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.

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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 disc