The words
Stanza 1. One aweful word which JESUS spoke,Against the tree which bore no fruit;More piercing than the lightning’s stroke,Blasted and dried it to the root.
Stanza 2. But could a tree the LORD offend,To make him show his anger thus?He surely had a farther end,To be a warning word to us.
Stanza 3. The fig–tree by its leaves was known,But having not a fig to show;It brought a heavy sentence down,“Let none hereafter on thee grow.”
Stanza 4. Too many, who the gospel hear,Whom Satan blinds and sin deceives;We to this fig–tree may compare,They yield no fruit, but only leaves.
Stanza 5. Knowledge, and zeal, and gifts, and talk,Unless combined with faith and love,And witnessed by a gospel walk,Will not a true profession prove.
Stanza 6. Without the fruit the LORD expectsKnowledge will make our state the worse;.The barren trees he still rejects,And soon will blast them with his curse.
Stanza 7. O LORD, unite our hearts in prayer!On each of us thy Spirit send;That we the fruits of grace may bear,And find acceptance in the end.
Olney Hymns (1779), Book 1, Hymn 97. John Newton. Public domain. CCEL transcription with modernized spelling. www.praylock.com/olney-hymns/1-97
