in great honor to the Cathedral Church of Ratzeburg. At this time, about 1330 or somewhat later, the martyr Ansverus was canonized as a Saint by the Church. Thenceforward, the fifteenth, and afterwards the eighteenth day of July, was dedicated to his memory and was a general holyday. He was a saint much respected and celebrated throughout that whole country; even after the commencement of the Reformation his festival was celebrated. According to the Church order of Lauenburgh, a Te Deum was sung on the Sunday after the festival in honor of his memory and, with prayer and thanksgiving, mention was made of him in the service. Of the memorials dedicated to him, there are still preserved a stone cross, which stands at the side of the foot-way from Ratzeburg to Buchholz, and a memorial tablet on the north side of the choir, in the side aisle, of the Cathedral.

The Foundation, established in 1154 by the Duke Henry and Bishop Evermodus appointed to the Episcopate of Ratzeburg, stands in no direct connection with the Monastery of St. George, but simply in an indirect and spiritual relation. That Monastery was plainly an advanced missionary station, a temporary preparation for a proportionate activity, which should succeed in still greater measure and which, after even this experiment was wrecked in the bloody persecution of the heathen, did in fact succeed. Of the contemporary existence of the Episcopate and the Monastery not a trace is to be found anywhere.

STATISTICS OF THE GLOBE.

The following curious facts are stated on high authority. The earth is inhabited by 1,288,000,000 of inhabitants, namely, 360,000,000 of the Caucasian race; 552,000,000 of the Mongolian race; 190,000,000 of the Ethiopian; 1,000,000 of the American Indian; and 200,000,000 of the Malay races. All these respectively speak 3,064 languages, and profess 1,000 different religions. The number of deaths per annum is 333,333,333, or 91,954 per day, 3,730 per hour, 60 per minute, or 1 per second; so that at every pulsation of our heart a human being dies. This loss is compensated by an equal number of births. The average duration of life throughout the globe is 33 years. One-fourth of its population dies before the seventh year, and one-half before the seventeenth. Out of 100,000 persons, only one reaches his hundredth year; only one in 500 his eightieth, and only one in 100 his sixty-fifth. Married people live longer than unmarried ones; and a tall man is likely to live longer than a short one. Until the fiftieth year, women have a better chance of life than men, but beyond that period the chances are equal. Sixty-five persons out of 100 marry. The months of June and December are those in which marriages are most frequent. Children born in spring are generally stronger than those

born in other seasons. Births and deaths chiefly occur at night. The number of men able to bear arms is but one-eighth of the population. The nature of the profession exercises a great influence on longevity. Thus, out of 100 of each of the following professions, the number of those who attain their seventieth year is: among clergymen, 42; agriculturists, 40; traders and manufacturers, 33; soldiers, 32; clerks 32; lawyers, 29; artists, 28; professors, 27; and physicians, 24; so that those who study the art of prolonging the lives of others are most likely to die early, probably on account of the effluvia to which they are constantly exposed.

There are in the world 335,000,000 Christians, 5,000,000 Jews, 600,000,000 professing some of the Asiatic religions, 160,000,000 Mohammedans, and 200,000,000, Pagans. Of the Christians 170,000,000 profess the Catholic, 76,000,000 the Greek, and 80,000,000 the Protestant creeds.

The round number of 5,000,000 Jews is certainty a rough guess, a little too low of the actual number, as Russia and Germany alone (including Prussia and Austria) count 2,000,000 of Hebrews among the 130,000,000 of total population. Italy, Greece, the Ionian Islands, Portugal, France, the Netherlands, the Scandinavian countries and England can not have less than a million of Hebrews. Europe (Turkey excluded) has no less than 3,000,000 of these people. Turkey it is admitted counts 1,500,000 Hebrews. Therefore according to the above estimate, the other parts of the globe have only 500,000 Jews. This, however, is far from the truth, as the two American continents alone have nearly that number of Hebrews. Besides, there are large congregations everywhere in North Africa and South Asia, to say nothing of Central Africa, Central Asia, China and the colonies in all parts of the world; and probably 8,000,000 would come nearer the true number of known Jews.

HUMILITY AND HOLINESS.-Humility and purity crown the heart of man, as stars the brow of night. To be humble and pure is to be great. Who can contemplate in imagination's greatest flight the wonders of deep, illimitable, sun-girt space, as it "stretches on ungrasped forever," and not bow down in the dust before him who presides over creations so vast and sublime? Who can look around upon the delicate, the sweet and the lovely, without aspirations for purity and holiness? The liberties of our people; our happy homes and firesides; our endeared social relations; the triumphs of such occasions as this; yea, the edifice in which we stand holding in its sunward base the oracles of the living God, placed there by the great and good, rise up with solemn and resistless eloquence to plead for the principles underlying the highest interests and glory of man.

The Guardian.

VOL. XIV.---OCTOBER, 1863.--- No. 10.

“THAT GOOD PART."

BY P. SEIBERT DAVIS.

In the village of Bethany, about fifteen furlongs from Jerusalem, there lived in the time of our Saviour three persons, whose names have a prominent place in the Scriptures on account of their intimate association with the Son of God. These persons were Martha and Mary and their brother Lazarus. It is probable that Martha was a widow, with whom Mary and Lazarus lived. She is at least represented as the proprietress of the house, and the head of the family.

