with all God's servants. They do not choose God's service, but are chosen and sent of God. Just as in common life a master selects his own servants.

"In whom My soul delighteth." This was from all eternity, and through out the whole period of His earthly service (Prov. viii. 30; Matt. iii. 17, xvii. 5).

"I have put My Spirit upon Him.” This was to qualify Him, as man, for His undertaking, as He declared in the synagogue at Nazareth (Isa. lxi. 1, xi. 2). So is it again with all God's servants: His Spirit rests upon them, and only by His help can they serve.

"He shall bring forth judgment unto the Gentiles,"-declare God's will to them, and set up His statutes and ordinances throughout the world.

In these things we see the reality of His manhood, and what was needed to qualify Him for His work as the servant of God.

In speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ as the servant of God, we must understand it of the office He undertook, and actually did accomplish, through the union of His manhood with the Godhead. Remembering this, let us consider the characteristics of a good servant, and see how they were exemplified in our Lord.

A servant is one who is under a master; who does as he is told; who is willing to do and not to do; who receives his master's will as his rule, and does not evade, nor qualify, nor object, but does it all; who has his master's honour and interest at heart, always working and labouring for him. Such was Christ. The object of His whole life was to show Himself the servant of God. This should be our object. Observe

1. How absorbing this service was to Him. It swallowed up all besides. Nothing was ever allowed to interfere with it (John iv. 6, 34, vi. 38, ix. 4; Matt. xxvi. 39; John xvii. 4).

Christ served voluntarily and cheerfully, because He loved Him whose will He came into the world to accomplish (John x. 18).

3. How thorough was His service. He had but one object-to do the will of God. For this He lived, for this He died.

Are you following Christ as your example? Is your service of God absorbing, loving, thorough? What do you live for? To do God's will? If not, there is no conformity to Christ.

To follow Christ's example, a man must be born again of God's Spirit. It is the renewed will which desires

and strives to do God's will. The desire may be but as a grain of mustard seed, but if cherished by prayer and practice, it will grow; though at first faint and feeble, it will become supreme (Matt. xxv. 29).

Every creature must be a servant, either of God or of self-of self in its lowest sense, the self of the "old man." But in serving God we serve self in its noblest sense.

Do you really long to serve Christ as He served His Father? But you are thinking to yourself, "What a character mine is! Mine is no fit character to take service with such a Master; I am such a sinner." Well, then, listen

1. Christ takes His servants without a character. We know how important character is among men; how many fail of service for want of it; how hard it is to gain when once it is lost. If we never entered Christ's service until we had become fit for it, we never should enter. But He takes us just as we are. He asks only, “Are you willing to be My servant?" Where He finds this will, He gives character. Christian character is formed in Christ's service. Nowhere else can it be formed. Many try to form a character before they come to Him, but in vain. Come first.

2. He gives the best wages: pardon, peace, acceptance with God here, everlasting life hereafter. Look at the world's wages and see the difference (Rom. vi. 23). There are good wages

in the service as well as for it (Ps. xix. 11; Isa. xlviii. 18; Prov. iii. 17).

3. His work is light. It is called a cross, a yoke, a burden, that no man may take it up without counting the cost; but, when once taken up, it is light (Matt. xi. 29, 30; 1 John v. 3). Besides, who ever felt work hard for one he loved? (Gen. xxix. 20; H. E. I. 3336-3341).

4. There is no dismissal. No; they who enter Christ's service are taken for life-not for this life only (John

x. 28). When their period of service. is done here, He says, "Friend, come up higher," and the believer goes to Christ for ever (Rev. vii. 15).

Will you be Christ's servant? Give yourself to Him heartily, wholly. Think of the difference between the servant of sin and the Lord's freeman, now and hereafter. Come to Christ, and He will say of you what God says of Him, “Behold My servant, whom I uphold."-J. W. Reeve. M.A.: Doctrine and Practice, pp. 182–205.

