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 d