Nor can one fail to see the use of missions as an evidence to the non-Catholic public itself of the supernatural power of Catholicity over men’s lives.  To practical people like Americans there is no oral or written evidence of the true religion so valid as the spectacle of its power to change bad men into good ones.  Such a people will accept arguments from history and from Scripture, but those of a moral kind they demand; they must see the theories at work.  A mission is a microcosm of the church as a moral force.  It shows a powerful grasp of human nature and an easy supremacy over it.  It is an energetic, calm, and clean-sweeping influence for good, bold in its choice of the most sublime truths of supernatural religion as the sole motives of repentance.  And it uniformly achieves so complete a victory over the best-entrenched vices that non-Catholic prejudice is invariably shaken at the spectacle.  And in America the pioneer work of the apostolate must be to remove prejudice.  The character of the men who conduct these exercises, their courage, intelligence, devotedness, discipline, and ready command of the people; the indiscriminate humanity which rushes to hear them, to pray, to confess their sins, to listen with mute attention—­long before day-break and in the hours of rest after work—­all regardless of social differences or of moral ones, soon become well known to the public and generally excite comment in the press.  All this contributes to prepare non-Catholics to hear from the same teachers the invitation which our Lord intended in saying:  “Other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also must I bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.”

Furthermore, it was necessary that Father Hecker should be made personally known to the bishops and priests of the country.  The time was coming when he would have a public cause to advance, and their approval is a necessary sign of divine favor.  Now, the missionary is closely studied by them and soon is intimately known, for there are too many things in common between priests but that they can readily test each other.  Before the Paulist community had been organized, Father Hecker had been the guest of the most prominent clergymen of the entire United States, and of many even in the British Provinces, and was a well-known man throughout the Catholic community.  Meantime the humiliations of his study-time had been quickly recovered from, if they had ever been a real hindrance to public effort, and we find no sign of protest on his part or of request to be let off from giving instructions beyond his answer to Father Bernard as above recorded.  As he loved his vows as a Redemptorist, so he loved the work of the missions, because they were God’s will for him; because they are a work of the highest order of good for souls; because the reputation of Catholicity is always raised in a community by a mission, and a good name is necessary for a controversial standing; because in them he daily