follows in Isaias: — 'Behold my servant, I will uphold him! my elect, my soul delighteth in him. I have given my spirit upon him, he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor have respect to person, neither shall his voice be heard abroad. The bruised reed he shall not break and smoking flax he shall not quench; he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.’[1]
This is what Isaias saw in spirit; and what St Matthew, in act, found so beautiful — so remarkable — so worthy of Jesus Christ — that he takes special pains to extol it.[2]
He is meek towards the weakest: though a reed, already feeble, may have been made more so by bruising, far from taking any advantage of such weakness, He turns aside that He may not tread upon it. Do you, then, act thus towards your neighbour. Instead of seeking occasion to injure him, take care that you do not walk over him and complete his destruction by inadvertence, and as though ' by the way.’ But who is this weak neighbour if not the hot-tempered man who has got into a passion? He is bruised by his own rage; the feeble reed has bent itself in the act of striking. Do not you
