And here the missionary hope reaches its highest expres- sion in the picture of a Servant of Jehovah, who, with gentle persistence and unostentatious zeal, shall carry to the nations the precious gifts of revelation which have been coming to clearness and power through all the toil and travail of the past. It would be well for the teacher of to-day to linger lovingly over this picture of a divinely elected and supremely gifted minister. From it he may learn to combine reverence for past revelations with quickness to hear the present voice of God, stern faithfulness to God and truth, with keen know-
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262 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
ledge of life and kindly sympathy for men. But the fact that concerns us most is that, whether this is a personification of Israel or the picture of the individual ideal Servant, we have the true religion beating against the narrow local barriers and leaping forward to a large universal life. Judaism could never completely fulfil such a picture ; it can be realised only by the pure spiritual religion of Jesus. In its earliest days Christianity went forth to free religion and man from narrow prejudices and petty limitations ; great things have been done along this line, but an immense task still lies before the Church, demanding both intelligence and love.
The particular topic of our text is the Servant's gentle unobtrusive way of carrying out His work. " He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street." Of this gentle but effective way of working two examples are given. " A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench." Two pictures are presented by the metaphors that are made use of. The first picture is an exterior. The region represented is a flat and marshy one ; the locality is lonely and desolate. Growing amid shallow but cold and swirling waters, we see tall reeds and rushes. The sky is grey and heavy, with clouds fleeting before the blast ; the reeds bend under the storm : you can almost feel the nipping wind as you look at the picture. And the reeds are swayed hither and thither, being bruised and battered as they jostle one against the other. Look closely at those reeds, and you will scarcely find one that is not scarred and mangled. They are hruised reeda The other picture is an interior. "The smoking flax shall he not quench." The picture is that of an Eastern room. We dimly see the low divans or lounges around the walls, and if the light were brighter we might discern the features of the persons reclining there. There is a low table in the centre of the room, and upon it stands a lamp. In shape this lamp is something like a modern teapot ; the receptacle being for the oil, and the wick protruding from what would be the spout. That wick should be burning brightly; instead of that, however, there is only a dull red glow, and there is more smoke than light. It is a " smoking lamp." From these two pictures we may learn something as to Christ and Christian character.
ISAIAH 263
The Saviour's unobtrusive Way of Working.
I. The Restraint of God. — This Saviour is God's Servant. His method of working is therefore God's method. And so the first thing to notice is the marvellous restraint of God in all His dealings with men. Does it not strike you, says Bishop Wilkinson,^ that there is something awful about it, this thought of the power of God restrained, kept back ? There are souls that will at last reject all God's love, will go on resisting till they die ; yet Christ keeps back His power ! He does not manifest His power as a King — " He shall not strive nor cry, neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets." He allows His message to be despised and rejected ! He comes to us, with power kept back ! " Where is the promise of His coming ? " men say. They think that God is weak, and God seems to say, " I am content that you should think Me weak, rather than that I should break the ' bruised reed,' or quench the ' smoking fire * ! " I see a man whose heart God has stirred rejecting these better impulses ; yet God is patient, calm. When I read in my Bible that God is Almighty, and yet I see that His power is not manifested in this dispensation ; that He is patient, long-suffering to us ward, lest the " smoking flax " should be quenched, it gives me an awful idea of the majesty of God. I see men and women keeping Christ standing at the door. Their child dies ; the blinds are drawn down, and still the Saviour stands outside the long-closed door ! And then some dear friend is taken, some one who was as a brother, and again the same Voice speaks ; again I see the Saviour standing there, and still the door is closed ! And when we think who it is — God, who could destroy that man with a word, yet "despised and rejected" — going forth, as it were, so humbly, with that long funeral procession, to whisper if only a word to one of the mourners ; then, in awe, we say, " 0 God, have mercy on that man. He is fighting against God. He is presuming on orod's self-restrained power ! "