"How long have you known the Lord?" was asked of a friend of mine, an old man, in Salem.
"About three weeks, sir; but I have been forty years sewing fig leaves together."
There is a great deal expressed in these few words. Thousands are employed in, -the same profitless work as my poor old friend.
Yes, thousands are occupied in the useless business of sewing fig leaves together. The man who is trying to save his soul by means of rites and ceremonies, ordinances and sacraments, church-going and mission-work, is just sewing fig leaves together. So also is the man or woman who is building upon prayers, fasting, and almsdeeds—just sewing fig leaves together.
These things have a place; but, as a foundation for the soul to rest upon for pardon and peace—as a title wherewith to draw nigh to a holy and righteous God—as a ground on which to build for eternity—
they are, in very truth, but sewing fig leaves together. All who trust in them for salvation will find them to be "nothing but leaves" when it is too late.
To possess true, solid, divine peace, the soul must rest simply on God and on His Word. Nothing else will—nothing else can—avail. Nothing can give peace but that which is of God.
"For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: