So this is part four of John Plowman's pictures by Charles Haddon Spurgeon. And the first bit is, a handsaw is a good thing, but not to shave with. There's a picture of a man with a coat on, on a chair, in front of a mirror, on a table, in his home, no doubt. And he is shaving, but instead of using a razor, he has a handsaw. It's a ridiculous picture and one might wonder what he's going to do to himself if he doesn't realise his error in time. Our friend will cut more than he will eat and shave off something more than hair and then he will blame the saw. His brains don't lie in his beard nor yet in the skull above it or he would see that his saw will only make saws. Their sense in choosing your tools for a pig's tail will never make a good arrow, nor will his ear make a silk purse. You can't catch rabbits with drums, nor pigeons with plums. A good thing is not good out of its place. It is much the same with lads and girls. You can't put all boys to one trade, nor send all girls to the same service. One chap will make a London clerk, and another will do better to plough, and sow, and reap, and mow, and be a farmer's boy. It's no use forcing them, a snail will never run a race, nor a mouse drive a wagon. Send a boy to the well against his will, the pitcher will break and the water spill. With unwilling hounds it is hard to hunt hares. To go against nature and inclination is to row against wind and tide. They say you may praise a fool till you make him useful. I don't know so much about that, but I do know that if I get a bad knife, I generally cut my finger, and a blunt axe is more trouble than profit. No, let me shave with a razor if I shave at all, and do my work with the best tools I can get. Never set a man to work he is not fit for, for he will never do it well. They say that if pigs fly they will always go with their tails forward, and awkward workmen are much the same. Nobody expects cows to catch crows or hens to wear hats. There's reason in roasting eggs, and there should be reason in choosing servants. Don't put a round peg in a square hole, nor wind up your watch with a corkscrew, nor set a tender-hearted man to whip wife-beaters, nor a bear to be a relieving officer, nor a publican to judge of the licensing laws. Get the right man in the right place, and then all goes as smooth as skates on ice. But the wrong man puts all awry, as the sow did when she folded the linen. It is a temptation to many to trust them with money. Don't put them to take care of it if you ever wish to see it again. Never set a cat to watch cream, nor a pig to gather peaches. For if the cream and the peaches go missing, you will have yourself to thank for it. It is a sin to put people where they are likely to sin. If you believe the old saying that when you set a beggar on horseback, he will ride to the devil. Don't let him have a horse of yours. If you want a thing well done, do it yourself and pick your tools. It is true that a man must row with such oars as he has, but he should not use the boat hook for a paddle. Take not the tongs to poke the fire, nor the poker to put on the coals. A newspaper on Sunday is as much out of place as a warming pan on the first of August, or a fan on a snowy day. The Bible suits the Sabbath a deal better. He who tries to make money by betting uses a wrong tool and is sure to cut his fingers. As well hope to grow golden pippins on the bottom of the sea as to make gain among gamblers if you are an honest man. Hard work and thrifty habits are the right razor, gambling is a handsaw. Some things want doing gently, and telling a man of his faults is one of them. You would not fetch a hatchet to break open an egg, nor kill a fly on your boy's forehead with a sledgehammer and so on. And so you must not try to mend your neighbour's little fault by blowing him up sky high. Never fire off a musket to kill a midge, and don't raise a hue and cry about the half of nothing. Don't throw away a saw because it is not a razor, for it will serve your turn another day and cut your hand bone if you won't shave off your stubble. A wet stone, though it cannot cut, may sharpen a knife that will. A match gives little light itself, but it may light a candle to brighten up the room. Use each thing and each man according to common sense, and you will be uncommonly sensible. You don't milk horses nor ride cows, and by the same rule you must make of every man what he is meant for, and the farm will be as right as a trivet. Everything has its use, but no one thing is good for all purposes. The baby said, the cat crew, and the cock rocked the cradle. But old folks knew better. The cat is best at mousing, and the cock at rousing. That for that, a salt is for herrings, and sugar for gooseberries, and nan for Nicholas. Don't choose your tools by their looks, for that's best which does best. A silver trowel is very few bricks. You cannot carry a horse with a tortoise shell comb. or fell oaks with a pen knife, or open oysters with a gold toothpick. Fine