He looks one way and pulls the other
Charles Spurgeon · John Ploughman's Pictures; or, More of His Plain Talk for Plain People
THE OTHER.
HE faces the shore, but he is puUing
for the ship : this is the way of those
who row in boats, and also of a great many
who never trust themselves on the water.
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LOOKS ONE WAY, PULLS THE OTHER. 165
The boatman is all right, but the hypocrite
is all vv'rong, whatever rites he may practise.
I cannot endure Mr. Facing-both-ways, yet
he has swarms of cousins.
It is ill to be a saint without and a devil
within, to be a servant of Christ before the
world in order to serve the ends of self and
the devil, while inwardly the heart hates all
good things. There are good and bad of
all classes, and hypocrites can be found
among ploughmen as well as among par-
sons. It used to be so in the olden times, for
I remember an old verse which draws out
just such a character: the man says, —
" I'll have a religion all of my own.
Whether Papist or Protestant shall not be known
And if it proves troublesome I will have none."
In our Lord's day many followed him,
but it was only for the loaves and fishes :
they do say that some in our parish don't
go quite so straight as the Jews did, for
they go to the church for the loaves, and
then go over to the Baptist chapel for the
fishes. I don't want to judge, but I certainly
do know some who, if they do not care
1 66 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES.
much for faith, are always following after
charity.
Better die than sell your soul to the
highest bidder. Better be shut up in the
workhouse than fatten upon hypocrisy.
Whatever else we barter, let us never try to
turn a penny by religion, for hypocrisy is
the meanest vice a man can come to.
It is a base thing to call yourself Christ's
horse and yet carry the devil's saddle.
The worst kind of wolf is that which wears
a sheep's skin. Jezebel was never so ugly
as when she had finished painting her face.
Above all things, then, brother loborers, let
us be straight as an arrow, and true as a die,
and never let us be time-servers, or turn-
coats. Never let us carry two faces under
one hat, nor blow hot and cold with the
same breath.