The Bruised Reed: With An Introductory Essay

Richard Sibbes (1577-1635), the most celebrated of the Puritans of the seventeenth century, published his The Bruised Reed to encourage Christians who have been “bruised” during the course of their lives, when they have failed to obey God perfectly. Sibbes’ treatise provides hope and comfort to hurting hearts by reassuring them God will not “break,” nor cast hopelessly aside the bruised, crushed thing. He will restore it; and yet again, His breath filling it, the melody of joy and health shall be heard therefrom, all the more that the instrument has been restored by the hand which at first made it. Though his life was not a protracted one, for he died in his fifty-eighth year, he accomplished important work as an expounder of Divine truth, as an earnest advocate of sound doctrine, and an eloquent preacher of the glorious gospel of the blessed God. And most prominent among his corpus of writings is his glorious masterpiece, The Bruised Reed. Here is a must-read for every Christian who has been “bruised” in this life. What a comfort it is to know that even the greatest saints of ages past have been broken and bruised, and, yet despite those bruises, God will forever remain faithful.