The grace if actions cannot prove

The grace if actions cannot prove,
Will words demonstrate perfect love?
And if there no criterion be,
How shall we e’er discern the tree?
But actions evidently show
The stock distinct on which they grow,
The saint’s, or sinner’s heart explain;
Or God laid down a test in vain.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘The tree is known by its fruit.’—Matt. 12, v. 33.” This hymn appears in the 1766 manuscript “MS Matthew.” This manuscript is part of the collection of the Methodist Archive and Research Centre in The John Rylands Library, The University of Manchester (accession number MA 1977/577, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 3). Accessed through the website of The Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition, Duke Divinity School. Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 10 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870), page 263.
Publishing: Public Domain