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The Bible saint is a holy or godly person. Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, were not all the saints there were in Rome. Paul saw fit to mention these, but there were the unmentioned ones, who were saints nevertheless. The faithful Christians of to-day cannot all be mentioned among the leaders. Salute all! No one, however humble, is to be forgotten.

I. THE BEST AND HARDEST WORK OF THE CHURCH HAS BEEN DONE BY THESE UNNAMED CHRISTIANS. I have often noticed in the hallway of public buildings one or more large tablets sunken into the wall. On the tablet are engraved the names of the architect, the mayor of the city, and a few other great names. Who laid the bricks to form that wall? Who wrought in wood and in metal the elegant finishing and sumptuous furnishing? Nay, whose hands carved in this marble slab the few names that are thus designed to go down to fame? The uncalendared workmen are many, but without them there could be neither foundation-stone nor key to arch. They laboured in the heat, and often in the rain; they laid the brick and lifted the stone into place; they laboured faith-fully — and are forgotten! But these same uncalendared workmen did in their sphere as good work as did the architect in his. I have also learned that the un-calendared saints do the largest share of God's work, and, because they do that work for God, are willing to remain unknown and unsung. There never yet was a revival of the true sort for which God will not award praise to the uncalendared saints as well as to those whose names come prominently before the public eye. These uncalendared ones must do most of the plodding work. They must raise and disburse the money of the local church, visit the sick, care for the children. God bless the uncalendared saints who, because they work not for notoriety but for Jesus' sake, are willing to do everything and be nothing. These, not the great names, constitute the strength, the hope, of the Christian Church.

II. AS A RULE, THE MOST DESERVING HAVE THE LEAST EXPECTED TO BE PLACED ON THE CALENDAR. I imagine the people of our text were no exception. Paul was not the man to make this mention as a species of flattery, nor as a matter of policy. Philologus and Julia, Nereus and Olympas, never dreamed that their names were to be embalmed for ever in the Holy Word. It is not so difficult as many suppose to become a leader in a church or even in a denomination — to have one's name printed in the papers as the distinguished layman or minister Mr. So-and-so; not so difficult to get on the calendar the world looks at, if one is willing to use a few of the means that such a desire would suggest. Such was the desire and method of the Pharisees in Christ's time. They sought for a calendar fame and got it. But to be placed on the list of saints by loving hearts — hearts that have been helped by you — is quite another matter. I have my calendar of saints, those who have made themselves such to me. The fact is that when a Christian seeks to be known as one who ought to be placed on the calendar and known as an unusual saint, without the ordinary saint's failings, then that Christian is in the way of destroying the very first qualification of a true saint — i.e., humility, which will keep a true Christian from making any such claim. The almsgiving, the fasting, the praying, the whole Christian life and profession, are to be without ostentation, "and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shalt reward thee openly." Saints are found in the everyday life of every rank of society. For Jesus' sake they are doing and bearing, praying and hoping, unconsciously fitting themselves for the calendar which some soul is making out — for every Christian is seen and read of men.

III. IT WAS A GREAT THING TO BE REMEMBERED BY PAUL IN ONE OF HIS LETTERS, EVEN THOUGH IT BE ONLY ONE OF THE NUMBER REFERRED TO AS "ALL THE SAINTS WHICH ARE WITH THEM." It will be an unspeakably greater joy when the uncalendared saint below becomes the calendared saint above. There the list will be made up of all, and not of a favoured few as in the Catholic Church. On that calendar we may all of us have our names written in characters that will never fade. What does it matter, then, if here we are un-calendared, if the great world does not know or care if we have honour and receive the recognition which is perhaps our due? In the end the world shall fade away, but enduring honour shall be given him whose name is enrolled on the heavenly calendar.

(J. H. Yeoman.)

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KJV: Salute Apelles approved in Christ. Salute them which are of Aristobulus' household.

WEB: Greet Apelles, the approved in Christ. Greet those who are of the household of Aristobulus.