The herald., 1896-11-16
FIRST METHODIST CHURCH.
Rev. John A. B. Wilson on the Tender
ness of Jesus.

At the First Methodist Episcopal
A. B. Wilson, d. D., preached yesterday
morning on the tenderness Of Jesus
from Matthew xii:20: "A bruised reed
shall he not break. and smoking flax
shall He not quench until He sends forth
judgment unto victory"
want you first of all to consider the
condition which this metaphor Illus
trates, said the speaker.
There are those who do not believe in
capital punishment, and I confess to
more sympathy with their views than
formerly. They hold that whatever
the crime, human life is too sacred to be
taken by man under any circumstances,
and they present an array OF reasoning
which makes a strong argument for
their theory.
have heard of gentleman who went
so much further in his enlightenment
and sympathy that he would allow the
destruction of no animal life on his es-
tate. The birds, elsewhere hunted, hurt
and destroyed, sought asylum In his
grounds, where no hand might be lifted
for their injury. No wonder that they
flocked to this sanctuary and grew SO
tame that they would alight upon the
hand and shoulder Of their kind pre-
server. This is an actual fact, and
has been duplicated over and over again.
But l have never known nor have
ever heard of a gardener so careful of
plant life that rush or a reed, founo
so plentifully in the water places of
Palestine and every other land, as to
have no value-I say / have never
heard of one so careful of plant life and
development that, finding one of these
worthless reeds with broken and fallen
stalk, not wholly severed from the
STEM who, instead of casting it aside
thing, and raising 1t gently attached sup
ports, and securing 1t by pains
and trouble trained it to grow again.
I never did know of such a case, neither
did 1 ever hear of one.
But when Jesus would show US the in
finite compassion Of his own great pity
to the most worthless of all the lives
that have lived or that will live in the
future, he takes for illustration, not the
case of him who would destroy no ami
NAL life, for these do not go far enough
in mercy for his purpose. But he goes
out of the realm of the probable into the
domain of the impossible. and supposes
the case of a gardener so careful of the
plant life committed to him that he es-
says to heal the wounded stalk of a bit
of trodden grass. "A bruised reed
shall he not break"
Can you not see that the metaphor
illustrates the worthless human lives in
the world at large? Not an oak a fruit
tree or even a Towering shrub, but
only a reed, and a ruined life at that,
to be set forth by bruised, broken
reed. The infinite God beholds in the
most worthless of his creatures a value
which we fail to find An infinite ca
pacity, where life exists at all of recup-
GRAFTON, extension and evolution sufii-
cient to justify the infinite pain and
pains of the Son of God at rescue and
revivification. No life is too mean or
vicious for the outlay of all the effort
and sympathy and love that we have.
How can we follow Jesus in the regen-
GRAFTON and despise any creature that
he has made? 1.-THE son of man is come
to seek and to save that which was
lost" And for whom should his eol-
lowers seek If not for these? "What
God hath cleansed, call not thou COM
mOn."