Probably it may reach the shop, the counter, and the scales; not so certainly the factory, the mine, the political platform, and the ballot.

If Christianity had never presented itself under any other aspect than this to Isaac Hecker, it is certain that it would never have obtained his allegiance.

Yet it is equally certain that he never rejected Christ under any aspect in which He was presented to him.
Even concerning the period of his life with which we are now engaged, and in which we have already represented him as having lost hold of all distinctively Christian doctrines, we must emphasize the precise words we have employed.

He "lost hold"; that was because his original grasp was weak.

While no authoritative dogmatic teaching had given him an even approximately full and definite idea of the God-man, His personality, His character, and His mission, the fragmentary truths offered him had made His influence seem restrictive rather than liberative of human energies.