One aweful word which Jesus spoke, <br />Against the tree which bore no fruit; <br />More piercing than the lightning's stroke, <br />Blasted and dried it to the root. <br /> <br />But could a tree the Lord offend, <br />To make him show his anger thus? <br />He surely had a farther end, <br />To be a warning word to us. <br /> <br />The fig-tree by its leaves was known, <br />But having not a fig to show; <br />It brought a heavy sentence down, <br />Let none hereafter on thee grow. <br /> <br />Too many, who the gospel hear, <br />Whom Satan blinds and sin deceives; <br />We to this fig-tree may compare, <br />They yield no fruit, but only leaves. <br /> <br />Knowledge, and zeal, and gifts, and talk, <br />Unless combined with faith and love, <br />And witnessed by a gospel walk, <br />Will not a true profession prove. <br /> <br />Without the fruit the Lord expects <br />Knowledge will make our state the worse; <br />The barren trees he still rejects, <br />And soon will blast them with his curse. <br /> <br />O Lord, unite our hearts in prayer! <br />On each of us thy Spirit send; <br />That we the fruits of grace may bear, <br />And find acceptance in the end.<br /><br />John Newton<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-blasted-fig-tree/