is not so good as fit when work is to be done. A good workman will get on pretty well with a poor tool, and a brave soldier never lacks a weapon. Still, the best is good enough for me, and John Plowman does not care to use a clumsy tool because it looks pretty. Better ride on an ass that carries you than on a steed which throws you. It is far better to work with an old-fashioned spade which suits your hand than with a newfangled invention you don't understand. In trying to do good to your fellow men, the gospel is out of sight the best instrument to work with. The new doctrine, which they call modern thought, is nothing better than a handsaw, and it won't work a bit. This fine new nothing of a gospel would not save a mouse, nor move the soul of a tomtit. But the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ is suited to man's need, and by God's grace does its work famously. Let every preacher and teacher keep to it, for they will never find a better. Try to win men with its loving words and precious promises, and there's no fear of labour in vain. Some praise the balm of Gilead or man's morality, many try the Roman salve or the oil of Babylon, and others use a cunning ointment mixed by learned philosophers. But for his own soul's wounds, and for the hurts of others, John Plowman knows but one cure, and that is given gratis, that's free, by the good physician to all who ask for it. A humble faith in Jesus Christ will soon bring you this sovereign remedy. Use no other, for no other is of use. That's great. OK, don't cut off your nose to spite your face. I'm not even going to describe the picture here. The Victorians were quite gory at times. Anger is a short madness. The less we do when we go mad, the better for everybody. And the less we go mad, the better for ourselves. He is far gone who hurts himself to wreak his vengeance on others. The old saying is, don't cut off your head because it aches. and another says, set not your house on fire despite the moon. If things go awry, it is a poor way of mending to make them worse, as the man did who took to drinking because he could not marry the girl he liked. He must be a fool who cuts off his nose to spite his face. And yet this is what Dick did when he had vexed his old master. And because he was chid, must needs give up his place, throw himself out of work and starve his wife and family. Jane had been idle and she knew it. But sooner than let her mistress speak to her, she gave warning and lost as good a service as a maid could wish for. Old Griggs was wrong and could not deny it, and yet because the parson's sermon fitted him rather close, he took the sulks and vowed he would never hear the good man again. It was his own loss, but he wouldn't listen to reason, but was as willful as a pig. Do nothing when you are out of temper, and then you will have the less to undo. Let a hasty man's passion be a warning to you. If he scolds you, take heed that you do not let your own pot boil over. Many a man has given himself a box on the ear in his blind rage, eh, and ended his own life out of spite. He who cannot curb his temper carries gunpowder in his bosom, and he is neither safe for himself nor for his neighbours. When passion comes in at the door, what little sense there is indoors. Flies out of the window, by and by a hasty man cools and comes to himself, like MacGibbon's gruel when he put it out of the window. But if his nose is off in the meantime, who is to put it on again? He will only be sorry once and that will be all the rest of his life. Anger does a man more hurt than that which made him angry. It opens his mouth and shuts his eyes and fires his heart and drowns his sense and makes his wisdom folly. Old Tompkins told me that he was sorry that he lost his temper, and I could not help thinking that the pity was that he ever found it again, for it was like an old shoe with the sole gone and the upper levers worn out, only fit for a dunghill. A hot-tempered man would be all the better for a new heart and a right spirit. Anger is a fire which cooks no victuals and comforts no household. It cuts and curses and kills, and no one knows what it may lead to. Therefore, good reader, don't let it lodge in your bosom, and if it ever comes there, pass the vagrant on to the next parish. Gently, gently, little pot, why so hasty to be hot? Over you will surely boil, and I know not what you'll spoil. The old gent in our picture has a fine nose of his own, and though he will be a fool to cut it off, he would be wise to cut off the supplies which have made it such a size. That glass and jug on the table are the paint pots that he colours his nose with, and everybody knows, whether he knows it or not, that his nose is the outward and visible sign of a good deal of inward and spiritous drink. Yeah, sometimes if you have a large nose, it's because you drink too much alcohol. But not always. And the sooner he drops his drops, the better. So here we will cut off not our nose, but the present subject.