“Such an exposition of Christianity, the union of the internal with the external notes of credibility, is calculated to produce a more enlightened and intense conviction of its divine truth in the faithful, to stimulate them to a more energetic personal action; and, what is more, it would open the door to many straying but not altogether lost children, for their return to the fold of the Church.  The increased action of the Holy Spirit, with a more vigorous co-operation on the part of the faithful, which is in process of realization, will elevate the human personality to an intensity of force and grandeur productive of a new era in the Church and to society; an era difficult for the imagination to grasp, and still more difficult to describe in words, unless we have recourse to the prophetic language of the inspired Scriptures.”

It is thus made plain that Father Hecker does not deny the harmony between the devotional spirit and practices prevalent in different ages of the Church; but he calls attention to the fact that the dominant note of one age is not always the same as that in another.  And in using the words criterion and test, descriptive of the Church, he would convey their full meaning:  not merely a plumb-line for the rising wall but divine accuracy itself made external.  His outer criterion is to the inner life what articulate speech is to the human voice.

“The Exposition is nothing else,” he writes home, “than a general outline of a movement from without to within; as in the sixteenth century the movement was one from within to without.  This was occasioned by the nature of the attack of Protestantism.  The Church having with increased [external] agencies protected what was assaulted, can return to her normal course with increased action.  I give an indication of the nature of this movement: 

“An increased action of the Holy Spirit in the soul in consequence of this greater attention directed to the interior life, and a more perfect explanation of the same.  An exposition of the relation of the external to the internal in the Church.  The action of the Holy Spirit in the soul and His gifts are the remedies for the evils of our times.  The development of the intelligible side of the mysteries of faith, and the intrinsic reasons of the truths of divine revelation.  Such a movement will open the door for the return of the Saxon races.  The Latin-Celts in relation to the development of the hierarchy, discipline, worship, and aesthetics of the Church are considered.  Causes of Protestantism—­antagonism and jealousy of races; present persecutions.  The Saxon idea of the Catholic Church.  Reason for it—­they see only the outward and human side of the Church.  Return of the Saxons in consequence of the new phase of development—­the display of the inward and the divine to their intelligence.  The transition of races; in the future the Saxon will supernaturalize the natural, the Latin-Celts will naturalize the supernatural.  The plan and suggestions given are the way to escape the extermination of Christianity by the Saxons, and the denial of Christianity by the apostasy of the Latins.  The union of these races in the Church, with their civilization and force, is the means of spreading Christianity rapidly over the whole world.