[Sidenote: Ver. 8.] =Now first I thank my God, through Jesus Christ, about you all.= It is his delight to give thanks for all the good he knows of in his brethren. Seven of his Epistles open with such thanksgivings, which at once convey the commendations which love rejoices to give, wherever possible, and trace all spiritual virtue straight to its Source, the Lord. Nor only here to "the Lord," but to "_my_ God"; a phrase used, in the New Testament, only by St Paul, except that one utterance of ELI, ELI, by his dying Saviour. It is the expression of an indescribable appropriation and reverent intimacy. The believer grudges his God to none; he rejoices with great joy over every soul that finds its wealth in Him. But at the centre of all joy and love is this--"_my_ God"; "Christ Jesus _my_ Lord"; "who loved _me_ and gave Himself for _me_." Is it selfish? Nay, it is the language of a personality where Christ has dethroned self in His own favour, but in which therefore reigns now the highest happiness, the happiness which animates and maintains a self-forgetful love of all. And this holy intimacy, with its action in thanks and petition, is all the while "_through Jesus Christ_" the Mediator and Brother. The man knows God as "_my_ God," and deals with Him as such, never out of that Beloved SON who is equally One with the believer and with the Father, no alien medium, but the living point of unity. What moves his thanksgivings? =Because your faith is spoken of,= more literally, =is carried as tidings, over the whole world.= Go where he will, in Asia, in Macedonia, in Achaia, in Illyricum, he meets believing "strangers from Rome," with spiritual news from the Capital, announcing, with a glad solemnity, that at the great Centre of this world the things eternal are proving their power, and that the Roman mission is remarkable for its strength and simplicity of "_faith_," its humble reliance on the Lord Jesus Christ, and loving allegiance to Him. Such news, wafted from point to point of that early Christendom, was frequent then; we see another beautiful example of it where he tells the Thessalonians (1 Thess. i. 8-10) how everywhere in his Greek tour he found the news of their conversion running in advance of him, to greet him at each arrival. What special importance would such intelligence bear when it was good news from Rome! Still in our day over the world of Missions similar tidings travel. Only a few years ago "the saints" of Indian Tinnevelly heard of the distress of their brethren of African Uganda, and sent with loving eagerness "to their necessity." Only last year (1892) an English visitor to the Missions of Labrador found the disciples of the Moravian Brethren there full of the wonders of grace manifested in those same African believers. This constant good tidings from the City makes him the more glad because of its correspondence with his incessant thought, prayer, and yearning over them.