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 w