A looking-glass is of no use to a blind man
Charles Spurgeon · John Ploughman's Pictures; or, More of His Plain Talk for Plain People
TO A BLIND MAN.
HE who will not see is much the same
as if he had no eyes ; indeed, in
some things, the man without eyes has the
advantage, for he is in the dark and kjtotvs
(79)
8o JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES.
it. A lantern is of no use to a bat, and
good teaching is lost on the man who will
not learn. Reason is folly with the un-
reasonable. One man can lead a horse to
the water, but a hundred cannot make him
drink : it is easy work to tell a man the
truth, but if he will not be convinced your
labor is lost. We pity the poor blind, we
cannot do so much as that for those who
shut their eyes against the light.
A man who is blind to his own faults is
blind to his own interests. He who thinks
that he never Vv-as a fool is a fool now. He
who never owns that he is wrong will never
get right. He'll mend, as the saying is,
when he grows better, like sour beer in sum-
mer. How can a man take the smuts off
his face if he will not look in the glass, nor
believe that they are there when he is told
of them ?
Prejudice shuts up many eyes in total
darkness. The man knows already : he is
positive and can swear to it, and it's no use
your arguing. He has made up his mind,
and it did not take him long, for there's very
little of it, but when he has said a thing he
sticks to it like cobbler's wax. He is
THE BLIND NEED NO MIRRORS. 8 1
wiser than seven men that can render a
reason. He is as positive as if he had been
on the other side the curtain and looked into
the back yard of the universe. He talks
as if he carried all knowledge in his waist-
coat pocket, like a peppermint lozenge.
Those who like may try to teach him, but
I don't care to hold up a mirror to a mole.
Some men are blinded by their worldly
business, and could not see heaven itself if
the windows were open over their heads.
Look at farmer Grab, he is like Nebuchad-
nezzar, for his conversation is all among
beasts, and if he does not eat grass it is be-
cause he never could stomach salads. His
dinner is his best devotion, he is a terrible
fastener on a piece of beef, and sweats at it
more than at his labor. As old Master
Earle says, '* His religion is a part of his
copyhold, which he takes from his landlord,
and refers wholly to his lordship's discretion.
If he gives him leave, he goes to church in
his best clothes, and sits there wnth his
neighbors, but never prays more than two
prayers — for rain and for fair weather, as
the case may be. He is a niggard all
the week, except on market days, where, if
6
82 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES.
his corn sell well, he thinks he may be
drunk with a good conscience. He is sensi-
ble of no calamity but the burning of a stack
of corn, or the overflowing of a meadow,
and he thinks Noah's flood the greatest
plague that ever was, not because it
drowned the world, but spoiled the grass.
For death he is never troubled, and if he
gets in his harvest before it happens, it may
come when it will, he cares not." He is as
stubborn as he is stupid, and to get a new
thought into his head you would need
to bore a hole in his skull with a centre-
bit. The game would not be worth the
candle. We must leave him alone, for he is
too old in the tooth, and too blind to be
made to see.
Other people hurt their eyes by using
glasses which are not spectacles. I have
tried to convince Joe Scroggs that it would
be a fine thing for him to join the teetotalers,
and he has nothing to say against it only
" he does not see it."
" He up and told me to my face,
The chimney corner should be his place,
And there he'd sit and dye his face,
And drink till all is blue."
THE BLIXD NEED NO MIRRORS. 'i^T,
All is blue with him now, for his furniture
is nearly all sold, and his wife and children
have not a shoe to their foot, and yet he
laughs about "a yard of pump water," and
tells me to go and drink my cocoa. Poor
soul ! Poor soul !
In tii^pling is his sole delight,
Each sign- post bars his way ;
He spends in muddy ale at night
The wages of the day.
Can nothing be done for such poor fools.
Why not shorten the hours for dealing out
the drink ? Why not shut up the public-
houses on Sundays ? If these people have
not got sense enough to take care of them-
selves the law should protect them. Will
Shepherd says he has to fetch his sheep out
of a field when they are likely to get blown
through eating too much green meat, and
there ought to be power to fetch sots out of
a beer-shop when they are worse than
blowed through drink. How I wish I
could make poor Scroggs see as I do, but
there, if a fellow has no eyes he can't see the
sun, though his nose is being scorched off in
the glare of it.
84 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES.
Of all dust the worst for the eyes is gold
dust. A bribe blinds the judgment, and
riches darken the mind. As smoke to the
eyes, so also is flattery to the soul, and
prejudice turns the light of the sun into a
darkness that may be felt. We are all
blind by nature, and till the good Physician
opens our eyes we grope, even in gospel
light. All the preaching in the world can-
not make a man see the truth so long as his
eyes are blinded. There is a heavenly eye-
salve which is a sovereign cure, but the
worst of the matter is that the blind in
heart think they see already, and so they
are likely to die in darkness. Let us pray
for those who never pray for themselves :
God's power can do for them what is far
beyond our power.
A dark and blinded thing is man,
Yet full of fancied light !
But all his penetration can
Obtain no gospel light.
Though heavenly truth may blaze abroad,
He cannot see at all ;
Though gospel leaders show the road.
He still gropes for the wall.
THE BLIND NEED NO MIRRORS. 85
Perhaps he stands to hear the sound,
But blind he still remains,
No meaning in the word is found
To cause him joys or pains.
O Lord, thy holy power display,
For thou the help must find;
Pour in the light of gospel day,
Illuminate the blind.
Behold, how unconcerned they dwell
Though reft of sight they be,
They fancy they can see right well.
And need no help from thee.
Speak, and they'll mourn their blinded eyes,
And cry to thee for light ;
O Lord, do not our prayer despise.
But give these blind men sight.