On Good Nature and Firmness
Charles Spurgeon · John Ploughman's Talk; or, Plain Advice for Plain People
"Long before they know whether it is a thief in the farmyard, or
the old mare got loose, they up with the window, and fire off the
old blunderbuss." — Page 45.
O not be all sugar, or the world will
D
suck you down ; but do not be all
vinegar, or the world will spit you out.
(39)
40 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK.
There is a medium in all things, only block-
heads go to extremes. We need not be
all rock or all sand, all iron or all wax.
We should neither fawn upon everybody
like silly lapdogs, nor fly at all persons like
surly mastiffs. Blacks and whites go to-
gether to make up a world, and hence on
the point of temper we have all sorts of
people to deal with. Some are as easy as
an old shoe, but they are hardly ever worth
more than the other one of the pair ; and
others take fire as fast as tinder at the
smallest offence, and are as dangerous as
gunpowder. To have a fellow going about
the farm as cross with everybody as a bear
with a sore head, with a temper as sour as
verjuice and as sharp as a razor, looking as
surly as a butcher's dog, is a great nuisance,
and yet there may be some good points
about the man, so that he may be a man for
all that ; but poor soft Tommy, as green as
grass, and as ready to bend as a willow, is
nobody's money and everybody's scorn. A
man must have a backbone, or how is he to
hold his head up ? but that backbone must
bend, or he will knock his brow against the
beam.
ON GOOD NATURE AND FIRMNESS. 41
There is a time to do as others wish, and
a time to refuse. We may make ourselves
asses, and then everybody will ride us ; but
if we would be respected, we must be our
own masters, and not let others saddle us
as they think fit. If we try to please every-
body, we shall be like a toad under a harrow,
and never have peace ; and if we play lac-
quey to all our neighbors, whether good or
bad, we shall be thanked by no one, for we
shall soon do as much harm as good. He
that makes himself a sheep, will find that
the wolves are not all dead. He who lies
on the ground must expect to be trodden
on. He who makes himself a mouse, the
cats will eat him. If you let your neigh-
bors put the calf on your shoulder, they
will soon clap on the cow. We are to
please our neighbor for his good to edifi-
cation, but this is quite another matter.
There are old foxes about whose mouths
are always watering for young geese, and if
they can cozen them to do just what they
wish, they soon make their market out of
them. What a jolly good fellow you will
be called if you will make yourself a hack
for your friends, and what a Benjamin's
42 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK.
mess will they soon bring you into ? Out
of that mess you will have to get all alone,
for your old friends will be sure to say to
you, " Good-bye, basket, I've carried all my
apples," or they will give you their good
wishes and nothing more, and you will find
out that fair words won't feed a cat, nor but-
ter your bread, nor fill your pocket. Those
who make so very much of you either mean
to cheat you, or else are in need of you :
when they have sucked the orange they
will throw the peel away. Be wise, then,
and look before you leap, lest a friend's ad-
vice should do you more mischief than an
enemy's slander. " The simple believeth
every word ; but the prudent man looketh
well to his going." Go with your neighbor
as far as good conscience will go with you,
but part company where the shoe of con-
science begins to pinch your foot. Begin
with your friend as you mean to go on, and
let him know very early that you are not a
man made of putty, but one who has a judg-
ment of his own, and means to use it. Pull
up the moment you find you are out of the
road, and take the nearest way back at once.
The way to avoid great faults is to beware
ON GOOD NATURE AND FIRMNESS. 43
of small ones, therefore pull up in time if
you would not be dragged into the ditch by
your friend. Better offend your acquaint-
ance than lose your character and hazard
your soul. Don't be ashamed to walk
down Turnagain Lane. Never mind being
called a turncoat when you turn from bad
courses : better to turn in time than to burn
in eternity. Do not be persuaded to ruin
yourself — it is buying gold too dear to
throw oneself away to please our company.
Put your foot down where you mean to
stand, and let no man move you from the
right. Learn to say, " No," and it will be
of more use to you than to be able to read
Latin.
A friend to everybody is often a friend to
nobody, or else in his simplicity he robs his
family to help strangers, and becomes
brother to a beggar. There is wisdom in
generosity, as in everything else, and some
had need go to school to learn it. A kind-
hearted soul may be very cruel to his own
children, while he takes the bread out of
their mouths to give to those who call him
a generous fellow, but laugh at his folly.
Very often he that his money lends loses
44 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK.
both his gold and his friends, and he who is
surety is never sure. Take John Plough-
man's advice, and never be security for more
than you are quite willing to lose. Remem-
ber the word of God says, " He that is
surety for a stranger shall smart for it : and
he that hateth suretiship is sure."
