But now, when we pass from them into the province of man, we meet at once with a law which breaks in upon this, and controls it. The struggle for existence goes on there too, but it is no longer supreme and all in all. Everywhere it is modified by ideas that are confessedly of greater moment and higher authority. Sometimes it is set aside altogether, for we are not always bound to exist if we can, but we are always bound to do right. Thus the moral rises above the natural, and even flatly contradicts it. The struggle for existence is subordinated to the struggle for a higher perfection. Instead of the survival of the fittest, we have a law requiring the strong to help the weak, the healthy to improve their health for the sake of the diseased ; and even those who are hopelessly stricken, and for ever invalided from the battle of life, are cast on us as a peculiar care, to neglect which were to outrage the noblest instincts of humanity. The natural law, everywhere else in full swing, that the weak and sickly, the halt and the blind, must be left to their fate, or even hurried out of the way, not only does not hold among us, but the very reverse of it holds.
ISAIAH 267
IT The poor cripple whom natural law would have cast away, has grown up to bless the world with wise and noble counsel ; and blind men, all unfit for the mere struggle of animal life, have yet done brave and good service in the high warfare of humanity; even the utterly broken, the helplessly disabled, who can " only stand and wait," have yet, by their meek patience under affliction, shown us an example which made our hearts gentler, humbler, better, and was well worth all the care we bestowed on them.
I. Bruised reeds ! How true an emblem of our experience and condition the picture is ! Plunge in among these reeds, and you will not find one free from scars and bruises. Some of the marks will need searching for, but they are there. And if you could read the secret history of every individual in a crowd of people, you would find that not one had escaped being battered by storm and tempest ; and, indeed, sometimes almost uprooted by the cold and swirling waters of sorrow. Men everywhere are truly bruised reeds. It may save us from harsh and uncharitable judgments if we never forget it.
IF Eead your newspaper, that mirror of the world's daily life, and weep over fallen human nature as you do so. What horrible revelations meet you ! In this country the darkest deeds man's mind can conceive and his fingers can execute are enacted day by day. Under the power of the drink fiend a woman will forget her sucking child, and will have no compassion on the son of her womb. Under the influence of the devil of lust men will ruthlessly trample the fairest flowers under their feet. Under the dominance of the devil of greed some will sell their own brothers for a few paltry coins. Eead your scientific books, and you will find vivisection preached so far as animals are concerned, and " natural selection " and the " survival of the fittest " so far as the race is concerned. " Let the weak perish, let the afflicted be cut off" — says a pitiless science — thus following the ancient Spartans, who killed off their sickly and deformed offspring, and Plato, who favoured infanticide. These people would deliberately and in cold blood break the bruised reed and quench the smoking flax. Into such a world as this Christ comes, comes to teach us that God is love, that the strongest being in the universe is the gentlest, that all life is precious, that even maimed humanity is worth saving, that the man most in the mud is to be lifted out, so that his powers may unfold themselves in winsome and undecaying blossoms by the river of life. " The bruised reed shall he not break."!
' J. Pearce, Life on the Heights, p, 139.
268 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
IF He uses and loves and transfigures broken reeds. They become pens, to write the marvels of His truth and the riches of His grace. They become instruments of sweet music, to ring forth His praises in winning melody. They become columns which support and adorn His temple. They become swords and spears to rout His enemies ; so that, as a poet sings, " the bruised reed is amply tough to pierce the shield of error through." ^
2. But the bruising may be due to personal sin. There are many who realise that their lives are knocked out of their proper shape. They have dealt out to themselves many a rude blow, have battered their hearts, and there they are, sick at heart, ready to die. " Ah, poor fellow, he is his own enemy," is our comment on some of our fellows who are spoiling their lives. Alas ! how many of us are our own enemies ! How many of us have robbed, degraded, and damaged ourselves. God meant us to be temples, but we have desecrated the hallowed shrine. God meant us to be kings, but we have given our crowns away. God meant us to be priests, but we have made ourselves vile. God meant us to be His children, but we have wandered away and become Satan's serfs.