_HUMAN FRAILTIES_
ISAIAH xlii. 1-7.
What a winsome revelation of the delicate gentleness of the Lord! "The
bruised reed"--is it the impaired musical reed, that cannot now emit a
musical sound, and can only be thrown away? He will not snap it and cast
it to the void. The discordant life can be made tuneful again: He will put
"a new song in my mouth."
"And the smoking flax"--the life that has lost its fire, and therefore its
light, its enthusiasm, and therefore its ideals; the life that is
smouldering into the cold ashes of moral and spiritual death! He will not
stamp it out with His foot. The smouldering fire can be rekindled, a spent
enthusiasm can be revived. "He shall baptize you ... with fire!"
And so He comes to minister to the infirm. He comes to restore injured
faculty; "_to open blind eyes_." He comes to give vision to restored
sight: "_to be a light of the Gentiles_." And He comes to endow the
restored life with a rich and gracious freedom: "_to bring out the
prisoners from the prison_." Sight, and light, and freedom! And my Lord is
at the gate, and these gifts are in His hand.