The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-07-22

They sincerely believed that his selec-
 tion to be Pope was due to the influence
 oT the Spirit of God on the conclave of
 Cardinals who elected him. Amonel Pcpes. he made upon Roman Catholics an impression for goodness or spirituali- ty or saintliness less than that of no other pontiff and greater than that of many another. But his status in Protestant ism or in the non-Catholic world was more significant than in the papal world Thanks. in part, to the simplicity and openness of his mind, and. in other part to the increasing justice and kindness oi
 the mind of the race. Pope Leo XIII was | respected, esteemed and admired by Protestants to a greater degree than any | of his predecessors in his offfce. John Henry Newman. among Catholics, can
 be said alone to have shared. in the two
 centuries in which the Pope lived. on even terms with him, the appreciation of
 the non-Catholic world. The goodness of the man is the admission of all. That admission is itself a proof that he was | good-eminently good. Some of the world may be deceived about a charac- ter. All of 1t cannot be.
 We put his goodness in the front not
 only because 1t belongs there. but be- cause he would have put such quality at the front in any estimate of qualities which he might have made or In any summary of another's character, which
 he might have set forth. In itself. and | assuredly in his own view of it. good ness Is that which on earth creates for the man the estate which he will carry
 into the heavens. It is not the synonym of greatness, but 1t Is the savor of 1t and
 the superior of it. 1t is that on which
 and for which the Master of Life looks. The rest under the Divine Lights is but
 Heather and prunella," except as 1t may
 be used for the uplitt of man and for
 the glory of God. All questions about
 other Popes aside. the goodness of the
 man who religiously reigned as Leo XIII was not only unmistakable and unden- fable. and 1t was not only universally admitted, but 1t was also universally ac- claimed. We are aware that 1t is some- times referred to as a quality in which any one can excel and on that account
 1t Is underrated. But 1t Is not under
 rated by those who appraise standards
 aright. He from Whom Christianity
 takes Its name put goodness iri place
 supreme and unique. They who follow
 Him follow Him near or afar of accord
 ing as they do or do not so rate 1t. We shall not analyze or subdivide the
 quality. That is for theologians or pSy-
 chOlogists or philosophers Of metaphysi-
 clans to do. Goodness, the quality as in-
 stinctlve to the child as 1t Is evident to
 the wisest and most learned, is injured
 and weakened by analysis the same as
 would be the perfume of 8 flower, the
 silence of the woods. the blandness of
 the air or the scientific examination of
 mothers love. Goodness in itself Is as
 all-cmbracing and as all-encasing as the
 atmosphere. It is the spirl of our
 God Himself That idea of the Divine,
 fiawlessly incarnate in Jesus Christ. and
 making Him not only the target and
 the antithesis, but best of all the For
 giver of sins. and the Redeemer from
 them, Is also the one which ideallzes
 life and immortalizes man in proportion
 as man can embody and outpour 1t In
 his own life. Stations only made the
 goodness of Leo XIII apparent and ef-
 fective. The quality was in him without
 station His station. exalted as 1t was, shed less luster on the quality than the quality shed on 1t. The triple crown was something which he could put on or of. The quality of goodness was resident, regnant and radiant in him and Is in- separable from him. And all the world came to know this and to rejoice in it. That was the greatest fact of his graet reign.
 We not only take 1t that all other facts were lesser in their moral rating, but were lesser in their mental value and power. He was very learned. He was very patient. He was very consistent. But there were and are his equals in those He made his learning the hand maid of the goodness of his purposes. He made his wisdom the servant of the be- nightly of his designs He made his pa- tlence the armor In which he defended himself from misrepresentation, and se- renely awaited the dissipation of preju- dice and of passion. Thus, all his quail ities. his firmness, consistency, courage. all become the panoply. so to speak, of his inherent goodness Richelieu was his superior, we presume, in the arts of dip- lOmacy, though this Leo was great dip lomat. But how tiny and tinsel Riche- lieu seems beside him! Bismarck was more than his peer in sheer force, and quite his equal in intellectual tenacity. but the stuff sage of Friedrichrushe was himself Overcome by the quiet power and the moral persistence of the ''shadowy particle" of the Vatican. We do not know of any being of modern times in whom character came to a more exalted and to a more undisputed coronation than in this Pope unless it be George Wash ington And Washington himself owes something to the Homeric tendency of the world to idealkze and heroiEe. say once in half a thousand years. some one man. with whom to feed and to justify the worshipping instinct of the race. This Pope in his own lifetime owed nothing to this instinct He owed nothing to aloofness. to distance in time or to iden- with unique part for a coun try or for a race. He was the latest of many Popes. He was constantly in evil dence. He was constantly in contact with political rulers, and with parties or factions in his own communion. He was felt and seen in functions, con claves. consistOries and councils. Dis count and depreciation had constant op- portunity for their work upon him. They could take away nothing from him. And this fact was due and Is due to the sim pie transparent goodness of the man, a goodness greater than his greatness and the greatest part of that greatness itself
 It is this which makes his illness a world sorrow. It is this which will ma.-e his death. which cannot apparently be long averted. a world loss. It Is this which has made his long reign quite as much a power for all religion as for that compartment of 1t of which he has been the head. The spiritual sovereign of the first and, therefore. of the oldest and of admittedly the largest division of the Kingdom of God, organized on the earth.