A BRUISED REED SHALL HE NOT BREAK.

 
SEPTEMBER 4.
 

A bruised reed shall he not break.
Isaiah 42:3

 
JESUS is emphatically “The gentle One.”
 
The Lamb of God.
 
The meek and lowly One.
 
As such he invites the weary and
  heavy laden to come unto him, and
  promises to give them rest; and
  the poor, dejected, dispirited, doubting soul is assured,
  that the bruised reed he will not break, and
    the smoking flax he will not quench.
 
But if he will not break it,
  he will nourish it,
  he will strengthen it, yea,
  he will make it a pillar in the temple of his God.
 
Beloved, do you feel weak as the bruised Reed?
Jesus will not break thee.
 
Do you see yourself to be worthless as the bruised reed?
Jesus will not reject thee.
 
Though bruised by Satan,
  by God's law,
  by a cruel and unfeeling world, and
  by some high-minded professor of religion,
      fear not,
  Jesus will not allow them to break thee.
 
He will bind up the broken hearted.
He will comfort all that mourn.
He will strengthen the weak and feeble.
He will establish the wavering.
He will pronounce the sentence of the acquittal,
   and will give thee the victory over all thy foes.
 
You may with confidence approach him and say,
 

Thou will not crush the poor and weak,

Thy tender heart can never bear

A reed already bruised to break,

To plunge the fearful in despair,

Or aggravate a sinner’s load,

Or quench the faintest spark of good.

 
James Smith 1849