We have reason to suppose that the members of this family were in good circumstances. They had a vault-a portion of land held in fee for interment. Mary was able to command the precious ointment she poured out on the feet of Jesus. At their home they extended great hospitality, and the dear Redeemer was among those who enjoyed it. Upon one occasion Martha, as was her custom, received Him into her house. That He met with a hearty welcome there, is evident from the stir the one sister made to have Him hospitably entertained, and the eager gladness with which the other heard every word that fell from His lips. Mary, we are told, sat at Jesus feet and heard His word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving; and came to Him and said, Lord dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her, therefore, that she help me! "And Jesus answered her and said: Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her."

We have here two persons, whose natural temperaments and dispositions may have had much to do with the characters given to

to them-the one of an active busy nature, the other of a quiet contemplative turn of mind, and yet our Lord, in rebuking the one and commending the other, teaches a lesson that is intended to speak to all, through all time. The general truth here set forth, is, that our Holy Religion is the only absolutely necessary and lasting treasure for man, and that even the apparently good things of this world should not prevent us from securing it.

In order to appreciate this, it will be well to look at the peculiar circumstances under which our Divine Redeemer uttered these words. In doing so, we will find that many of the excuses by which Christians seek to justify their worldliness now-a-days, are set aside in the rebuke administered to Martha. It will be found, that to all human appearances, there was much to palliate her action, and if, under the circumstances, the Lord could advise her to give more diligent heed to heavenly things, then no doubt we should be impressed with the superior importance of the one thing needful, and renew our endeavors to secure that good part which cannot be taken away from us.

It will be observed in the first place, that what was here rebuked in Martha was not any open wickedness. Her worldliness was not of a gross sensual kind. She was no Herodias, her heart set upon the sinful pleasures of the world, their gaiety and useless. wanton show, their excitements making her despise the severer yet higher pleasures of religion. She was not like Sapphira, so intent upon worldly possessions as to lie unto the Holy Ghost. She was not like any person, the governing aim of whose life is to add house to house, and field to field! She was not like any of those whose life was spent with the apparently harmless and yet superfluous and giddy things of time and sense. No! on the contrary the things in which she was engaged were such as are lawful in themselves, and good, and necessary when kept in their proper place. Her sin was committed in performing the ordinary duties of her household. These things must be attended to, and in this case she was the proper person to attend to them. The Lord does not condemn these things as intrinsically bad. It is elsewhere taught that they are not to be neglected, and yet we are told that they so occupied Martha's mind as to exclude the higher things of the kingdom. She was not only attentive to them, but careful, 1. e., full of care, anxious and troubled about them. "What shall we eat and what shall we drink?" are the questions that occupied her mind and called forth this reprimand.

It will be observed farther, that Martha was one given to hospitality, and that the entertainment proposed was not a banquet that would end in a debauch, but a simple repast, set through gratitude to Him, who although rich for our sakes became so poor as to be dependent upon charity for His daily bread. Martha was sure that what she was doing was right. She was willing to call Jesus 'Lord,' thereby acknowledging His right to dispose of her time, and she confidently appealed to Him who was infallible, to know if her sister also should not be engaged in the same thing.

"Lord," she says, "dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone?" and anticipating a favorable answer, she adds, "Bid her, therefore, that she help me." But the Saviour, instead of agreeing that Mary should be like her, engaged in worldly things, tells her that she should be occupied like Mary with those that are divine. "Martha, Martha," he says, "thou art careful and troubled about many things, but Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her."

The difference between the choice of the two sisters plainly was, that of worldliness on the part of one, and communion with the Saviour on the part of the other. While Martha busied and worried herself in the preparation of the repast for the Saviour, Mary came to Him as Himself that living bread which came down from heaven. Without doubt Martha loved her Saviour, but she did not seem to realize the fact, that the son of man came, not to be ministered unto, but to minister, i. e., that the advantages of His advent were to accrue from Him to man rather than from man to Him. She did not realize that His religion was the pearl of great price, for which even the goodly pearls of earth that had previously been sought after must be sold. She did not know that, compared with the blessings he designed to give, the best things of this world were nothing worth, that eternal life was the only thing absolutely needful for man, and that it was her duty to renounce all that she might win Christ.

But Mary, on the other hand, appears to have apprehended more fully the "good and perfect gift of God," that it became her to "seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness;" that this kingdom consisted not in "meat and drink, but in peace and joy in the Holy Ghost." For the higher joys of Christ's kingdomthe blessings which He, as the Messias had brought into the world in His person, she was willing to forego every thing, knowing that He was "fairest among ten thousand and the one altogether lovely," and that if she could find herself in God, the highest and most permanent good would be hers. And this choice the Saviour commended. "She hath chosen that good part," i. e., that which alone is the absolutely true and good. O to find ourselves in God and God in us through Christ-that is all that we really need. Many things that we are apt to think of as essential to our well-being have been denied to men, and yet their highest interests have been secured. Many of God's people "of whom the world was not worthy," have not had the common comforts of life, "they have wandered in deserts and in mountains and in caves of the earth, in sheep skins and goat skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented." Yet the essential element of life mediated to our humanity by the Incarnate One has been unimpaired-nay all that constitutes the true man has risen from these afflictions, as from an alembic

And

we may, therefore, conclude that nothing is absolutely essential for us, but vital union with Christ. Our Saviour may well then term this emphatically, "that good part" that shall not be taken away from us. For while the meats for the body, perish with the