The Blasted Fig-Tree

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 further 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.