He has got the fiddle, but not the stick
Charles Spurgeon · John Ploughman's Pictures; or, More of His Plain Talk for Plain People
NOT THE STICK.
IT often comes to pass that a man steps
into another's shoes, and yet ':annot
walk in them. A poor tool of a parson gets
into a good man's pulpit, and takes the
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GOT THE FIDDLE, NOT THE STICK. 87
same texts, but the sermons are chalk, and
not cheese. A half-baked young swell in-
herits his father's money, but not his gen-
erosity, his barns, but not his brains, his
title, but not his sense, — he has the fiddle
without the stick, and the more's the pity.
Some people imagine that they have only
to get hold of the plough-handles, and they
would soon beat John Ploughman. If they
had his fiddle they are sure they could play
on it, J. P. presents his compliments, and
wishes he may be there when it is done.
" That I fain would see,
Quoth blind George of Hollowee."
However, between you and me and the bed-
post, there is one secret which John does
not mind letting out. John's fiddle is poor
enough, but the stick is a right good one,
too good to be called a fiddle-stick. Do
you want to see the stick with which John
plays his fiddle ? Here it is — Looking to
God for help, John always tries to do his
best, whatever he has to do, and he has
found this to be the very best way to play
all kinds of tunes. What little music there
is in John's poor old fiddle comes out
88 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES.
of it in that way. Listen to a scrape or
two.
If I were a cobbler, I'd make it my pride
The best of all cobblers to be ;
If I were a tinker, no tinker beside
Should mend an old kettle like me.
And being a ploughman, I plough with the best.
No furrow runs straighter than mine ;
I waste not a moment, and stay not to rest,
Though idlers to tempt me combine.
Yet I wish not to boast, for trust I have none
In aught I can do or can be ;
I rest in my Saviour, and what he has done
To ransom poor sinners like me.