“A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he
\n not quench.”
\n — Matthew 12:20<\/p><\/blockquote>\nWhat is weaker than the bruised reed or the smoking flax? A reed that
\ngroweth in the fen or marsh, let but the wild duck light upon it, and
\nit snaps; let but the foot of man brush against it, and it is bruised
\nand broken; every wind that flits across the river moves it to and fro.
\nYou can conceive of nothing more frail or brittle, or whose existence
\nis more in jeopardy, than a bruised reed. Then look at the smoking
\nflax-what is it? It has a spark within it, it is true, but it is almost
\nsmothered; an infant’s breath might blow it out; nothing has a more
\nprecarious existence than its flame. Weak things are here described,
\nyet Jesus says of them, “The smoking flax I will not quench; the
\nbruised reed I will not break.” Some of God’s children are made strong
\nto do mighty works for him; God has his Samsons here and there who can
\npull up Gaza’s gates, and carry them to the top of the hill; he has a
\nfew mighties who are lion-like men, but the majority of his people are
\na timid, trembling race. They are like starlings, frightened at every
\npasser by; a little fearful flock. If temptation comes, they are taken
\nlike birds in a snare; if trial threatens, they are ready to faint;
\ntheir frail skiff is tossed up and down by every wave, they are drifted
\nalong like a sea bird on the crest of the billows-weak things, without
\nstrength, without wisdom, without foresight. Yet, weak as they are, and
\nbecause they are so weak, they have this promise made specially to
\nthem. Herein is grace and graciousness! Herein is love and
\nlovingkindness! How it opens to us the compassion of Jesus-so gentle,
\ntender, considerate! We need never shrink back from his touch. We need
\nnever fear a harsh word from him; though he might well chide us for our
\nweakness, he rebuketh not. Bruised reeds shall have no blows from him,
\nand the smoking flax no damping frowns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench.” — Matthew 12:20 What is weaker than the bruised reed or the smoking flax? A reed that groweth in the fen or marsh, let but the wild duck light upon it, and it snaps; let but the foot of man brush…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"twitterCardType":"","cardImageID":0,"cardImage":"","cardTitle":"","cardDesc":"","cardImageAlt":"","cardPlayer":"","cardPlayerWidth":0,"cardPlayerHeight":0,"cardPlayerStream":"","cardPlayerCodec":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7781\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}