Serves Him Right
C. H. Spurgeon offers some strong words to the sort of people who kick you when you’re down:
How aggravating it is when those who knocked you down, kick you for not standing up! It is not very pleasant to hear that you have been a great fool, and that there were fifty ways at least of keeping out of your difficulty, only you had not the sense to see them. You ought not to have lost the game; even Tom Fool can see where you made a bad move. “He ought to have locked the stable door“; everybody can see that, but nobody offers to buy the loser a new nag. “What a pity he went so far on the ice!” That’s very true, but that won’t save the poor fellow from drowning. When a man’s coat is threadbare, it is an easy thing to pick a hole in it. Good advice is poor food for a hungry family….
Lend me a bit of string to tie up the traces, and find fault with my old harness when I get home. Help my old horse to a few oats, and then tell him to mend his pace. Feel for me, and I shall be much obliged to you, but mind you feel in your pocket or else a fig for your feelings. — C. H. Spurgeon, John Ploughman’s Talk, pp. 85-86.