389 save when torn by the thorns of His Passion; yet come He did, He found, He redeemed them. They had slain, not Him so much, as themselves. They were saved by Him who was slain for them. For, as the Apostles spake, they were pricked;2955 they were pricked in con- science, who had pricked Him with the spear; and being pricked they sought for counsel, received it when it was given, repented, found grace, and believing drunk that Blood which in their fury they had shed. But they who have remained in this bad and barren race, even unto this day, and shall remain unto the end, were figured in that tree. You come to them at this day, and find with them all the writings of the Prophets. But these are but leaves; Christ is an hungred, and He seeketh for fruit; but findeth no fruit among them, because He doth not find Himself among them. For He hath no fruit, who hath not Christ. And he hath not Christ, who holdeth not to Christ’s unity, who hath not charity. And so by this chain he hath no fruit who hath not charity. Hear the Apostle, “Now the fruit of the Spirit is charity;” so setting forth the praise of this cluster, that is, of this fruit; “The fruit of the Spirit,” he says, “is charity, 2956 joy, peace, long-suffering.” Do not wonder at what follows, when charity leads the way. 2. Accordingly, when the disciples marvelled at the withering of the tree, He set forth to them the value of faith, and said to them, “If ye have faith, and doubt not;”2957 that is, if in all things ye have trust in God; and do not say, “God can do this, this He cannot do;” but rely on the omnipotence of the Almighty; “ye shall not only do this, but also if ye shall say to this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, it shall be done. And all things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.”2958 Now we read that miracles were wrought by the disciples, yea rather by the Lord through the disciples; for, “without Me,” He says, “ye can do nothing.”2959 The Lord could do many things without the disciples, but the disciples nothing without the Lord. He who could make2960 even the disciples themselves, was not certainly assisted by them to make them. We read then of the Apostles’ miracles, but we nowhere read of a tree being withered by them, nor of a mountain removed into the sea. Let us enquire therefore where this was done. For the words of the Lord could not be without effect. If ye are thinking of “trees” and “mountains” in their or- dinary and familiar sense, it has not been done. But if ye think of that tree of which He spake, and of that mountain of the Lord of which the Prophet said, “In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be manifest;”2961 if ye think of it, and understand it thus, it has 2955 Acts ii. 37. 2956 Gal. v. 22. 2957 Matt. xxi. 21. 2958 Matt. xxi. 22. 2959 John xv. 5. 2960 The meaning of “facio” as “to do,” and “to make,” cannot be expressed in our language. 2961 Isa. ii. 2. 812 On the words of the Gospel, Matt. xxi. 19, where Jesus dried up the fig-tree;…