There is no difficulty in determining the subject of this passage,; oue interpretation alone is equal to its demands. In inviting attention to its terms, let us consider it as affording

I. A DIVINE ESTIMATE OF MAN. A crushed reed, a dimly burning wick. These are symbols of impaired, broken, perishing life; they convey the ideas of feebleness, helplessness, almost of worthlessness. There is in the crushed reed no power of selfrecovery; the dimly burning wick is the merest mockery of a light. So is man as seen by the eye of God. We can estimate the reed and the lamp; what we see them to be, God sees man to be.

The estimate is not limited to the penitent and broken-hearted; the words signify apostate humanity. The scope of the passage implies the larger application. He is to bring forth judgment to the Gentiles; He has to set judgment on the earth, and the isles are to wait for His law; He is to encounter opposition-the reed and the wick will refuse His ministrations. But "He shall not cry," &c. Note the undertone of suffering. sneer, laugh, jeer, shout, rave, and gnash their teeth; His heart of pity yearns, and He says, "Bruised reeds and smoking wicks!" None more maimed and nearer to death than the impenitent.

Men

II. THE DIVINE METHOD OF TREATING MAN.

"A bruised reed shall He not break," &c. He does not use mere naked power, but patience.

1. Think of how He might have treated man. The text does not say, cannot break, cannot extinguish. Nothing hindered but grace. Christ was that truth unto which judgment should be brought; He was, and He declared, God's everlasting righteousness and love.

2. Think of Him, the Truth, taking hold of weak, helpless humanity to give it life, health, and soundness. He will not use force for man's destruction; neither by force will He restore, but by truth. As force is discarded, suffering is incurred. He who will save by truth must suffer; there is no help. Christ must be made a curse for man that He may bring redemption to him. The idea of suffering pervades the text; the "Elect" One must be upheld; for the salvation of the bruised must He be sustained; there is upon Him a grinding pressure, and under Him He will need, and must have, the Eternal Hand. The Immortal King must be succoured while He stands bearing the tremendous burden of a world's sin and sorrow. By no omni potence will He put that burden away, yet He will put it away. He triumphs by the Cross. He is God, bent or

saving man by love and truth. The Incarnation and Atonement are both here (John xviii. 33-37). He must suffer, and He must wait. "But He will not fail nor be discouraged." He knows that patience will triumph. Truth has ever to wait for victory. The light cannot chase the darkness till its hour comes.

3. The text is, among other things, a brief but wonderful exposition of the providence and government of God upon earth. It reveals the principles of that government and is an interpreter of human history (Lam. iii. 22).

III. THE DIVINE CERTAINTY OF RECOVERING MAN.

The Servant, the Son, has not been sent forth on a chance or fruitless errand; the King is a triumphant Sufferer (ver. 4, ch. lii. 11, &c.; H. E. I. 979, 1168).—W. Hubbard: Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiv. pp. 291-293.

It is agreed on all hands that the text alludes to weak and afflicted believers, setting forth the care and gentleness of the Lord. It is not quite so clear as to the source of the metaphor. Adopt the theory that the reed referred to is the shepherd's reed, his instrument of music. The reed is bruised. It was a mean instrument before, but now it is almost useless. The shepherd does not break it up and throw it away; it may recover its injuries, or, if it should not, it will emit some sort of sounds. The shepherd does not break his reed, for

I. He remembers its former services. Often has its strains cheered him and others; old and precious memories are connected with it. Our Lord does not forget the services the weak and afflicted have rendered.

II. He remembers there is a paucity of such reeds. The shepherd would rather have the imperfect instrument than no reed at all. There is a scarcity of music in the moral world. The sweet notes of gratitude, and love, and hope are sung by few. The Lord loves the song of the upright, and when they lose the power of rejoicing He bears with them.

III. He knows the possibility of the reed being rectified. It is only bruised. The shepherd will use every means to restore it. The Lord knows the certainty of the recovery of His bruised ones. He teaches them to say, "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? for I shall yet praise Him." He will not cast off those who say they are useless. Not cast off the aged. His design is by means of the bruising to make His children more joyful and useful in His house.

IV. He prizes it because He fashioned it. 1. The Lord chose the reed. He delights in the possession. 2. It cost Him very much. 3. He bruised the reed-by design.

