Some noteworthy statements have appeared among the newspaper utterances occasioned by the illness and expected demise of Pope Leo. “For the first time,” says the Chicago Tribune, “the whole world is watching by the bedside of a dying pope.” The predecessor of Pope Leo, Pius IX, has been dead less than a generation, yet now for the first time it is remarked by observing men that “the whole world” is watching by the pope’s bedside. Protestants as well as Catholics pause in suspense to hear the news bulletined by the pope’s physicians. We can not but be reminded of a prophecy of Scripture which speaks of a time when “all the world” will manifest an interest in the papacy. Have we now reached the time which the prophet had in view? Certainly the papacy has made vast progress in the world since the day when the papal chair was vacated by Pius IX. Another statement which we note is the following, in a press dispatch from Washington, D. C.: “Great interest is manifested, for the first time in history, by the United States government in the selection of a successor to the papal chair in the event of the death of Pope Leo. Owing to the friar land question in the Philippines it is considered of the utmost importance that the new pope be friendly toward the United States.” Do you catch the significance of these two “first times in history”?.