"God alone is life. All other beings partake of life, but are not life. Christ, from all eternity and by his very nature, is 'the Life,' just as he is 'the Truth,' because he is God of God. If any one abide not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up and cast him into the fire, and he burneth (John xv. 6). "Once remove all impediments and allow the spirit of Christ to revive and grow in a nation, and that nation shall be healed. "The world has heard enough of the so-called 'rights of man.' Let it hear something of the rights of God. "The common welfare urgently demands a return to him from whom we should never have gone astray; to him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life,--and this on the part not only of individuals but of society as a whole." Leo, Great Pontiff of the age, thou mayest well lay down the burden of thy four score years and ten! Thou deservest well of humanity. You have been a great leader in the Church of God. The weary pilgrimage of a desert land is over, and from Nebo's height there stretches before you the Promised Land of rest and joy and everlasting bliss. "Hail, Champion of the Faith! whose beacon light, Held high in trembling hands, illum'ned the world With such a blaze as ne'er before hath shone, E'en from the torch that Gregory upheld Or Pius kindled. Hark, the swelling sound From many million throats! Thy children see The Signal, and in serried legions stand Before the grateful world, and with one voice Demand for thee, Great Father and Great Friend, The joy and peace that is thy due." THE PAPACY NEVER DIES. AT the present writing the question of choosing a successor to Leo XIII. in the pontifical chair is of paramount importance. For this reason the traditional method of selecting a Pope is a topic of more than ordinary interest.