One Awful Word Which Jesus Spoke

One aw­ful 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Without the fruit the Lord ex­pects

Knowledge will make our state the worse;

The bar­ren trees He still re­jects

And soon will blast them with His curse.

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.