The Anchor

MY YOUNG FRIENDS: I want to talk to you to-day about a very important subject. The Bible speaks of hope, and says, “Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil.” (Hebrew, 6: 19). I suppose most of you have been on board a ship or large boat. Very near the bow, or front end of the boat, you have doubtless noticed a chain, at the end of which was an anchor, made in the form of this one which I hold in my hand.

Now, I would not care to go out to sea on any ship which did not have an anchor on board. In crossing the Atlantic you may sometimes be out for days and weeks, and sometimes even for months, and have no need of using the anchor. But all the time, while the weather is pleasant and everything is moving along prosperously, the fact that the anchor is on board the ship and that it can be used in time of danger, gives a sense of security to all the passengers.

If it were not there you would constantly fear, lest the storm might come, and then your ship might be lost with its many hundreds of lives on board, simply because it had no anchor. Every man and woman, and every boy and girl, needs to have hope as an anchor to his soul. We should have faith in God, and then at times when all is well, when we are prosperous and blest, and everything goes along like the ship in pleasant weather, we will constantly have peace and rest in our minds and hearts, because we know that our hope is staid on God, and that though the world be removed, yet God will not disappoint us.

Some people seem to think that religion is a good thing to have when they get sick, or adversity or sorrow or great affliction comes. But the fact is that religion is a necessary thing at all times.

We need it when we are well and strong, as well as when we are sick and weak. We need it in this world, and we need religion to live by, as well as to die by, and for our salvation in the world to come. The anchor is very serviceable indeed in time of storm. Often it has to be used in order to secure the ship and save the lives of all who are on board.

If it were not for the anchor the ship might be thrust upon the rocks, or it might be dashed to pieces by the waves that break upon the coast. The anchor is oftentimes very serviceable. So it is with the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ. When trials and perplexities and adversities come, as they do in every life, then it is that this anchor is a source of very great blessing, because it saves us from shipwreck, on account of unbelief and the perplexities into which those are cast who have no hope, or trust in God.

To be serviceable the anchor must take hold of something. If it simply drags along it will not hold the ship; but the ship may go to pieces on the rocks, even though it has an anchor, which has already been cast over.

Now in time of sorrow and perplexity or distress, every one throws out an anchor. That is, he tries to take hold of something which will sustain him and keep him, just the same as a boy who falls into the water would grab after a board.

They say that a drowning man will even grasp after a straw in order to help to support his body, so that he may save his life. So every one in perplexity reaches out to lay hold of something. But the text which I quoted in the beginning says that this hope which we have as an anchor to the soul lays hold of something, and that something is the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is like the ship, whose anchor goes down, far below the waves, deep down out of sight, and lays hold of the rocks which form the foundation of the earth. So the faith of the Christian is staid, not on the things which are seen, but on the things which are not seen.

As the text expresses it, it lays hold of those things “which entereth into that which is within the veil.” That is, this figure refers to the Temple at Jerusalem, when the Holy of the Holies was concealed from the rest of the Temple by a large curtain or veil, and no one was permitted to go into this Holy of Holies except the High Priest, and he but once a year.

But when you and I have the faith of the Christian, although we may not be able to enter into the great mystery of God’s grace and mercy, yet our faith lays hold of that which is beyond our understanding, and beyond our possibility to see or fully to comprehend, and thus our faith lays hold of that which is within the veil. With our understanding, you and I cannot enter into the mysteries of God, but by faith we can enter into them.

I trust that every boy and girl here will have that faith in God, which will be as an anchor to his soul, sure and steadfast, entering within the veil at all times.