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Show THE NEXT POPE. The question of a successor to Leo XIII ought to be one of extreme solicitude to all Rdman Catholics, Cath-olics, especially all in the United States. The late Pope, while a devout man and at the same time a most learned and sagacious man, was of that sensitive poetical tem'pernment which gave him an intuitive knowledge of men whom he had never seen, and of the sentiment of communities commu-nities in which he had never lived. It gave him, moreover, that subtile knowledge of how the world's thought was drifting and of the influences at work upon the souls of men all tne world around. He knew the history of his Church and of the more than two hundred and fifty Popes who had preceded him, of the changes wrought by the mutations of eighteen hundred years and when he took up his work he could not have helped seeing that new lights had come to the world, that his church must recognize those lights, that its refusal to do so had lowered its influence and curtailed its power. When he came into his great office the girdle of electricity had been put nearly round about the earth, the electric light had begun to shine, and science was opening new doors and revealing re-vealing new splendors in all directions. He could feel that these things were having their effect upon men in all civilized countries. Men no longer believed that divine gifts were for the few and were withheld from the many. He saw that men generaly could not be frightened by portents in the sky, or by threats of perdition; that the spirit of Liberty had become well-nigh universal, and that, tho schools bejng opened to all, henceforth men's allegiance could be reached through their intelligence and affections alone. Seeing this, he began to adjust his church to the on-sweeping evolution evo-lution and devout as he was and anxious as he was that the great work of his church might advance ad-vance and keep abreast of the world's progress, he set himself to the duty of having the repairs made without disturbing the solid foundations or impairing im-pairing the beauty of the structure. How well he succeeded is" testified to by many and many a distinguished man who was never a Roman Catholic. Cath-olic. It can be seen in the difference in the preaching of priests in Catholic churches now from what it was twenty-five years ago. Then no hope was held out to any who were not of their faith; now it is not infrequent to hear them from before their altars declare that the test of a man's religion in his own conscience. We believe that our own free government is more responsible for this than any other one cause. Leo XIII saw the tendency of things on this side of the Atlantic; Atlan-tic; he appreciated what a world power our country coun-try was becoming; he heard the. murmurs frequent twenty years ago of establishing a new Catholic church on this side of the Atlantic; he did not fail to note the effects of American free schools; he saw that a rigid church moving on unyielding and ancient lines would never keep up with the new and swelling procession. He saw it in the unrest of Europe and in the free thought of-the of-the United States. Those must have been anxious days for him. It is a pity that the struggles hie went through could not have been recorded. It is a pity that his thoughts did not find full expression in words and that the words could not have been spoken into a phonograph that they might be repeated now. We can only guess the nature of the conflict which was waged in his soul. His place was more splendid than any kings; the mantle that had been worn for dight-Pan dight-Pan hundred years had fallen upon him, he held the keys of Peter which the traditions of his creed declared had come from the Messiah Himself; Him-self; but looking around him he saw there was something akin to mutiny gathering and he felt the world's unrest. We do not know, but we believe be-lieve that he put aside traditions and customs and that in one supreme moment he heard his soul calling to him to forget the pomp of his surroundings sur-roundings to go back to him, who, when on earth, had nowhere to lay his head, who came preaching peace and the brotherhood of men and that the Sermon of the Mount, under a new and more serious seri-ous reading, gave him tho light he needed, tho wisdom to so direct his high office that the world should be better because he was the Pontiff. All accounts agree that he grew gentler with the years, that his face took on a look at once more spiritual and more sovereign. This can be marked even by an outsider when comparing his last picture taken in health, with the cardinals surrounding him. In this view the one who is to succeed to the office that he held is of vast almost al-most momentous, importance. Will ho bo humble yet progressive as was Leo XIII? Will he be impressed im-pressed with the solemnity of the trust? Will he have the greatness to realize in its immensity the fact that tho souls of men should be day and night, his chiefest concernment and that pure religion re-ligion means the love of God with all his soul and his neighbor as himself? Above all, will he realize thaf in every human breast there is a reflection of a divine light, a light in which "God's spirit shines as shines the sunbeam in a drop of dew," and that to minister to that and to lead it into the paths of justice and- peace is man's highest calling whether he be but an humble priest or the Pope of Rome? |