umanity uttered everywhere around him. What men outside
the Church were yearning for in matters social and religious was his
incessant study. He read every book, he read every periodical which
promised to guide him ever so little to know by what road Divine
Providence was moving men's minds towards the truth. His eyes were
ever strained to read the signs of God's providence in men's lives.
And his conclusion was always the same: proclaim it on the house-tops
that no man can be consistent with his natural aspirations till he
has become a Catholic; preach it on the street-corners that the
Catholic religion elevates man far above his highest natural force
into union with the Deity--intimate, conscious, and perpetual.

As to systematic preparation for discourses to non-Catholics, Father
Hecker had his own peculiar equipment. As the reader will remember,
God had led him in no way more singularly than in his studies, and
had led him straight. The doctrines of the Church were familiar to
him, for they had quenched his soul's thirst. And he had preached
them on the missions, the instructions on the Creed and the
Sacraments falling to his share. He had given these waters of life to
other souls, and knew their value. He was a close student of the
dogmatic side of religion. He had, it is true, little taste for the
refinements of theologians, unless they touched the questions of
human dignity and the scope of the grace of Christ, which were vital
ones to himself. He viewed religion with wide-sweeping glances,
trying to discover every hill of vision or stream of sanctity. He had
plain truths to teach, and he needed none other. He knew the organism
of the Church in clergy and in people, for he had seen it both from
without and within. He had felt the grip of authority fixed in his
soul. He had agonized under the brand of punishment as it burnt into
his flesh, and he had seen it changed into the badge of approval.
Within and without he knew Catholicity, loved it daily more and more,
and was daily more and more anxious to proclaim it to the world.

It was not from labored preparation of his lectures that success came
to Father Hecker. Even those which seemed the most elaborately
prepared he did not write out word for word. His verbal memory was
not trustworthy, and he had to confide in his extemporizing faculty,
which was very good, and which became in course of time quite
reliable, giving out sentences clear, grammatical, and fit to