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.