4. But we exhort you, brothers, that you be always careful to _walk in the steps of_ this _our_ blessed _father_,[999] by so much the more zealously as by daily proofs his _holy conversation_[1000] was more certainly known to you. For in this you shall prove yourselves to be his true sons, if you manfully maintain the father's ordinances, and if, as you have seen in him, and heard _from him how you ought to walk, you so walk that you may abound more and more_:[1001] for the glory of a father is the wisdom of his sons.[1002] For even for us the example of so great perfection in our midst has begun in no slight degree both to expel our sloth and impel us to reverence. And would that he may in such wise _draw us after him_ that he may draw us to the goal, _running_ more eagerly and more quickly in _the fragrance_ which his virtues have left so fresh behind them.[1003] May Christ guard all of you _while you pray for us_.[1004] FOOTNOTES: [924] When this letter was written certain brothers, sent by Malachy after his return from Rome (October 1140), had arrived at Clairvaux, and had spent some time there (see notes 5, 7); and the brothers left there on his return journey had had a considerable amount of instruction (n. 7). The date is therefore not earlier than 1141. But it is evidently earlier than that of Letter ii. [925] Cp. Hor., _Sat._ i. 2. 110. [926] Ps. vi. 3. [927] Josh. ix. 6. [928] These were some of the brothers sent from Ireland (_Life_, § 39). [929] Ps. xxiii. 4. [930] Song of Three Children, 16.--They had evidently been a good while under St. Bernard's eye. [931] Rom. viii. 28. [932] No doubt the four brothers who had been left at Clairvaux (_Life_, § 39). [933] Matt. xxv. 32. [934] Gal. iv. 19. [935] 1 Sam. xxv. 28. [936] Luke xxiv. 49. [937] Ps. cxxxvii. 4. [938] 2 Pet. iii. 15. [939] John xiv. 2. [940] Rev. i. 3; xxii. 10. [941] Cp. Rom. vi. 6; Eph. ii. 15; iv. 22, 24. [942] Dan. ii. 20, etc. [943] Coll. for 13th Sunday after Pentecost. [944] 1 Cor. iii. 6. [945] Acts xv. 36. [946] Luke i. 77. [947] 1 Cor. ix. 16. [948] Jas. iii. 2. [949] John xiii. 8 (inexact quotation). [950] Mellifont was probably founded immediately after the brothers mentioned in the letter reached Ireland. The date is therefore in or before 1142. They would hardly have been sent till news had reached St. Bernard that the site had been chosen (Lett. i, § 2). Cp. p. 75, n. 4. [951] The brothers sent from Clairvaux "sufficient in number for an abbey" (_Life_, § 39). [952] Gen. xxiv. 63 ff.--Cp. _De Cons._ ii. 13, where the same passage of Genesis is referred to. It is there (§ 12) explained that the field is the world, which has been placed in charge of the Pope. [953] Printed text _patribus_. I read _partibus_. [954] Rom. ix. 29 (inexact quotation). [955] 1 Cor. iii. 6.