CONCLUSION.-Recognise the fitness of the metaphor. Believe the declaration. "He will not break." Believe much more. The bruised reed shall be restored. He will carefully keep, and constantly seek to make it more useful than it was before.-R. A. Griffin: Stems and Twigs, p. 241.

Of all the plants mentioned in Scripture, perhaps the reed was the most obscure and inconspicuous, the weakest and most worthless (a). It was peculiarly obnoxious to mischances; it grew where the wild beasts had their lairs, and it was so slim and fragile. Yet, abject and homely as it looked,

a skilul hand could turn it to good account (3).

Here we read of One whose heart is as kind as His hand is skilful. Though so mighty that nothing can obstruct the progress of His purposes (ver. 4), He is as remarkable for His benignity as He is for His prowess. It is by

I. Some of you have had dull feelings from thinking you were too inconsiderable for the Saviour's notice; you are not a rose of Sharon nor a cedar of Lebanon, but only one reed in a marshy thicket. But it is a chief glory of the Saviour that no littleness can evade His eye, no multitude of objects divide His heart. He is like His Heavenly Father (Matt. x. 29–31). In that forest of reeds He can take account of every blade that grows as easily as He can reckon the angels in each legion or the stars of heaven. Moreover, remember that your own is the very nature which Immanuel wore and still wears. He is not ashamed to be called your Brother; He who best understands what immortality means is pervaded by a profound and tender solicitude for all the deathless interests of your soul (H. E. I. 4631). If no man cares for your soul, the Saviour cares (ch. xlix. 15; H. E. I. 947).

II. This omniscient Saviour is gracious and gentle, and does not break the bruised reed. However high we may hold our heads, we are all bruised reeds. 1. Sin has bruised us.

Just as

far as we have broken God's commandments, our integrity, our uprightness, our rightness with God is broken. It is well when the sinner becomes aware of his ruined condition, and recognises himself as a bruised reed; for this is just the mood in which He longs to find us (Ps. li. 17, cxlvii. 3). 2. Afflictions bruise us. Nay, Christ sends them that they may bruise us. There are evils in us that cannot be got rid of in any other

way.

It would seem as if even Omnipotence could not sanctify a fallen and sinful spirit without the employment of sorrow. But when we are like a reed snapped asunder and all but broken through, let us remember how tender and sympathetic the Saviour is in applying these painful processes. He does not break the bruised reed; He apportions the trial to the exigency; He supports the fatigued or fainting soul (H. E. I. 179).

III. The reed is bruised, but the Saviour will not fail nor be discouraged until He have made it an implement of use, of beauty, or of majesty (H. E. I. 951). Its very weakness will elicit His divine power and matchless skill. 1. The sinner is obscure, but the Saviour is omniscient. 2. The sinner is a thing of grief and guilt, but the Saviour is gentleness and grace impersonate. 3. The sinner is in Himself worthless, but the Saviour is mighty, and out of the most worthless can make a vessel of mercy meet for the Master's use (7).-James Hamilton, D.D.: Works, vol. vi. pp. 163177.

And

(a.) The vine, the palm, the pomegranate yielded delicious fruit; the pine, the oak, the cedar were invaluable for their solid timber; and though the rose and the lily yielded no fruit, and could not be cut into timber, they owed a special endearment to their lovely tints and exquisite perfume. But this poor waif of the wilderness was bereft of every attraction. No one saw any beauty in its russet plume; no one could have tried to rub a morning meal from its chaffy husks, or to rear his cottage from its frail and hollow stems. instead of growing in picturesque localitiesinstead of mooring its roots in the sides of Lebanon, or tossing healthfully in the breezes which sported and frolicked over the hills of Galilee-like a recluse or a reprobate, it sought the miry places, and grew in those oozy solitudes where fevers lurk and the foul air rises. So that for uselessness and ungainliness it became a perfect proverb; and of all errands it was the idlest to go out into the wilderness to see 'a reed shaking in the wind."-llamilton.

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(8.) The stronger sorts were converted into that measuring-rod or mete-yard of which we read so frequently, or they furnished the light but serviceable staff on which the traveller leaned, or with which Bartimaeus, old and blind, would grope his way. And the more slender sorts supplied with their appropriate weapons the warrior and the scribe. Shaped into