TENDER DEALINGS
"This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this
is the place of repose"—
"He tends His flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs
in His arms and carries them close to His heart; He gently leads those that
have young." Isaiah 40:11
"A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick
he will not snuff out." Isaiah 42:3
The thoughts most prominently brought before us in these
two passages from the Evangelical Prophet, are, the vastness of the Divine
condescension and the gentleness of the Divine dealings—the timid, the
weak, the bruised, the burdened, the fallen, nestling in peace and
safety under the Heavenly Palm-shade!
The great ones of the earth generally associate only with
the great. They are like the eagle, which holds little converse with the
low, misty valley, when it can get up amid the blue skies and granite peaks.
It is the powerful—the rich—the strong—the titled, who are the deified and
worshiped. The weak, and poor, and powerless get but a
small fraction of regard, and are too often left, unpitied and neglected, to
endure the rough struggle of existence as best they may. And the world has
accordingly shaped its gods after this its own ideal. We see the embodiment
of that ideal chiseled in the old slabs of Assyrian marble, where the winged
bull or lion is depicted trampling its enemies in the dust—the
strong trampling on the weak. But the early Christians had also their
truer and nobler symbol, which they have left in crude designs in the Roman
catacombs: it is the embodiment of the first words which head this
meditation—the often-recurring representation of a Shepherd—the Great
Shepherd of the Sheep—the Mighty God—carrying on His shoulder a feeble lamb.
Or, to take the figure employed in the second verse—what
a word of encouragement to those who require tender dealing!—who are liable,
it may be from constitutional temperament, to become the prey of doubts and
fears; sensitive in times of trial, irresolute in times of
difficulty, unstable in times of temptation. The whole ministry
and teaching of Christ is a significant comment on the prophetic
utterance—"A bruised reed He will not break." Simple but expressive
emblem! The most fragile object in nature is the shivering reed by the
riverside. The Eastern shepherd, tending his flock by the streams where
these reeds grow, used them for his rustic flute. When one of them was
bruised or broken, he never made the attempt to mend it. Inserting it among
the others would only have made his instrument discordant; accordingly, he
threw it aside as worthless.
Not so the Great Shepherd. When a human soul is
bruised and mutilated by sin, He casts it not away. He repairs it
for its place in the heavenly instrument, and makes it once more to show
forth His praise. Look at David, the Psalmist of Israel. Who more a "bruised
reed" than he? God had inspired his soul—made it a many-stringed instrument
in discoursing His praise; but now it lay a broken mutilated thing, with the
stain of crimson guilt upon it, tuneless and mute. "I kept silence," says
he; "my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and
night Your hand was heavy upon me, my strength was sapped as in the heat of
summer."
Does Jehovah desert him?—does He cast the reed away and
seek to replace the void by another, worthier and better? Does He mock the
cry of penitential sorrow as through anguished tears that stricken one thus
implored forgiveness—"Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your
loving-kindness, according to the multitude of Your tender mercies blot out
my transgressions''? No. Hear him detail his own experience—"I acknowledged
my sin to You, and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, 'I will confess my
transgressions to the Lord'—and You forgave the guilt of my sin." And then
he takes up the re-tuned instrument, and sings for the encouragement of
others—"Let everyone who is godly pray to You while You may be found." In
the case of some aromatic plants, it is when bruised they give forth
the sweetest fragrance; so it is often the soul crushed with a sense of
guilt which sends forth the sweetest aroma of humility, gratitude, and love.
"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted."
Go, bruised one, broken with convictions of sin, or
wounded in conscience—go, burdened one, weak and weary lamb of the flock, to
this Shepherd of Souls; and as you lie in His bosom, hear His assurance of
comfort and consolation—"I will remove your shoulder from the burden"—"O
Ephraim, you have destroyed yourself, but in Me is your help." Think how He
allowed the fallen to kiss His feet! Think how He touched the kneeling
leper, and washed the traitor's feet! "I am the Lord who heals you"—"Neither
do I condemn you; go and sin no more!" How many in eternity will be able to
testify, in the words of one of the psalms in which the minstrel King of
Israel records his experience, as he takes a retrospect of his strangely
checkered life—"Your GENTLENESS HAS MADE ME GREAT!"
"Hide and guard us in Your tender arms
Until the wilderness of life be past;
Save us from temptation's fatal charms,
Seal us for Your own from first to last.
"Let Your rod and staff in mercy lead us
In the footsteps of Your flock below,
Until 'mid heavenly pastures You shall feed us,
Where the streams of life eternal flow."
"Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man
who takes refuge in Him."