October 31

Who, when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad. - Acts 11:23.

WE may consider Barnabas as a partaker of this pleasure under three views. First, As a man of piety. Piety regards godliness, fears God, loves God, and is, so to speak, absorbed in the promotion of God’s glory. God’s enemies are the Christian’s enemies; God’s friends are his friends. He is “sorrowful for the solemn assembly,” and the “reproach of it “is his “burden.” On the other hand, when the word of the Lord “has free course and is glorified;” when sinners are converted and believers “walk as becometh the gospel,” then they rejoice. Yes, they must rejoice, if they possess the principle of piety, on God’s behalf, for conversion is to the “Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off .” Whenever a man is converted, God has a subject born; here is one in whom he is then glorified.

Secondly, We may view Barnabas as a man of benevolence. As a benevolent man he was pleased when he saw the lame and the maimed healed, the hungry fed, the naked clothed, and the sick recovered. But he knew that the body was as nothing compared to the soul, or time to eternity. What is every other attainment compared with the acquisition of that godliness which “is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life which now is and of that which is to come?” From what enemy can a man be saved like his sins? What salvation can a man obtain like that which he derives from the gospel? and can a benevolent man view this and not rejoice? Besides, every subject of divine grace is not only blessed in himself, but he is made a blessing to others; he becomes then one of those for whom “the wilderness and the solitary place will be glad.” When a man is converted, who can tell what he may become, or what good he may do before his death? Who can tell, if that persecutor going to Damascus is called by divine grace, what he may do by preaching the gospel which he once despised? Who can tell, when that tinker is converted from profligacy, what good he may do by writing works which may edify the world and the church to the end of time? Can a benevolent man look on persons when they become thus blessed, and prove such blessings, and not rejoice?

Thirdly, We may view Barnabas as a minister, who had come here on a preaching tour. Salvation was the very end of his office; it was the design of his labours; it was the answer of his prayers. Barnabas had the Spirit of his functions, and could say, with Paul, “God is my record how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ.” So will every minister who has the same disposition with Barnabas. He may have his trials-trials in common with men and with Christians, and trials peculiar to himself and to his office-but yet his hands will be strengthened, his heart will be enlivened by such a sight; he will be able to say, “Now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord, for ye are our glory and joy.”

Fourthly, His pleasure was disinterested. Barnabas could rejoice, though he had not been the means of producing here the grace in which he took so much pleasure. Some cannot rejoice to see things done by others, especially if they do not belong to their own communion, if they cannot pronounce the Shibboleth of their party. How many confine the operations of divine grace to their own people. But if a man has the Spirit of Barnabas, he will be able to say, “Let God choose and employ what instrument he pleases, and let him bless in what instance he chooses, I will follow him and therein rejoice; yea, and I will rejoice.”