s
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 memo