Faults
Charles Spurgeon · John Ploughman's Talk; or, Plain Advice for Plain People
" What's rotten will rend." — Page 85.
HE who boasts of being perfect is per-
fect in folly. I have been a good
deal up and down in the world, and I never
did see either a perfect horse or a perfect
man, and I never shall till two Sundays
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84 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK.
come together. You cannot get white flour
out of a coal sack, nor perfection out of
human nature ; he who looks for it had bet-
ter look for sugar in the sea. The old say-
ing is, " Lifeless, faultless : " of dead men
we should say nothing but good, but as for
the living, they are all tarred more or less
with the black brush, and half an eye can
see it. Every head has a soft place in it, and
every heart has its black drop. Every rose
has its prickles, and every day its night.
Even the sun shows spots, and the skies are
darkened with clouds. Nobody is so wise
but he has folly enough to stock a stall at
Vanity Fair. Where I could not see the
fool's-cap, I have nevertheless heard the
bells jingle. As there is no sunshine with-
out some shadows, so is all human good
mixed up with more or less of evil ; even
poor law guardians have their little failings,
and parish beadles are not wholly of
heavenly nature. The best wine has its
lees. All men's faults are not written on
their foreheads, and it's quite as well they
are not, or hats would need very wide brims,
yet, as sure as eggs are eggs, faults of some
sort nestle in every bosom. There's no
FAULTS. 85
telling when a man's sins may show them-
selves, for hares pop out of the ditch just
when you are not looking for them. A
horse that is weak in the legs may not
stumble for a mile or two, but it is in him,
and the rider had better hold him up well.
The tabby cat is not lapping milk just now,
but leave the dairy door open, and we will
see if she is not as bad a thief as the kitten.
There's fire in the flint, cool as it looks :
wait till the steel gets a knock at it, and you
will see. Everybody can read that riddle,
but it is not everybody that will remember
to keep his gunpowder out of the way of
the candle.
If we would always recollect that we live
among men who are imperfect, we should
not be in such a fever when we find out our
friends' failings ; what's rotten will rend,
and cracked pots will leak. Blessed is he
who expects nothing of poor flesh and
blood, for he shall never be disappointed.
The best of men are men at the best, and
the best wax will melt.
It is a good horse that never stumbles,
And a good wife that never grumbles.
But surely such horses and wives are only
86 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK.
found in the fool's paradise, where dump-
lings grow on trees. In this wicked world
the straightest timber has knots in it, and
the cleanest field of wheat has its share of
weeds. The most careful driver one day
upsets the cart, the cleverest cook spills a
little broth, and as I know to my sorrow a
very decent ploughman will now and then
break the plough, and often make a crooked
furrow. It is foolish to turn off a tried
friend because of a failing or two, for you
may get rid of a one-eyed nag and buy a
blind one. Being all of us full of faults, we
ought to keep two bears, and learn to bear
and forbear with one another ; since we all
live in glass houses, we should none of us
throw stones. Everybody laughs when the
saucepan says to the kettle, " How black
you are ! " Other men's imperfections show
us our imperfections, for one sheep is much
like another ; and if there's an apple in my
neighbor's eye, there is no doubt one in
mine. We ought to use our neighbors as
looking glasses to see our own faults in, and
mend in ourselves what we see in them.
I have no patience with those who poke
their noses into every man's house to smell
FAULTS. 87
out his faults, and put on magnifying
glasses to discover their neighbors' flaws ;
such folks had better look at home, they
might see the devil where they little ex-
pected. What we wish to see we shall
see, or think we see. Faults are always
thick where love is thin. A white cow is
all black if your eye chooses to make it so.
If we sniff long enough at rose water, we
shall find out that it has a bad smell. It
would be a far more pleasant business, at
least for other people, if fault hunters would
turn their dogs to hunt out the good points
in other folks ; the game would pay better,
and nobody would stand with a pitchfork
to keep the huntsmen off his farm. As for
our own faults, it would take a large slate
to hold the account of them, but, thank God,
we know where to take them, and how to
get the better of them. With all our faults,
God loves us still if we are trusting in his
Son, therefore let us not be downhearted,
but hope to live and learn, and do some
good service before we die. Though the
cart creaks it will get home with its load,
and the old horse, broken kneed as he is,
will do a sight of work yet. There's no use
88 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK.
in lying down and doing nothing, because
we cannot do everything as we should like.
Faults or no faults, ploughing must be done,
and imperfect people must do it too, or
there will be no harvest next year; bad
ploughman as John may be, the angels
won't do his work for him, and so he is off
to do it himself. Go along, Violet ! Gee
woa! Depper!