We find a tall and sickly stalk,
But not the fruitful ear.
4 The beaten path and highway-side
Receive the trust in vain ;
The watchful birds the spoil divide,
And pick up all the grain.
5 But where the Lord of grace and power
Has bless d the happy field,
How plenteous is the golden store
The deep-wrought furrows yield !
6 Father of mercies, we have need
Of thy preparing grace ;
Let the same hand that gives the seed
Provide a fruitful place.
86.
The Wheat and Tares.—Matt, xiii, 37-42.
1 THOUGH in the outward church below
The wheat and tares together grow,
Jesus ere long will weed the crop,
And pluck the tares in anger up.
2 Will it relieve their horrors there
To recollect their stations here
How much they heard, how much they knew,
How long amongst the wheat they grew ?
3 Oh ! this will aggravate their case ;
They perish d under means of grace ;
To them the word of life and faith
Became an instrument of death.
4 We seem alike when thus we meet,
Strangers might think we all are wheat ;
But to the Lord s all-searching eyes
Each heart appears without disguise.
5 The tares are spared for various ends ;
Some for the sake of praying friends,
Others the Lord, against their will,
Employs his counsels to fulfill.
