W K Tweedie
1Taken, with slight editing, from Tweedie’s volume, Glad Tidings.
Isaiah 42:3. A bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall He not quench.
Man heaps sin upon sin; God piles mercy upon mercy. It is a sport to man to do mischief; God waits to be gracious and multiplies blessing upon blessing, even to the evil and the unthankful.
Does He see a soul bowed to the earth with sorrow, mourning in its complaint and making a noise, forsaken by father or mother, or, worst of all, weary and heavy laden with a burden of sin? Then He will not break that bruised reed. Rather, He will bind it up and make it whole, unless it thrust away the hand that would graciously heal it. Or does He behold some soul like smoking flax – feeling after God, beginning to live for spiritual things, seeing men like trees walking, or just at the dawn of the day of small things?
To that soul He gives strength; indeed, He increases might, so that it becomes strong in the Lord. That heart which is love pities; that eye which never slumbers sees; that ear which is ever open to the cry of the feeble hears the mourner’s complaint. Strength is given according to his day, and at last he glories in tribulation, or blesses God because his heart has bled.
O who is a God like unto Thee? And yet I have rebelled against Thee! But though this be to my shame, I can only lean on the arm which I have impiously resisted; I can only cast myself on the mercy which I have despised; I can only try to lose my will in the will of Him who does all things well. Prodigal as I am, I hasten to my Father’s house. He will hear me, as He heard Ephraim bemoaning himself; for Him to hear is to pity. In those who seek Him, He never saw a tear which He did not dry, or witness a sorrow which He did not soothe. If the widow of Nain experienced His compassion, need I despair? If the helpless paralytic, after 38 years of hope deferred, was made whole by His almighty word, should I question either His willingness or His power? No, I will take with me words, and return to Him from whom I have wandered: “I will arise and go to my Father”. “Return unto thy rest, O my soul.” “O thou my soul, bless God the Lord.”