rrupt.

"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."

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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