The tenderness of God.
"A bruised reed shall he not break." Then he is very unlike us. We are often over-indignant with wrong done to ourselves. We find that there is an imperious temper in humanity, and that even parents sometimes "break" the spirit of their children. How many are discouraged and disheartened in life through a want of sympathy, through the coldness and hauteur of others!
I. THERE ARE BRUISINGS OF SIN. Christ will heal these. He never drives to despair. He might, indeed, condemn; for he knows all the subtle intricacies of evil in our hearts. But the Son of man is not come to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.
II. THERE ARE BRUISINGS OF DOUBT. St. Thomas felt these, and he expresses his doubts with startling emphasis and boldness. But Christ is sympathetic even then—shows Thomas his hands and his side, and tells him to reach hither his hand. Alas! many have been driven into infidelity because their doubts have been treated as sins, and the bruised minds have been broken!
III. THERE ARE BRUISINGS OF SORROW. But God knows when godly sorrow has worked repentance not to be repeated of. He knows when the poor heart is well-nigh crushed with grief at its departure from him. He does not delight in pain. The Roman emperors did. But he whose throne was a cross, and whose sceptre is love, he loves to heal.
In sin and doubt and sorrow, let us go to Christ alone.—W.M.S.