r, since
there are four zones [sometimes translated 'corners' or 'quarters'] of
the world in which we live, and four Catholic spirits, while the Church
is scattered throughout all the world, and the pillar and grounding of
the Church is the Gospel and the spirit of life; it is fitting she
should have four pillars, breathing out immortality on every side, and
vivifying men afresh. From which fact it is evident that the Word, the
Artificer of all, He that sitteth upon the Cherubim, and contains all
things, He who was manifested to men, has given us the Gospel under four
aspects, but bound together by one Spirit.... For the Cherubim too were
four-faced, and their faces were images of the dispensation of the Son
of God.... And, therefore, the Gospels are in accord with these things,
among which Christ Jesus is seated" ("Irenaeus," bk. iii., chap, xi.,
sec. 8). The Rev. Dr. Giles, writing on Justin Martyr, the great
Christian apologist, candidly says: "The very names of the Evangelists
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are never mentioned by him--do not occur
once in all his works. It is, therefore, childish to say that he has
quoted from our existing Gospels, and so proves their existence, as they
now are, in his own time.... He has nowhere remarked, like those Fathers
of the Church who lived several ages after him, that there are _four_
Gospels of higher importance and estimation than any others.... All this
was the creation of a later age, but it is wanting in Justin Martyr, and
the defect leads us to the conclusion that our four Gospels had not then
emerged from obscurity, but were still, if in being, confounded with a
larger mass of Christian traditions which, about this very time, were
beginning to be set down in writing" ("Christian Records," pp. 71, 72).

Had these four Gospels emerged before A.D. 180, we should most certainly
find some mention of them in the Mishna. "The Mishna, a collection of
Jewish traditions compiled about the year 180, takes no notice of
Christianity, though it contains a chapter headed 'De Cultu Peregrino,
of strange worship.' This omission is thought by Dr. Paley to prove
nothing, for, says he, 'it cannot be disputed but that Christianity was
perfectly well known to the world at this time.' It cannot, certainly,
be disputed that Christianity was _beginning_ to be known to the world,
but whether it had yet emerged from the lower classes of persons among
whom it originated, may well be doubted. It