Stick to it and do it
Charles Spurgeon · John Ploughman's Pictures; or, More of His Plain Talk for Plain People
SET a stout heart to a stiff hill, and the
wagon will get to the top of it.
There's nothing so hard but a harder thing
will get through it ; a strong job can be
managed by a strong resolution. Have at
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1 68 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES.
it and have it. Stick to it and succeed.
Till a thing is done men wonder that you
think it can be done, and when you have
done it they wonder it was never done be-
fore.
In my picture the wagon is drawn by
two horses ; but I would have every man
who wants his way in life pull as if all de-
pended on himself Very little is done
right when it is left to other people. The
more hands to do work the less there is
done. One man wmU carry two pails of
water for himself; two men will only carry
one pail between them, and three will come
home with never a drop at all. A child
with several mothers will die before it runs
alone. Know your business and give your
mind to it, and you will find a buttered loaf
where a sluggard loses his last crust.
In these times it's no use being a farmer
if you don't mean work. The days are gone
by for gentlemen to make a fortune off of
a farm by going out shooting half their time.
If foreign wheats keep on coming in, farmers
will soon learn that —
" He who by the plough would thrive,
Himself must either hold or drive."
STICK TO IT AND SUCCEED. 169
Going to Australia is of no use to a man if
he carries a set of lazy bones with him.
There's a living to be got in old England at
almost any trade if a fellow will give his
mind to it. A man who works hard and
has his health and strength is a great deal
happier than my lord Tom Noddy, who
does nothing and is always ailing. Do you
know the old song of " The Nobleman's
generous kindness" ? You should hear our
Will sing it. I recollect some of the verses.
The first one gives a picture of the hard-
working laborer with a large family —
" Thus careful and constant, each morning he went
Unto his day labor with joy and content ;
So jocular and jolly he'd whistle and sing,
As blithe and as brisk as the birds in the spring."
The other lines are the ploughman's own
story of how he spent his life, and I wish
that all countrymen could say the same.
" I reap and I mow, I harrow and I sow,
Sometimes a hedging and ditching I go ;
No work comes amiss, for I thrash and I plough.
Thus my bread I do earn by the sweat of my brow.
** My wife she is willing to pull in a yoke,
"We live like two lambs, nor each other provoke ;
170 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES.
We both of us strive, like the laboring ant,
And do our endeavors to keep us from want.
" And when I come home from my labor at night,
To my wife and my children in whom 1 delight,
I see them come round me with prattling noise.
Now these are the riches a poor man enjoys.
" Though I am as weary as weary may be,
The youngest I commonly dance on my knee ;
I find in content a continual feast,
And never repine at my lot in the least."
So, you see, the poor laborer may work
hard and be happy all the same ; and surely
those who are in higher stations may do the
like if they like.
He is a sorry dog who wants game and
will not hunt for it : let us never lie down
in idle despair, but follow on till we succeed.
Rome was not built in a day, nor much
else, unless it be a dog-kennel. Things
which cost no pains are slender gains.
Where there has been little sweat there will
be little sweet. Jonah's gourd came up in
a night, but then it perished in a night.
Light come, light go : that which flies in at
one window will be likely to fly out at
another. It's a very lean hare that hounds
catch without running for it, and a sheep
STICK TO IT AND SUCCEED. 171
that is no trouble to shear has very little
wool. For this reason a man who cannot
push on against wind and weather stands a
poor chance in this world.
Perseverance is the main thing in life. To
hold on, and hold out to the end, is the
chief matter. If the race could be won by
a spurt, thousands would wear the blue
ribbon; but they are short-winded and pull
up after the first gallop. They begin with
flying, and end in crawling backwards.
When it comes to collar work, many horses
turn to jibbing. If the apples do not fall
at the first shake of the tree your hasty folks
are too lazy to fetch a ladder, and in too
much of a hurry to wait till the fruit is ripe
enough to fall of itself The hasty man is
as hot as fire at the outset, and as cold as
ice at the end. He is like the Irishman's
saucepan, which had many good points
about it, but it had no bottom. He who can-
not bear the burden and heat of the day is
not worth his salt, much less his potatoes.
Before you begin a thing, make sure it is
the right thing to do : ask Mr. Conscience
about it. Do not try to do what is impossi-
ble : ask Common Sense. It is of no use
172 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES.
to blow against a hurricane, or to fish for
whales in a washing tub. Better give up a
foolish plan than go on and burn your fin-
gers with it : better bend your neck than
knock your forehead. But when you have
once made up your mind to go a certain
road, don't let every molehill turn you out
of the path. One stroke fells not an oak.
Chop away, axe, you'll down with the tree
at last ! A bit of iron does not soften the
moment you put it into the fire. Blow, smith !
Put on more coals ! Get it red-hot and hit
hard with the hammer, and you will make
a ploughshare yet. Steady does it. Hold
on and you have it. Brag is a fine fellow
at crying " Tally-ho ! " but Perseverance
brings home the brush.
