Matthew 12:20

What is weaker than the bruised reed or the smoking flax? A reed that groweth in the fen or marsh, let but the wild duck light upon it, and it snaps; let but the foot of man brush against it, and it is bruised and broken; every wind that flits across the river moves it to and fro. You can conceive of nothing more frail or brittle, or whose existence is more in jeopardy, than a bruised reed. Then look at the smoking flax-what is it? It has a spark within it, it is true, but it is almost...

In carrying out a great enterprise, individual suffering is very little regarded. Revolutions are not generally effected without the immolation of many lives. Thousands, how many thousands, of human reeds were first bruised, then broken, and thrown to the winds of the Crimea, that Sevastopol might be taken. And can it be that Christ, in going forth to the conquest of the whole world, will not suffer a bruised and bent reed, ready of itself to snap asunder, will not suffer one such to be...

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart— these, O God, You will not despise. § He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. § Thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. For I will not contend forever, nor will I always be angry; for the spirit would fail...