132 DISCOURSES OF FATHER HYACINTHE. 



were the cruel conilicts whicli reiuleivtl your choice, 

 though free, so difficult and piiiufnl? I may not an- 

 swer this. Family, friends, countr}^ — I have seen these 

 sacred wounds too near to dare to touch them. I will 

 only say that I never knew, till now, how much it costs 

 the most completely settled mind, and the will most 

 firmly resolved, to leave the religion of mother and of 

 native laiid ! 



Ah! why, on the noble soil of the United States, 

 must our church be still — I do not say unknown — but 

 despised by so many souls? Would to God that it 

 were simply unknown ! A new apostle might then go 

 to invoke upon those shores that "unknown God" 

 whom Paul invoked before the Areopagus, that Church 

 wliich they love in the ideal without knowing it in the 

 reality ; /and, free from prejudices, thoughtful America 

 would receive it better than frivolous Athens. But 

 they think they know us, and they see us through such 

 a cloud of evil report, that our name excites nothing 

 but disgust and hatred. How long shall these age-long 

 misunderstandings endure ? and when shall God at 

 last command the division-wall to be thrown down ? It 

 certainly depends upon ourselves to prepare for that 

 longed-for day by drawing nearer to each other; — not, 

 certainly, by making doctrinal concessions, which would 

 be sinful if they were not ciiimerical, but by tlie aban- 

 donment of our mutual prejudices in tlie ])resence of 

 facts better understood, and by the formai ion of those 

 kindly relations in which esteem and charity might 

 even now unite those whom difference of belief still 

 separates. As for myself, this is my most ardent wish ; 

 and the more I come to appreciate the condition of re- 

 ligious affairs in this country, ilie more living and 

 urgent necessity this question assumes. Since, then, 



