The Faithful Servant Rewarded: A Sermon, Delivered at Princeton, before the board of Trustees of the College of New Jersey, May 6, 1795, Occasioned by the Death of The Reverend John Witherspoon, D.D.L.L.D. President of said College. By John Rodgers
Again—The good and faithful servant considers his fellow disciples as in the same vale of tears, and in the same state of imperfection and trial with himself; and, therefore, that both they and he stand in need of mutual sympathy, charity, and forbearance, one towards another. In a word, he considers them as heirs of the same future glory with himself; as “traveling to the same city, which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God;” and that, therefore, they ought not to differ by the way.
Of such importance is the brotherly love, in the estimation of our Lord, that he not only enjoins it upon his disciples as their duty, but as their distinguishing and characteristic duty; that duty which more strongly marks their character as his disciples than almost any other; and that by which they are especially to distinguish themselves from the men of the world. You, therefore, hear him say, “a new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”