lly, as the pen is
in his own hand, says: '_I_, Tertius, who wrote this epistle,
salute you in the Lord.' Then Paul begins again to dictate, and the
list runs on. Next comes a message from 'Gaius mine host, and of the
whole Church'--an influential man in the community, apparently rich,
and willing, as well as able, to extend to them large and loving
hospitality. Erastus, the chamberlain or treasurer of the city,
follows--a man of consequence in Corinth. And then, among all these
people of mark, comes the modest, quiet Quartus. He has no wealth
like Gaius, nor civic position like Erastus, nor wide reputation like
Timothy. He is only a good, simple, unknown Christian. He feels a
spring of love open in his heart to these brethren far across the
sea, whom he never met. He would like them to know that he thought
lovingly of them, and to be lovingly thought of by them. So he begs a
little corner in Paul's letter, and gets it; and there, in his little
niche, like some statue of a forgotten saint, scarce seen amidst the
glories of a great cathedral, 'Quartus a brother' stands to all time.

The first thing that strikes me in connection with these words is,
how deep and real they show that new bond of Christian love to have
been.

A little incident of this sort is more impressive than any amount of
mere talk about the uniting influence of the Gospel. Here we get a
glimpse of the power in actual operation in a man's heart, and if we
think of all that this simple greeting presupposes and implies, and
of all that had to be overcome before it could have been sent, we may
well see in it the sign of the greatest revolution that was ever
wrought in men's relations to one another, Quartus was an inhabitant
of Corinth, from which city this letter was written. His Roman name
may indicate Roman descent, but of that we cannot be sure. Just as
probably he may have been a Greek by birth, and so have had to
stretch his hand across a deep crevasse of national antipathy, in
order to clasp the hands of his brethren in the great city. There was
little love lost between Rome, the rough imperious conqueror, and
Corinth, prostrate and yet restive under her bonds, and nourishing
remembrances of a freedom which Rome had crushed, and of a culture
that Rome haltingly followed.

And how many other deep gulfs of separation had to be bridged before
that Christian sense of oneness could be felt! It is impossible for
us to throw ourselves completely back t