Where the Plough Does Not Go, the Weeds Will Grow

In my young days farmers used to leave broad headlands; and, as there were plenty of good-for-nothing hedges and ditches, they raised a prime crop of weeds, and these used to sow the farm, and give a heap of trouble. Then Farmer Numskull "never could make out nohow where all they there weeds could 'a come from." In those good old times, as stupids call them, old Tusser said:

"Slack never thy weeding for dear or for cheap,
The corn shall reward it when harvest ye reap."

He liked to see weeding done just after rain: no bad judge either. He said,

"Then after a shower, to weeding a snatch,
'Tis more easy then the root to despatch."

Weeding is wanted now, for ill weeds grow apace, and the hoe must always go; but still lands are a fine sight cleaner than they used to be, for now farmers go a deal closer to work, and grub up the hedges, and make large fields, to save every bit of land. Quite right, too. The less there is wasted the more there is for us all.

To clothe the fields with plenty and all our barns endow,
We'll turn up every corner and drive the useful plough.
No weed shall haunt the furrow, before us all shall bow,
We'll gaily yield our labor to guide the useful plough.

It would be well to do the same thing in other concerns. Depend upon it, weeds will come wherever you give them half a chance. When children have no school to go to they will pretty soon be up to mischief; and if they are not taught the gospel, the old enemy will soon teach them to thieve, and lie, and swear. You can tell with your eyes shut where there's a school and where there's none: only use your ears and hear the young ones talk.

So far goes the plough, and where that leaves off the docks and the thistles begin, as sure as dirt comes where there's no washing, and mice where there are no cats. They tell me that in London and other big towns vice and crime are sure to spread where there are no ragged schools and Sunday schools; and I don't wonder. I hope the day will never come when good people will give up teaching the boys and girls. Keep that plough going, say I, till you have cut up all the charlock. Don't leave a rod of ground for the devil to sow his tares in. In my young time few people in our parish could either read or write, and what were they to do but gossip, and drink and fight, and play old gooseberry? Now that teaching is to be had, people will all be scholars, and, as they can buy a Testament for a penny, I hope they will search the Scriptures, and may God bless the word to the cleansing of their souls. When the schoolmaster gets to his work in downright earnest, I hope and trust there will be a wonderful clearance of the weeds.

The best plough in all the world is the preaching of the gospel. Leave a village without Christ crucified, and it soon becomes a great tangle of thorn, and briar, and brake, and bramble; but when sound and sensible preaching comes, it tears all up like a steam plough, and the change is something to sing about. "The desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose."

Inside a man's heart there is need of a thorough ploughing by God's grace, for if any part of our nature is left to itself, the weeds of sin will smother the soul. Every day we have need to be looked after, for follies grow in no time, and come to a great head before you can count twenty. God speed the plough.