Acts 16:40

And they went out of the prison, and entered into the house of Lydia: and when they had seen the brethren, they comforted them and departed.

Perhaps it was already time for Paul to leave. The hatred incurred by the healing of the demoniac, the unwillingness of the magistrates for them to remain there, and the fact that staunch converts to the faith had already been won; and, over and beyond all this, the call of many cities and villages where the gospel had never been heard - all these things would have inclined Paul to honor the request of the magistrates and depart. He did not leave, however, without returning again to the hospitable home of Lydia, where, probably, the brethren gathered to be comforted and to express their fond farewells.

They comforted them ... means that the apostles, especially Paul and Silas, comforted the brethren! There is something astounding about this. Those men who had been so shamefully treated, abused, beaten, illegally cast into prison, suffering the torture of stocks in the inner dungeon - those men comforted the brethren! How noble, unselfish and beautiful is that scene in which men whose backs were still raw and bloody from the scourge are cast in the role of comforters for young Christians whose distress at such events, while real enough, was nevertheless mental rather than physical. This is one of the grandest statements in Scripture.