CHAPTER II. His First Year As A Passionist. Shortly after his profession, Father Ignatius was sent out on missions. The first mission he gave, with Father Gaudentius, was to his old parishioners of West Bromwich. Crowds came to hear him; some to have another affectionate look, and hear once more the well-known voice of their old pastor; others from curiosity to see what he had been transformed into by the monks. This mission was very successful, for, besides the usual work of the reconciliation of sinners, and the helping on of the fervent, there were fifteen Protestants received into the Church before its close. He gives another mission somewhere in the Borough, London, with the same companion. During this mission he hears that his style of preaching is not liked much by the Irish; he feels a little sad at this, as he fears the work may fail of success through his deficiency. The preaching of Father Ignatius was peculiar to himself; he cannot be said to possess the gifts of human eloquence in the highest degree, but there was a something like inspiration in his most commonplace discourse. He put the point of his sermon clearly before his audience, and he proved it most admirably. His acquaintance with the Scriptures was something marvellous; not only could he quote texts in support of doctrines, but he applied the facts of the sacred volume in such a happy way, with such a flood of new ideas, that one would imagine he lived in the midst of them, or had been told by the sacred writers what they were intended for. Besides this, he brought a fund of illustrations to carry conviction through and through the mind. His illustrations were taken from every phase of life, and every kind of {362} employment; persons listening to him always found the practical gist of his discourse carried into their very homestead; nay, the objections they themselves were prepared to advance against it, were answered before they could have been thought out. To add to this, there was an earnestness in his manner that made you see his whole soul, as it were, bent upon your spiritual good. His holiness of life, which report published before him, and one look was enough to convince you of its being true, compelled you to set a value on what he said, far above the _dicta_ of ordinary priests.