the new development of individuality in souls within +the Church will create a sympathetic attraction towards her on the +part of Protestants, who will discover affinities with her of which +they were wholly unaware. On the other hand, the more the Protestant +races expand, the more they will find the dwarfed Christianity which +they profess falling short of their aspirations, and by that means +they will be inclined towards Catholicity. It is not a little +remarkable that Father Hecker expressed himself thus during the last +years of the pontificate of Pius IX., at a moment when such ideas +seemed to be least in favor in high Catholic circles. But soon +afterwards the pontificate of Leo XIII. began, and with it a movement +in the spirit indicated by the American priest, and in a manner so +strikingly in accord with his views that Father Hecker seemed to have +been enlightened from above in his presages of the future. + +Father Hecker developed a grand theological synthesis of what he +called the exterior and interior mission of the Holy Spirit in the +Church. He has explained it in a pamphlet; but how much more +impressive it was when he expounded it in person! We had the +privilege of hearing him do so in a long conversation with the most +celebrated Protestant minister of French-speaking countries, the +illustrious philosopher and orator, Ernest Naville. Father Hecker +said that the antipathy of Protestants for the Church arose from the +fact that they imagined that Catholicity reduced all religion to +obedience to external authority. Protestants, on the other hand, +pretend to place all religion in the interior life, directly +generated in souls by the Holy Spirit, and it is for this reason that +Catholicity impresses them as a tyrannical usurpation and a stupid +formalism. In this they are deceived, as a close acquaintance with +Catholics and with such writings as those of St. Francis de Sales and +St. Teresa soon proves to them. So, also, when they fancy that the +authority of the Church is not necessary to the preservation of the +action of the Holy Spirit in the soul. As a matter of fact, the +innumerable divisions of Protestants among themselves plainly show +that the interior action of the Holy Ghost does not extend to making +each individual infallible. To safeguard souls against deception, +scepticism or illuminism, there is need of another action of the Holy +Spirit which shall be conservative of the interior life. That other +action is exterior, and is exercised by means of the authority of the +Church. The Holy Spirit cannot be brought into contradiction with +Himself. By His action in the exterior authority of the Church He can +never interfere in the least degree with the fulness or the +spontaneity of His own interior action in souls. + +The exterior action is one of control and of verification, to hinder +souls from being lost in the depths of illusion and in the deceits of +pride. But besides this, humility, obedience, self-abnegation, +virtues dear by excellence to the heart of Jesus Christ, are +impossible without due submission to the external authority. When one +believes only in himself, he obeys only himself, and hence has never +practised complete renunciation nor complete humility. + +Father Hecker also maintained that the direction of souls in +confession should be made to strengthen and develop individual life. +We do not need blood-letting, he said, as if we suffered from +plethora, but rather we need a course of tonics, sea-baths, and the +invigorating air of the mountains. We should not hold our penitents +in leading-strings, but should teach them to live a self-reliant life +under the direction of the Holy Spirit. Souls tempered by that +process would render the Church a thousand times more service than +they do now. + +No doubt such souls may sometimes run the risk of pride and of +temptation to revolt. But in such cases the Church is so provided +with power by the dogma of infallibility, as proclaimed by the +Vatican Council, as to be able to counteract this danger without +serious loss, as was proved in the case of Doellinger and the Old +Catholics. + +The Holy Spirit, preparing for a great development of individual +life, has made provision beforehand that the Church should be armed +with power sufficient to repress all waywardness, and this was done +by the Vatican Council. Some had feared that the definition of +infallibility would introduce an extravagant use of authority, and +lead to a diminution of reasonable liberty and individuality in the +Church even greater than before. But the very contrary has been the +result. + +With reference to the interior life, I can affirm that Father +Hecker's was full and rich. Having spent the greater part of his life +in a devouring activity, at its close he lived as a true +contemplative. He was a genuine mystic. We heard him discourse with +marvellous beauty on the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Eucharist, +expounding these great truths in a way not only to enrapture one with +their splendor, but utterly to refute deism, pantheism, and +materialism. The latter error, he said, owed its introduction partly +to the fact that Protestantism had refused to the senses their +legitimate place in divine worship, this excessive spiritualizing +having brought about a reaction. + +V + +Father Hecker often spoke of the future reserved for Catholicity in +the United States, saying that it was there that the union of the +Church with democracy would first take place. In that nation the +prejudice against the Church is not so strong as in Europe, and her +position is free from the embarrassments of traditional difficulties. +Catholicity is there valued for its immediate effect upon human +nature, and the rancor born of historical recollections is not in +such full control of men's minds; hence conversions are more easily +made. Furthermore, Father Hecker believed that it would finally be +discovered that the Protestant spirit is contrary to the political +spirit of the American Republic. America has based her Constitution +on the fact that man is born free, reasonable, and capable of +self-government. The Protestant Reformers, on the contrary, never +ceased to teach that original sin deprived man of his free will and +made him incapable of performing virtuous acts; and if Protestants +seek to escape from this whirlpool of fatalism, they fall into +infidelity. The day will come when Americans will admit that if they +are to be at once religious and reasonable, they must become +Catholics. Therefore, whether it be acknowledged or not, every +development of political liberty in the United States contributes to +the advance of Catholicity. The Constitution of the United States has +formulated the political principles most conformable to the Canons of +the Council of Trent. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Life of Father Hecker, by Walter Elliott + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF FATHER HECKER *** + +***** This file should be named 18283.txt or 18283.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/2/8/18283/ + +Produced by David McClamrock + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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