On Patience
Charles Spurgeon · John Ploughman's Talk; or, Plain Advice for Plain People
" Blow the wind never so fast, it will lower at last." — Page 54.
PATIENCE is better than wisdom : an
ounce of patience is worth a pound
of brains. All men praise patience, but few
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ON PATIENCE. 51
enough can practise it; it is a medicine
which is good for all diseases, and therefore
every old woman recommends it : but it is
not every garden that grows the herbs to
make it with. When one's flesh and bones
are full of aches and pains, it is as natural
for us to murmur as for a horse to shake
his head when the flies tease him, or a wheel
to rattle when a spoke is loose; but nature
should not be the rule with Christians, or
what is their religion worth ? If a soldier
fights no better than a ploughboy, off with
his red coat. We expect more fruit from
an apple-tree than from a thorn, and we
have a right to do so. The disciples of a
patient Saviour should be patient them-
selves. Grin and bear it is the old-fashioned
advice, but sing and bear it is a great deal
better. After all, we get very few cuts of
the whip, considering what bad cattle we
are ; and when we do smart a little, it is
soon over. Pain past is pleasure, and ex-
perience comes by it. We ought not to be
afraid of going down into Egypt when we
know we shall come out of it with jewels
of silver and gold.
Impatient people water their miseries
52 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK.
and hoe up their comforts ; sorrows are
visitors that come without invitation, but
complaining minds send a waggon to bring
their troubles home in. Many people are
born crying, live complaining, and die dis-
appointed ; they chew the bitter pill which
they would not even know to be bitter if
they had the sense to swallow it whole in a
cup of patience and water. They think
every other man's burden to be light, and
their own feathers to be heavy as lead ; they
are hardly done by in their own opinion ;
no one's toes are so often trodden on by
the black ox as theirs ; the snow falls thick-
est round their door, and the hail rattles
hardest on their windows ; and yet, if the
truth were known, it is their fancy rather
than their fate which makes things go so
hard with them. Many would be well
off if they could but think so. A little
sprig of the herb called content put into
the poorest soup will make it taste as rich
as the Lord Mayor's turtle. John Plough-
man grows the plant in his garden, but the
late hard winter nipped it terribly, so that
he cannot afford to give his neighbors a
slip of it ; they had better follow Matthew
ON PA TIENCE. 53
xxv. 9, and go to those who sell, and buy
for themselves. Grace is a good soil to
grow it in, but it wants watering from the
fountain of mercy.
To be poor is not always pleasant, but
worse things than that happen at sea.
Small shoes are apt to pinch, but not if you
have a small foot ; if we have little means
it will be well to have little desires. Pov-
erty is no shame, but being discontented
with it is. In some things the poor are
better off than the rich; for if a poor man
has to seek meat for his stomach, he is
more likely to get what he is after than
the rich man who seeks a stomach for his
meat. A poor man's table is soon spread,
and his labor spares his buying sauce.
The best doctors are Dr. Diet, Dr. Quiet,
and Dr. Merry man, and many a godly
ploughman has all these gentlemen to wait
upon him. Plenty makes dainty, but hun-
ger finds no fault with the cook. Hard
work brings health, and an ounce of health
is worth a sack of diamonds. It is not how
much we have, but how much we enjoy,
that makes happiness. There is more
sweet in a spoonful of sugar than in a
54 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK.
cask of vinegar. It is not the quantity of
our goods, but the blessing of God on what
we have that makes us truly rich. The par-
ings of a pippin are better than a whole
crab ; a dinner of herbs, with peace, is bet-
ter than a stalled ox and contention there-
with. " Better is little with the fear of the
Lord than great treasure and trouble there-
with." A little wood will heat my little
oven ; why, then, should I murmur because
all the woods are not mine ?
When troubles come, it is of no use to
fly in the face of God by hard thoughts of
providence; that is kicking against the
pricks and hurting your feet. The trees
bow in the wind, and so must we. Every
time the sheep bleats it loses a mouthful,
and every time we complain we miss a
blessing. Grumbling is a bad trade, and
yields no profit, but patience has a golden
hand. Our evils will soon be over. After
rain comes clear shining ; black crows have
wings ; every winter turns to spring ; every
night breaks into morning.
Blow the wind never so fast,
It will lower at last.
ON PATIENCE. 55
If one door should be shut, God will open
another ; if the peas do not yield well, the
beans may : if one hen leaves her eggs,
another will bring out all her brood : there's
a bright side to all things, and a good God
everywhere. Somewhere or other in the
worst flood of trouble there always is a dry
spot for contentment to get its foot on, and
if there were not it would learn to swim.
Friends, let us take to patience and water
gruel, as the old folks used to tell us, rather
than catch the miserables, and give others
the disease^ by wickedly finding fault with
God. The best remedy for affliction is sub-
mitting to providence. What can't be
cured must be endured. If we cannot get
bacon, let us bless God that there are still
some cabbages in the garden. Must is a
hard nut to crack, but it has a sweet kernel.
" All things work together for good to them
that love God." Whatever falls from the
skies is, sooner or later, good for the land :
whatever comes to us from God is worth
having, even though it be a rod. We can-
not by nature like trouble any more than a
mouse can fall in love with a cat, and yet
Paul by grace came to glory in tribulations
56 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK.
also. Losses and crosses are heavy to bear,
but when our hearts are right with God it
is wonderful how easy the yoke becomes.
We must needs go to glory by the way of
Weeping Cross ; and as we were never
promised that we should ride to heaven in
a feather bed, we must not be disappointed
when we see the road to be rough, as our
fathers found it before us. All's well that
ends well ; and, therefore, let us plough the
heaviest soil with our eye on the sheaves
of harvest, and learn to sing at our labor
while others murmur.