Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes Co., O. [Ohio]) 1870-1895, 1870-11-03
John Ploughman's Talk.
ON PATIENCE.

Patience is better than wisdom
an ounce of patience is worth a
pound of brains. All men praise
patience, but few enough can prac-
tise 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
ones flesh and bones are full of
aches and pains, it is as natural for
us to murmur as for 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 soldier fights
no better than ploughboy, off with
his red coat. We expect more fruit
from an apple tree than from a thorn,
and we have right to do so. The
disciples of patient Saviour should
be patient themselves. 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 little, it is soon over. Pain
past is pleasure, and experience
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 mis-
cries and hoe up their comforts;
sorrows are visitors that come with
out invitation, but complaining
minds send a wagon to bring their
troubles home in. Many people are
born crying, live complaining, and
die disappointed; they chew the
bitter pill which they would not even
know to be bitter if they had the
sense to swallow it whole in cup
of patience and water. They think
every other mans burden to be light,
and their own feathers to be heavy
as lead; they are hardly done by in
their own opinion; no ones toes
are so often trodden on by the black
OK as theirs; the snow falls thickest
round their door, and the hail rattles
hardest on their windows; and vet.
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 Mayors turtle.
John Ploughman grows the plant in
his garden, but the late hard winter
nipped it terribly, so that he cannot
afford to give his neighbors slip of
it; they had better follow Matthew
XIV. 8, and 60 to those who sell, and
buy for themselves. Grace is a good
soil to grow it in, but wants water
ing 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 small foot; ifI
we have little means it will be well
to have little desires. Poverty is
no shame, but being discontented |
with it is. In some things the poor
are better off than the rich; for if
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 stomach for his meat.
A poor mans table is soon spread,
and his labor spares his buying
sauce. The best doctors are DR.. |
Diet, DIR. Quiet, and DIR. Merrvman.
and many godly ploughman has all
these gentlemen to wait upon him.
Plenty makes dainty, but hunger
finds no fault with the cook. Hard |
work brings health, and an ounce of
health is worth a sack of diamonds. |
1t is not how much we have, but
how much we enjoy that makes hap
piness. There is more sweet in a
spoonful of sugar than in cask of
vinegar. 1t is not the quantity of
our goods, but the blessing of God
on what we have that makes us truly
rich. The parings of pippin are
better than Il whole crab; dinner
of herbs, with peace, is better than
stalled OK and contention there
with. ''Better is little with the fear
Of the Lord than great treasure and
trouble herewith A little wood
will heat my little oven, why. then.
should 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
mouthful, and every time We com
plain we miss a blessing. Grumb-
ling 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 win
ter turns to spring; every night
bleaks into morning.
Blow the winds never so fast
1t will lower at last.
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 good
God every where. Some where or
other in the worst flood of trouble,
there always is dry spot for con-
tentment to get its foot on. and if
there were not, it would learn to
swim.
Friends, let us take to patience
and water cruel, as the old folks
used to tell u.s. rather than catch