On Seizing Opportunities
Charles Spurgeon · John Ploughman's Talk; or, Plain Advice for Plain People
" Dear me, is the train gone ? My watch must have stopped in
the night."
SOME men are never awake when the
train starts, but crawl into the station
just in time to see that everybody is off,
and then sleepily say, " Dear me, is the
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ON SEIZING OPPORTUNITIES. 63
train gone? My watch must have stopped
in the night." They always come into
town a day after the fair, and open their
wares an hour after the market is over.
They make their hay when the sun has left
off shining, and cut their corn as soon as
the fine weather is ended ; they cry, " Hold
hard ! " after the shot has left the gun, and
lock the stable door when the steed is
stolen. They are like a cow's tail, always
behind ; they take time by the heels, and not
by the forelock, if indeed they ever take
him at all. They are no more worth than
an old almanack; their time has gone for
being of use; but, unfortunately, you can-
not throw them away as you would the al-
manack, for they are like the cross old lady
who had an annuity left her, and meant to
take out the full value of it; they won't die,
though they are of no use alive. Take-it
easy and Live-long are first cousins, they
say, and the more's the pity. "If they are
immortal till their work is done, they will
not die in a hurry, for they have not even
begun to work yet. Shiftless people gener-
ally excuse their laziness by saying " they
are only a little behind ; " but a little too late
64 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK.
is much too late, and a miss is as good as a
mile. My neighbor Sykes covered up his
well after his child was drowned in it; and
was very busy down at the Old Farm bring-
ing up buckets of water after every stick of
the house had been burnt ; one of these days
he'll be for making his will when he can't
hold a pen, and he'll be trying to repent of
his sins when his senses are going.
These slow coaches think that to-morrow
is better than to-day, and take for their rule
an old proverb turned topsy-turvy — " Never
do to-day what you can put off till to-mor-
row." They are forever waiting until their
ship comes home, and always dreaming
about things looking up by-and-by ; while
grass grows in their furrows, and the cows
get through the gaps in their hedges. If
the birds would but wait to have salt put on
their tails, what a breakfast they would take
home to their families ! but while things
move as fast as they do, the youngsters at
home will have to fill their mouths with
empty spoons. " Never mind," say they,
" there are better times coming ; wait a lit-
tle longer." Their birds are all in the bush,
and rare fat ones they are, according to their
ON SEIZING OPPORTUNITIES, 65
account ; and so they had need to be, for
they have had none in the hand yet, and
wife and children are half starved. Some-
thing will turn up, they say ; why don't the
stupids go and turn it up themselves ? Time
and tide wait for no man, and yet these fel-
lows loiter about as if they had a freehold
of time, a lease of their lives, and a rabbit
warren of opportunities. They will find
out their mistake when want finds them out,
and that will not be long with some in our
village, for they are already a long way on
the road to Needham. They who would
not plough must not expect to eat ; they
who waste the spring will have a lean au-
tumn. They would not strike when the iron
was hot, and they will soon find the cold
iron very hard.
" He that will not when he may,
When he will he shall have nay."
Time is not tied to a post, like a horse to a
manger ; it passes like the wind, and he who
would grind his corn by it must set the mill-
sails. He that gapes till he be fed, will gape
till he be dead. Nothing is to be got with-
out pains except poverty and dirt. In the
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66 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK.
old days they said, " Jack gets on by his stu-
pidity : " Jack would find it very different
nowadays, I think ; but never in old times,
or any other times, would Jack get on by
foolishly letting present chances slip by him ;
for hares never run into the mouths of sleep-
ing dogs. He that hath time, and looks
for better time, time comes that he repents
himself of time. There's no good in lying
down and crying, " God help us ! " God
helps those who help hemselves. When I
see a man who declares that the times are
bad, and that he is always unlucky, I gen-
erally say to myself, that old goose did not
sit on the eggs till they were all addled, and
now providence is to be blamed because
they won't hatch. I never had any faith in
luck at all, except that I believe good luck
will carry a man over a ditch if he jumps
well, and will put a bit of bacon into his
pot if he looks after his garden and keeps
a pig. Luck generally comes to those who
look after it, and my notion is that it taps at
least once in a lifetime at everybody's door,
but if industry does not open it, away it
goes. Those who have lost the last coach,
and let every opportunity slip by them, turn
ON SEIZING OPPORTUNITIES. 67
to abusing providence for setting everything
against them: "If I were a hatter," says
one, " men would be born without heads."
" If I went to the sea for water, " quoth an-
other, " I should find it dried up." Every
wind is foul for a crazy ship. Neither the
wise nor the wealthy can help him who has
long refused to help himself.
John Ploughman in the most genteel man-
ner sends his compliments to his friends, and
now that harvest is over, and the hops all
picked, according to promise, he intends
giving them a bit of poetry, just to show that
he is trying the polishing brushes. John
asked the minister to lend him one of the
poets, and he gave him the works of George
Herbert, — very good, no doubt, but rather
tangled, like Harkaway Wood ; still, there's
a good deal in the queer old verses, and
every now and then one comes upon clus-
ters of the sweetest nuts, but some of them
are rather hard to crack. The following
verse is somewhat near the subject now in
hand, and is plain enough in reason, though,
begging the poet's pardon, John can't see a
rhyme in it; however, as it is by the great
Herbertr it must be good, and will do well
68 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK.
enough to ornament John's talk, like a
flower stuck in a button-hole of his Sun-
day coat.
" Let thy mind still be bent, still plotting where,
And when, and how thy business may be done.
Slackness breeds worms ; but the sure traveller,
Though he alight sometimes, still goeth on.
Acting and stirring spirits live alone :
Write on the others, Here lies such a one"