The Heroism of the Spirit
“‘T have put my Spirit upon Him; He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall He not quench,’’ — IsA. xlii. 1-3.
SAHAT a strange mode of bringing forth. judgment! What a strange mode es. pecially of bringing forth judgment “to the Gentiles.” A Gentile’s evidence for a man’s possession of the divine Spirit was just the contrary; it was his power to cry, to lift up his voice, to let his anger be heard in the street, to break the bruised reed and quench the smoking flax; it was for gifts such as these that the Roman raised his heroes to the skies. But here is a new and unheard-of heroism. Here is a heroism whose strength consists in the power to suffer and not cry. Here is a Spirit which claims to be divine on the ground not of breaking but of being broken, not of bruising, but of being bruised. The Gentiles are judged by a new standard of strength — the standard of patience. They are no longer measured by what they can do, but by what they can bear. They are no longer valued by the burdens they can impose, but by the burdens they can sustain. They are no longer asked how many towers they have pulled down, how many victims they have slain, how many homes they have made desolate. They are asked how many defeats they have borne undismayed, how many crosses they have received unmurmuring, how many obloquies they have endured unavenged. The valiey has become a mountain, and the mountain a valley. The gentleness which was a mark of contempt has made its possessor great, and the testimonial for admission into the new army is this: “He shall not strive nor cry.”
Son of Man, teach me the new ideal of manliness. Teach me the divinity of patience, the glory of long-suffering, the strength of endurance, the majesty of self-restraint. Teach me the heroism as well as the blessedness of being jpoor in spirit, meek, merciful, peace-making. ‘Thou hast said “they shall be called the children of God.” Thou hast promised that the time shall come when the peace-makers shall not only be God’s children, but shall be called it — have the reputation of it in the eyes of the world. Hasten that happy time. Hasten the day when the garland shall be woven for the restraint of passion, when the brow shall be wreathed for
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the subjugation of temper, when the monument shall be raised for the refusal to lift up the voice. Ring in the age when we shall prize the tenderheared, when we shall reverence the forbearing, whent we shall bow down before the power te forgive. Bring in the new judgment-day when we shall measure our strength by our capacity for endurance, our weakness by our inability to bear. The Gentiles shall judge themselves by Thy standard of power when they learn that Thy spirit of silence is the Spirit of God.