That’s easy for you to say

“That’s easy for you to say” is a common rejoinder used by a person who is getting advice to suggest that the person who is giving advice is not affected by the advice. For example, someone might say, “You really need to get out more and get more exercise.” The person receiving the advice replies, “That’s easy for you to say. You live alone; you have no kids; you’ve got to plenty time to do what you wish.”

There seems to be a certain logic in the retort, and it often can be true that what is said is easier for the advice giver than for the advice getter. However, what is often missed is this – even though the advice may be “easier” for the giver to give than the getter to get, that does not mean that the advice is bad advice or not true. Just because the above adviser has plenty of time on her hands, it does not mean that the receiver does not need to get out and get more exercise.

Often in the realm of teaching biblical truth, the teacher receives the rejoinder “That’s easy for you to say.” In preaching it is not uncommon for me to say, “That is easier said than done.” In other words, just because it is “easy” to preach the truth does not mean it is “easy” to obey that truth. That is a recognition of something but at the same time not saying the truth is not the truth.

When we have just received advice or truth that is “easier for the other person to say,” let us not just cast it off for that reason. Even though it is not easy to hear or do, it nevertheless may be the truth. Search the scriptures, whether or not the things that are easy for someone else to say are so. They just may be.

The same advice

In his book The Salt-cellars, one of the early proverbs quoted by Charles H. Spurgeon is:

Maidens should be mild and meek,
Swift to hear and slow to speak.

He adds, “The same advice will apply to men also; but the men like advising the women, better than doing right themselves.”

Two Poems by S. W. Foss

The Calf Path -- Was written by Samuel Walter Foss (1858-1911); I could not find when "The Calf Path" was written, but it had been printed at least by 1897. It may have first appeared in Back Country Poems, 1894, or Whiffs from Wild Meadows, 1895.

One day through the primeval wood,
A calf walked home, as good calves should;
But made a trail all bent askew,
A crooked trail as all calves do.

Since then three hundred years have fled,
And, I infer, the calf is dead.
But still he left behind his trail,
And thereby hangs my moral tale.

The trail was taken up next day,
By a lone dog that passed that way.
And then a wise bell-wether sheep,
Pursued the trail o'er vale and steep;
And drew the flock behind him too,
As good bell-wethers always do.

And from that day, o'er hill and glade.
Through those old woods a path was made.
And many men wound in and out,
And dodged, and turned, and bent about;
And uttered words of righteous wrath,
Because 'twas such a crooked path.
But still they followed - do not laugh -
The first migrations of that calf.
And through this winding wood-way stalked,
Because he wobbled when he walked.

This forest path became a lane,
That bent, and turned, and turned again.
This crooked lane became a road,
Where many a poor horse with his load,
Toiled on beneath the burning sun,
And traveled some three miles in one.

And thus a century and a half,
They trod the footsteps of that calf.
The years passed on in swiftness fleet,
The road became a village street;
And this, before the men were ware,
A city's crowded thoroughfare;
And soon the central street was this,
Of a renowned metropolis;

And men two centuries and a half,
Trod in the footsteps of that calf.
Each day a hundred thousand rout,
Followed the zigzag calf about;
And o'er his crooked journey went,
The traffic of a continent.
A hundred thousand men were led,
By one calf near three centuries dead.
They followed still his crooked way,
And lost one hundred years a day;
For thus such reverence is lent,
To well established precedent.

A moral lesson this might teach,
Were I ordained and called to preach;
For men are prone to go it blind,
Along the calf-paths of the mind;
And work away from sun to sun,
To do what other men have done.
They follow in the beaten track,
And out and in, and forth and back,
And still their devious course pursue,
To keep the path that others do.

They keep the path a sacred grove,
Along which all their lives they move.
But how the wise old wood gods laugh,
Who saw the first primeval calf!
Ah! many things this tale might teach -
But I am not ordained to preach.

--

The Prayer of Cyrus Brown -- Was written by Samuel Walter Foss (1858-1911); I could not find when "The Prayer of Cyrus Brown" was written.

"The proper way for a man to pray"
said Deacon Lemuel Keyes,
"the only proper attitude
is down upon his knees."

"Nay, I should say the way to pray,"
said Reverend Doctor Wise
"is standing straight with outstrecthed arms
and rapt and upturned eyes."

"Oh, no, no, no." said Elder Snow,
"Such posture is too proud;
A man should pray with eyes fast closed
and head contritely bowed."

"It seems to me his hands should be
astutely clasped in front.
With both thumbs a pointing toward the ground."
Said the Reverend Hunt.

"Las' year I fell in Hodgkins well
head first," said Cyrus Brown,
"With both my heels a-stickin' up,
my head a-p'inting down;
I made a prayer right then an' there;
Best prayer I ever said;
The prayingest prayer I ever prayed,
A-standin' on my head."

An open letter to...

DEAR ABBY: I have read your column off and on for many years. Not for advice, but more as entertainment. Perhaps it's good to know that others have more problems solving their problems that I do. Whatever the reason, I feel tempted to check out your column when I see it in a newspaper. Back on November 16, in the Henderson Daily News you ran a letter from and answer to HELD BACK IN OHIO. In that answer you wrote, beginning "You and Caitlyn are adults in your 40s" and concluding, "...you should be mature enough to discuss this with her without involving me."

I got a good chuckle and a wise idea from that. I've been watching your column closely since that time. I have some advice for you. Make "you should be mature enough to discuss this without involving me" a stock answer. It is good advice and will work with about 75% of your queries perhaps many more. Of course, it may not be too good for the future of your column once people find out they should be mature enough to solve problems on their own!! But try it; perhaps you'll like it. -- JUST TRYING TO HELP