We ought not to be put out of heart
by difficulties : they are sent on purpose to
try the stuff we are made of; and depend
upon it they do us a world of good. There's
a sound reason why there are bones in our
meat and stones in our land. A world where
everything was easy would be a nursery for
babies, but not at all a fit place for men.
Celery is not sweet till it has felt a frost,
and men don't come to their perfection till
STICK TO IT AND SUCCEED. 173
disappointment has dropped a half-hundred
weight or two on their toes. Who would
know good horses if there were no heavy-
loads ? If the clay was not stiff, my old
Dapper and Violet would be thought no
more of than Tomkins' donkey. Besides,
to vvork hard for success makes us fit to
bear it : we enjoy the bacon all the more
because we have got an appetite by earning
it. When prosperity pounces on a man like
an eagle, it often throws him down. If we
overtake the cart, it is a fine thing to get up
and ride ; but when it comes behind us at
a tearing rate, it is very apt to knock us down
and run over us, and when we are lifted into
it we find our leg is broken, or our arm
out of joint, and we cannot enjoy the ride.
Work is always healthier for us than idle-
ness ; it is always better to wear out shoes
than sheets. I sometimes think, when I put
on my considering cap, that success in life
is something like getting married : there's
a very great deal of pleasure in the courting,
and it is not a bad thing when it is a mod-
erate time on the road. Therefore, young
man, learn to wait, and work on. Don't
throw away your rod, the fish will bite some
174 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES.
time or other. The cat watches long at the
hole, but catches the mouse at last. The
spider mends her broken web, and the flies
are taken before long. Stick to your call-
ing, plod on, and be content ; for, make sure,
if you can undergo you shall overcome.
If bad be your prospects, don't sit still and cry,
But jump up, and say to yourself, " I WILL try."
Miracles will never cease ! My neighbor,
Simon Gripper, was taken generous about
three months ago. The story is Avell worth
telling. He saw a poor blind man, led by
a little girl, playing on a fiddle. His heart
was touched, for a wonder. He said to me,
" Ploughman, lend me a penny, there's a
good fellow." I fumbled in my pocket,
and found two halfpence, and handed them
to him. More fool I, for he will never pay
me again. He gave the blind fiddler one of
those halfpence, and kept the other, and I
have not seen either Gripper or my penny
since, nor shall I get the money back till
the gate-post outside my garden grows Rib-
stone pippins. There's generosity for you !
The old saying which is put at the top of
this bit of my talk brought him into my
STICK TO IT AND SUCCEED. 175
mind, for he sticks to it most certainly : he
lives as badly as a church mouse, and
works as hard as if he was paid by the piece,
and had twenty children to keep: but I
would no more hold him up for an example
than I would show a toad as a specimen of
a pretty bird. While I talk to you young
people about getting on, I don't want you
to think that hoarding up money is real
success; nor do I wish you to rise an inch
above an honest ploughman's lot, if it can-
not be done without being mean or wicked.
The workhouse, prison as it is, is a world
better than a mansion built by roguery and
greed. If you cannot get on honestly, be
satisfied not to get on. The blessing of God
is riches enough for a wise man, and all the
world is not enough for a fool. Old Gripper's
notion of how to prosper has, I dare say, a
good deal of truth in it, and the more's the
pity. The Lord deliver us from such a
prospering, I say. That old sinner has often
hummed these lines into my ears when we
have got into an argument, and very pretty
lines they are not, certainly : —
*•' To win the prize in the world's great race
A man should have a brazen face ;
176 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES.
An iron arm to give a stroke.
And a heart as sturdy as an oak ;
Eyes like a cat, good in the dark,
And teeth as piercing as a shark ;
Ears to hear the gentlest sound,
Like moles that burrow in the ground;
A mouth as close as patent locks,
And stomach stronger than an ox ;
His tongue should be a razor-blade,
His conscience india-rubber made ;
His blood as cold as polar ice,
His hand as grasping as a vice.
His shoulders should be adequate
To bear a couple thousand weight;
His legs, like pillars, firm and strong,
To move the great machine along ;
With supple knees to cringe and crawl,
And cloven feet placed under all."
It amounts to this : be a devil in order to
be happy. Sell yourself outright to the
old dragon, and he will give you the world
and the glory thereof. But remember the
question of the Old Book, " What shall it
profit a man, if he gain the whole world,
and lose his own soul ? " There is another
road to success besides this crooked, dirty,
cut-throat lane. It is the King's highway,
of which the same Book says : ** Seek ye
first the kingdom of God, and his righteous-
ness ; and all these things shall be added
STICK TO IT AXD SUCCEED. 177
unto you." John Ploughman prays that
all his readers may choose this way, and
keep to it ; yet even in that way we must
use diligence, " for the kingdom of heaven
suffereth violence, and the violent take it by
force."
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