What exhortations these are to unity, peace, brotherly kindness! How they suggest to us patience, forbearance, gentleness, helpfulness and comfort one toward another in the Church; that thus the Spirit of the Lord may abound in all, that each may make the greatest possible progress in the right way. Dear brethren, let us more and more be worthy of the name of Barnabas—Comforter of the brethren. Let us have the holy Spirit abounding in us more and more, for this is the Lord's good pleasure; that with it dwelling in us richly we may be all sons and daughters of comfort in Zion, representatives of our Father, and channels of the holy Spirit, as well as of the Truth.
Nothing pleases the Lord's servants more than the spiritual prosperity of those whom they serve; for these are their spiritual children, for whose welfare they labor and for whose ultimate victory they lay down their lives. This thought should move the Lord's people to strive to gladden the hearts of those who minister to them. And let the Lord's servants rejoice in seeing the rich fruits of the Spirit, particularly in the various forms of love, abundantly growing in their spiritual children; and so the spiritual mother and children will rejoice together in the Lord.
2 Cor. 13:14; John 7:39; 1 John 3:24; Phil. 1:8; Col. 3:12; John 3:29; Rom. 12:16; 1 Cor. 1:10; Phil. 3:16; 2 Cor. 13:11; Phil. 1:26, 27.
