A poor pedlar came to the door ... and my father bought of him Sibb's Bruised Reed ... It suited my state ... and gave me a livelier apprehension of the mystery of redemption and how much I was beholden to Jesus Christ ... Without any means but books was God pleased to resolve me to himself.

Such testimonies could be multiplied. Speaking of the preacher's need to suit his reading to the varying conditions he finds within, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones says in his Preaching and Preachers:

You will find, I think, in general that the Puritans are almost invariably helpful ... I shall never cease to be grateful to one of them called Richard Sibbes who was balm to my soul at a period in my life when I was overworked and badly overtired, and therefore subject in an unusual manner to the onslaughts of the devil. In that state and condition ... what you need is some gentle, tender treatment for your soul. I found at that time that Richard Sibbes, who was known in London in the early seventeenth century as 'the heavenly Doctor Sibbes', was an unfailing remedy. The Bruised Reed... quietened, soothed, comforted, encouraged and healed me.

The Bruised Reed is now issued for the first time in a smaller format in the Puritan Paperbacks series. Some of the language and punctuation have been modernized to make the work more accessible.