| W. Garrett Horder, comp. The Poets’ Bible: New Testament. 1895. | | | | The Barren Fig-Tree | | Stephen Greenleaf Bulfinch (1809–1870) |
| | ‘Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig-tree, and find none; cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?’—L UKE XIII. 7. |
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YEAR passeth after year, O Lord our God! | |
| Thy mercy spares us, and thy might sustains. | |
| Sometimes we feel the chastening of thy rod, | |
| Sometimes thy love with gentle voice complains. | |
| By turns thy sun hath smiled, thy storms have frowned, | 5 |
| No worthy fruit is ours, vain cumberers of the ground. | |
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| Shouldst thou in anger speak, Lord! who could stand | |
| Before thy justice in its dreadful hour? | |
| Who could endure the thunders of thy hand, | |
| What human might arrest thy sovereign power? | 10 |
| Spare us, O God, thy mercy we implore! | |
| Grant to the barren tree space for one trial more. | |
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| One trial more! If then we bear no fruit, | |
| O God of justice! who shall longer stay | |
| Thine arm? Behold the axe is at the root. | 15 |
| O let Repentance prune our faults away. | |
| Thy grace, O Lord! in plenteous showers descend, | |
| And bid the rescued boughs with clustering honors bend. | | | |
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