Consider, LORD, the work that you began

Consider, LORD, the work that you began
To do in us so many years ago:
Is it for naught, to bear no fruit but woe?
Was this the end for us, was this the plan
Divine that we, with hopes that more than span
A decade of your providence, forgo
The final fruit, content only to know
You more, through barren drought's demand
A deeper root possess? But does Your Word
Itself not say by fruit our faith is known?
Then come encompass this our faith and gird
Its tree with fruit; and let the earth be shown
The end of faith 'til all the earth has heard
The Word, and all its final fruit is borne.