ws established by God. My
explanation would be that this guidance is not a miraculous power,
specially bestowed upon some men, but merely a higher degree of
ordinary divine guidance. Our ordinary life is inspired; the other is
only a higher degree of what is common to all. The evil which arises
from the contrary opinion is this: men who have received a higher
degree of insight believe that it is a special miraculous gift, and
that all they may say is infallibly true, whereas they still retain
their own individuality though raised to a purer state of being. They
have not been so raised in order to found new sects, or to cause
revolutions, but to fulfil the old, continue and carry it on as far
as they have been given light to do so. In forming new sects they but
reproduce their own individualities with all their errors. So
Swedenborg did, and Wesley, men of modern times who were awakened in
a greater degree than the mass of their fellows. Their mistake lay in
their attempt to make universal ends out of their individual
experiences. In the ordinary state no man does this, but these, being
lifted a little above the mass, became intoxicated. The only one, so
far as I have read, who has had humility equal to his inspiration was
Jacob Boehmen. Luther, Calvin, Fox, Penn, Swedenborg, Wesley, had
self in view. Selfism is mixed with their universalism. None has
spoken truth so pure and universal as Boehmen. He is the most
inspired man of modern times. He had more love and truth than all the
other mystics put together, and fewer faults than either one of them
taken singly."

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CHAPTER X

AT HOME AGAIN

IT was the middle of August, 1843, when Isaac Hecker once more took
up his residence with his family in New York. His first endeavor was
to sink back again as far as possible into the old routine of
business.

"To-morrow I commence to work," he writes on the evening of his
return. "My interior state is quiet and peaceful. I have not met any
one yet. My dear mother understands me better than any one else. How
far business will interfere with my inner life remains to be seen. O
Lord! help me to keep my resolution, which is not to let the world
enter my heart, but to keep it looking toward Thee! My heart has been
in a constant prayerful state since I have been at home. It is busy
in its own sanctuary, its own temple, God. O Lord! preserve it."

One of the first noteworthy things revealed by the dia