Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1886-06-05
The Bruised Reed.
BY REV. DIR. MACLAREN, OF LIVERPOOL,
ENGLAND.

4sOoNs
BY REV. DIR. MACLAREN, OF LIVERPOOL,
ENGLAND.
Isaiah xiii, 5, makes this representa-
ton of the servant OF the Lord: "He
shall not break the bruised reed"
Here is the picture: A slender bul
rush growing by the margin of some
tarn or pond; its sides crushed and
dinted in by some unseen power
some gust OF wind, some sudden blow,
tho foot of some passing animal. The
head is hanging by a thread, but is not
yet snapped or broken off from the
stem. II is "bruised." but the bruise
is not irreparable. As so, there are
reeds bruised and ''shaken by the
wind" but not broken. And the ten
der Christ comes, with his gentle, wise,
skillful surgery, to bind these up and
to make them strong again.
TO whom does this text applyp Who
are meant by this metaphor Of the
bruised reed not yet brokenp In a very
solemn sense, all mankind. In you
and me and in all our brethren every
where, the dints and marks of sin are
dlainly seen. Our manhood has
been crushed and battered put Of its
right shape, and has received awful
wounds rom that evil that besets US,
and has found entrance within US.
Whatsoever be the strength, beauty,
wisdort, p~(obieness of any man in the
eye of ,iGt God whose will is perfec-
ton, that man is a bruised reed.
But. blessed be God! there energies
from the metaphor, not only the sol
emn thought of the bruises by sin that
all men bear, but the other blessed
one. that there is no man SO bruised as
that he is broken; o. SO jnjuled as
that restoration is impossible, no de-
pravity so total but that it may be
healed, none 80 far off but that they
may be brought nigh. On no man has
sin fastened its venomous claws SO
deeply but these may be wrenched
away. IN none of US has the virus SO
gone through our veins but that it is
capable of being expelled. The reeds
are all bruised, the reeds are none of
them broken. Anc SO the text comes
with it's great triumphant hopefrlness
and gathers into one mass as capable
OF restoration the most ahject, the
most worthless, the most ignorant, the
most %sensuous, the most goddess, the
most Christ-hating of the race. And
he looks on the tremendous bulk Of a
worlds sins with the confidence that
he q move that mountain and cast 1t
into the depths OF the ca.
But then the text may be taken in a
somewhat narrow sense, applying more
directly to 4 class. In accordance
with other metaphors Of scripture, we
may think of ''the bruised reed" as ex-
pressive of the condition of men whose
hearts have been crushed by the con-
seriousness of their sins. THE broken
aud contrite heart" bruised and pull
verified, as it we're, by the sense of evil,
may be typiied for MS by this bruised
reed. And then from the text there
energies the great and blessed hope
that such q heart, wholesomely re-
moved from it's self. complacent fancy
of soundness, shall certainly be healed
and bound up by his tender hand. Did
you ever see a gardner dealing with
some plant, q spray of which may have
been woundedp How d~elicately and
tenderly the big, clumsy hand busies
itself about the tiny spray, and by
stays and pandages brings it
into an erect position, and then
| gives it water and loving care. Just
SO does Jesus Christ deal with the con-
scious and sensitive heart of a man
that just begun to find out how bad he
is, and has been driven away from all
his foolish confidence. Christ comes
to such q one and restores him, and
just because he is crushed deals with
him gently, pouring in his consolation.
Wheresoever there is a touch Of peni-
tence there is present a restoring
Christ.
And the words may be looked at
from yet another point Of view. We
may think of them as representing to
Ills the merciful dealing Of the Master
with the spirits which are beaten and
bruised, sore and wounded by sorrows
and calamities; to whom the Christ
comes in all tie tenderness of His
sympathy and the sweetness of His
~gentleness, and lays a hand upon
them; the only hand in all the uni
verse that car touch q bleeding heart
without hurting it.
The Christ that knows our sins and
sorrows will not break the bruised
reed. The whole race of man may be
represented in that parable that came
from His own lips, as fallen among
thieves that have robbed him, and
left him bruised but, blessed be God!
only ''half dead" sorely wounded, in
deed, but not so sorely but that no
may be restored. And there comes
One with the wine and the oil, and
pours them into the wounds. The
bruised reed shall be not break"