Praying for Fruitfulness

Representative Text

1 Jesus, to thee I make my moan;
My doleful tale I tell to thee;
For thou canst help, and thou alone,
A lifeless lump of sin like me.

2 Fain would I find increase of faith;
Fain would I see fresh graces bloom;
But ah! my heart’s a barren heath,
Blasted with cold, and black with gloom.

3 True, thou hast kindly given me light;
I know what Christians ought to be;
But did the blind receive their sight
Nothing but dismal things to see?

4 Though winter waste the earth awhile,
Spring soon revives the verdant meads;
The ripening fields in summer smile,
And autumn with rich crops succeeds;

5 But I from month to month complain;
I feel no warmth; no fruits I see;
I look for life, but dead remain:
’Tis winter all the year with me.

6 [Yet sin’s rank weeds within me live;
Barrenness is not all I bear;
I do not so for nothing grieve:
Alas! there’s worse than nothing there.]

7 Still on thy promise I’ll rely,
From whom alone my fruit is found,
Until the Spirit from on high
Enrich the dry and barren ground.

Source: A Selection of Hymns for Public Worship. In four parts (10th ed.) (Gadsby's Hymns) #875

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Author: J. Hart

Hart, Joseph, was born in London in 1712. His early life is involved in obscurity. His education was fairly good; and from the testimony of his brother-in-law, and successor in the ministry in Jewin Street, the Rev. John Hughes, "his civil calling was" for some time "that of a teacher of the learned languages." His early life, according to his own Experience which he prefaced to his Hymns, was a curious mixture of loose conduct, serious conviction of sin, and endeavours after amendment of life, and not until Whitsuntide, 1757, did he realize a permanent change, which was brought about mainly through his attending divine service at the Moravian Chapel, in Fetter Lane, London, and hearing a sermon on Rev. iii. 10. During the next two years ma… Go to person page >

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