I was quite young in the ministry, and very naturally I was casting my eye around in search of ideal men, whose footsteps were treading the path I could feel I, too, ought to travel.

I never afterwards wholly lost sight of Father Hecker, watching him as well as I could from a distance of two thousand miles.

I am not to-day without some experience of men and things, won from years and toils, and I do not alter one tittle my estimate of him, except to make it higher.

To the priests of the future I recommend a serious study of Father Hecker's life.

To them I would have his biography dedicated.
Older men, like myself, are fixed in their ways, and they will not receive from it so much benefit.
Father Hecker was the typical American priest; his were the gifts of mind and heart that go to do great work for God and for souls in America at the present time.