By Their Fruits You Shall Know Them

Hard words, Lord Christ! For what good fruits bear I?
For all your care and tending, what my yield?
You gave me to a garden well concealed
and watered me from fountains set on high;
you fertilized me with a wondrous food
and sent a Wind to strengthen and make straight.
How patiently you prune and pollenate
with an expert arborist’s solicitude.
And still my good works fall to earth unfinished,
my produce often stunted, bruised, or dented,
the rot upon my nature’s root augmented
by blights I brought and beauties I diminished.
God grant when I know others by their fruits,
I also recollect how weak their roots.

Next
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

Christie’s Compelling Criminals

Mark Bauerlein

In the ​latest installment of the ongoing interview series with contributing editor Mark Bauerlein, Theodore Dalrymple joins…

Lethe

Forester McClatchey

He thought he saw her in the orchid houseand all the flowers seemed to disappear,but someone with…

On Suddenly Having Several Children

Daniel Luttrull

God never gives us more than we can take,”the midwife told us, after catching two—two—heartbeats in your…