When we are injured, we are bound as
Christians to bear it without malice ; but we
are not to pretend that we do not feel it, for
this will but encourage our enemies to kick
us again. He who is cheated twice by the
same man is half as bad as the rogue ; and
it is very much so in other injuries — unless
we claim our rights, we are ourselves to
blame if we do not get them. Paul was
willing to bear stripes for his Master's sake,
but he did not forget to tell the magistrates
that he was a Roman ; and when those
gentlemen wished to put him out of prison
privately, he said, " Nay, verily, let them
come themselves and fetch us out." -A
Christian is the gentlest of men, but then
he is a man. A good many people don't
need to be told this, for they are up in a
moment if they think anybody is likely to
illtreat them ; long before they know
ON GOOD NATURE AND FIRMNESS. 45
whether it is a thief in the farmyard, or
the old mare got loose, they up with the
window, and fire off the old blunderbuss.
Dangerous neighbors these; a man might
as well make a seat out of a bull's fore-
head, as expect to find comfort in their
neighborhood. Make no friendship with
an angry man ; and with a furious man
thou shalt not go. " He that is slow to
wrath is of great understanding ; but he that
is hasty of spirit exalteth folly." " Seest
thou a man that is hasty in his words ?
there is more hope of a fool than of him."
In my day I have seen a few downright
obstinate men, whom neither sense nor rea-
son could alter. There's a queer chap in
our village who keeps a bulldog, and he
tells me that when the creature once gives
a bite at anything, he never lets go again,
and if you want to get it out of his mouth,
you must cut his head off; that's the sort
of man that has fretted me many a time
and almost made me mad. You might
sooner argue a pitchfork into a threshing
machine, or persuade a brickbat to turn
into marble, than get the fellow to hear com-
mon sense. Scrubbing blackamoors white,
46 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK.
and getting spots out of leopards, is nothing
at all compared with trying to lead a down-
right obstinate man. Right or wrong, you
might as easily make a hill walk to Lon-
don, as turn him when his mind is made up.
When a man is right, this sticking to his
text is a grand thing; our minister says,
" it is the stuff that martyrs are made of; "
but when an ignorant, wrongheaded fellow
gets this hard grit into him, he makes mar-
tyrs of those who have to put up with him.
Old Master Pighead swore he would drive
a nail into an oak board with his fist, and
so lamed his hand for life; he could not
sell his corn at his own price, and so he let
the rats eat up the ricks. You cannot ride
by his fields without noticing his obstinacy,
for he vows, " He won't have none of these
'ere new-fangled notions," and so he grows
the worst crops in the parish ; and worst of
all, his daughter went among the Metho-
dists, and, in a towering rage, he turned
her out of doors ; and though I believe he
is very sorry for it, he will not yield an
inch, but stands to it he will never speak to
her so long as he lives, and meanwhile the
dear girl is dying through his unkindness.
ON GOOD NATURE AND FIRMNESS. 47
Rash vows are much better broken than
kept. He who never changes never mends;
he who never yields, never conquers.
With children you must mix gentleness
with firmness ; they must not always have
their own way, but they must not always
be thwarted. Give to a pig when it grunts,
and to a child when it cries, and you will
have a fine pig and a spoiled child. A
man who is learning to play on a trumpet,
and a petted child, are two very disagreeable
companions even as next-door neighbors;
but unless we look well to it, our children
will be a nuisance to others and a torment
to ourselves. " The rod and reproof give
wisdom : but a child left to himself bring-
eth his mother to shame." If" we never
have headaches through rebuking our little
children, we shall have plenty of heartaches
when they grow up. Strict truthfulness
must rule all our dealings with the young ;
our yea must be yea, and our nay nay, and
that to the letter and the moment. Never
promise a child and then fail to perform,
whether you promise him a bun or a beat-
ing. Be obeyed at all costs — disobedient
children are unhappy children; for their
48 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK.
own sakes make them mind you. If you
yield up your authority once, you will
hardly ever get it again, for he who says
A must say B, and so on. We must not
provoke our children to anger, lest they be
discouraged, but we must rule our house-
hold in the fear of the Lord, and in so do-
ing may expect a blessing.
Since John Ploughman has taken to
writing, he has had a fine chance of showing
his firmness, and his gentleness too, for he
has received bushels of advice, for which
he begs to present his compliments, as the
squire's lady says, and he does not mind
either returning the advice or some of his
own instead, by way of showing his grati-
tude ; for he is sure it is very kind of so
many people to tell him so many different
ways in which he might make a stupid of
himself. He means to glean as many good
hints as he can from the acres of his friends'
stubble ; and while sticking to his own style,
because it suits his hand, he will touch him-
self up a bit if he can. Perhaps if the
minister will lend him Cowper or Milton, he
may even stick a sprig of poetry into his
nosegay, and come out as fine as the flowers
ON GOOD NATURE AND FIRMNESS. 49
in May ; but he cannot promise, for the
harvest is just on, and reaping leaves no
time for rhyming. The worst of it is,
the kind friends who are setting John to
rights, contradict one another ; one says it's
very poor stuff, and all in an assumed
name, for the style is not rough enough
for a ploughman; and another says the
matter is very well, but really, the expres-
sions are so coarse, he wonders the editor
puts it in the magazine. John means to
pay his advisers all the attention which they
deserve, and as some of the mice have been
bold enough to make a nest in the cat's ear,
he means to be after them and write a pa-
per upon giving advice gratis, in which
they will be likely to get a flea in their ear
in return for their instructions.
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