Never stop the plough to catch a mouse
Charles Spurgeon · John Ploughman's Pictures; or, More of His Plain Talk for Plain People
CATCH A MOUSE.
THERE'S not much profit in this game.
Think of a man and a boy and four
horses all standing still for the sake of a
mouse ! What would old friend Tusser say
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76 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES.
to that ? I think he would rhyme in this
fashion —
A ploughman deserveth a cut of the whip,
If for idle pretence he let the hours slip.
Heaps of people act like the man in our
picture. They have a great work in hand
which wants all their wits, and they leave
it to squabble over some pretty nothing, not
worth a fig. Old master Tom would say
to them —
No more tittle tattle, go on with your cattle.
He could not bear for a farmer to let his
horses out for carting even, because it took
their work away from the farm, and so I
am sure he would be in a great stew if he
saw farmers wasting their time at matches,
and hunts, and the like. He says —
" Who slacketh his tillage a carter to be,
For groat got abroad, at home shall lose three;
For sure by so doing he brings out of heart,
Both land for the corn, and horse for the cart."
The main chance must be minded, and the
little things must be borne with. Nobody
would burn his house down to kill the
MO USE- tA TCHING. 7 7
blackbeetles, and it would never answer to
kill the bullocks to feed the cats. If our
baker left off making bread for a week while
he cracked the cockroaches, what should
we all do for breakfast? If the butcher
sold no more meat till he had killed all the
blow-flies, we should be many a day with-
out mutton. If the water companies nev^er
gave the Londoners a drink till they had
fished every gudgeon out of the Thames,
how would the old ladies make their tea?
There's no use in stopping your fishing be-
cause of the sea-weed, nor your riding be-
cause of the dust.
Now, our minister said to me the other
day, "John, if you were on the committees
of some of our societies you would see this
mouse-hunting done to perfection. Not only
committees, but whole bodies of Christian
people, go mouse-hunting." Well, said I,
minister, just write me a bit, and I will stick
it in my book, it will be beef to my horse-
radish. Here's his writing —
" A society of good Christian people will
split into pieces over a petty quarrel, or
mere matter of opinion, while all around
them the masses are perishing for want of
78 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES.
the gospel. A miserable little mouse,
which no cat would ever hunt, takes them
off from their Lord's work. Again, intelli-
gent men will spend months of time and
heaps of money in inventing and publishing
mere speculations, while the great field of
the world lies unploughed. They seem to
care nothing how many may perish so long
as they can ride their hobbies. In other
matters a little common sense is allowed
to rule, but in the weightiest matters fool-
ishness is sadly conspicuous. As for you
and me, John, let us kill a mouse when it
nibbles our bread, but let us not spend our
lives over it. What can be done by a
mousetrap or a cat should not occupy all
our thoughts.
The paltry trifles of this world are much
of the same sort. Let us give our chief at-
tention to the chief things, — the glory of
God, the winning of souls for Jesus, and
our own salvation. There are fools enough
in the world, and there can be no need that
Christian men should swell the number.
Go on with your ploughing, John, and I
will go on with my preaching, and in due
season we shall reap if we faint not."