Four Anchors
H)AUL7S voyage to Rome is one of those graphic episodes in the Word of God which never loses its interest. It not merely throws a strong light upon ancient navigation, but it affords a strong confirmation of the truthfulness of Luke’s “Book of the Acts of the Apostles.77 Modern nautical surveys and soundings establish every word that Luke has written. But the narrative is susceptible of rich spiritual instruction. The perils of the voyage of life and the divinely-appointed methods of deliverance are strikingly illustrated. Especially is there a wealth of practical teaching in the twenty-ninth verse, which tells us how the mariners in the tempest-tossed ship” cast four anchors out of the stern and wished for the day.77
Some shallow critics have jeered at the idea of anchoring a vessel from the stern. But an ancient painting on the walls of Herculanaeum depicts a galley anchored in that manner. Modern mariners in the Mediterranean pursue the same practice. It is said that Lord Nelson got the idea of anchoring his fleet from the stern in the battle of Copenhagen from reading the twenty-seventh chapter of The Acts. Certainly the endangered crew had a better chance of safety if the dawning of the day found them already headed toward the shore. What a long night must that have been to the drenched and weary voyagers, while they listened to the thunder of the breakers! Paul, the prisoner, is the real master of the situation and the coolest head on board. His precious life is insured from Heaven, for every good man “is immortal until his work is finished.” It was a part of the providential plan that those anchors should preserve the most valuable life on the globe until Paul’s mighty mission was accomplished.
But what are the four anchors which we voyagers to eternity must use when overtaken by the Euroclydons of temptation and trial? The first and foremost one is Faith. This is the soul’s sure trust in an unseen God. Looking at a vessel around whose bows the billows are foaming, we may wonder what holds her so steady in the teeth of the gale; for we do not see the stubborn anchor which, many fathoms down, is grappling with its flukes into the solid earth. That secure vessel is an “evidence of things not seen” below the surface of the angry sea. And this is the Bible definition of faith. The assailed believer does not anchor to his own good resolution nor to the support of other men. He takes strong hold on the precious promises of God and the everlasting strength. Other people see and admire his fortitude, his constancy, his composure; but God alone beholds the “anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, which entereth into that which is within the veil.” With a genuine Christian, the sorer the trial the stronger is the trust. When Martin Luther was struck by a heavy head sea, he used to let slip the cable of the forty-sixth Psalm. The eleventh chapter of the Hebrews is the thrilling record of a whole line of spiritual navigators whose anchor of faith never dragged.
In Great Britain no shipmaster is permitted to use an anchor which has not been tested and stamped with a government mark. If we wish to know whether our faith has the King’s mark on it, we must examine his Word. A spurious faith, full of flaws, can not be relied on in a hurricane. The metal of our faith, so to speak, must be from God’s Scripture-foundry. It must be lowered with entire trust upon God, and not upon ourselves. It must fasten itself to the everlasting veracity and power and love of the Almighty. Every link in the chain cable is a divine promise. When in the darkest night we heave out this anchor we may wait confidently for the dawning of the day.
(2.) But no faith can avail us if it be not accompanied by godliness of practice. We require, therefore, the second anchor of a godly conscience. Loyalty to the principles of God’s Word, loyalty to the everlasting right, must be imbedded in the conscience and control the conduct, or else we drift upon the rocks. Faith without godly works is dead. It has been the lack of this loyalty of conscience to truth and honesty and right which has, in these late years, strewed the beach with the pitiable wrecks of disgraced church-members. It is not strength of intellect that saves a man, or the surroundings of society, or alliance with a church, or even orthodoxy of belief. All these have proved but cables of straw attached to anchors of clay. We must have a conscience taught of God and held by God, or we drift upon the lee shore. No one is safe in business, or safe in public life, or safe in private morality, when he loosens his life from God’s commandments. God never insures a man, even in the Church, except while his anchor is fastened to the divine principles of right, with the cable of practical obedience.
It is not the gale which carries so many on the rocks or the quicksands. It is the silent under-current. One person drifts into dishonest practices, sanctioned by “the trade”; another into neglect of secret prayer; another feels the clutch of sensual temptations on the keel, but takes no alarm until he strikes the rock and a hideous rent is discovered in his character. The under-current of worldliness is powerful in these times and productive of no little backsliding. The world gets strong hold upon the Christian professor’s keel and his conscience loses its hold on Christ. Silently and surely he swims, as over a sea of glass, until he — strikes! The friendship of the world is the enmity of God.
(3.) That was a tedious night of peril and gloom which laid upon Paul and his shipmates; but they held out and waited for the day. Methinks one of their four anchors might well have been named Patience. We, too, have need of patience. It is that staying power in the soul, that “long-mindedness” (as Paul called it, in his Epistle to Colosse)
which endures a continued strain without flinching. Mark how much the Old Testament makes of ‘’waiting patiently on God.” In the New Testament the word is endurance. He that endureth to the end shall be saved. In this Jesus Christ is our illustrious example. How steadily he bore every thing until he reached that supreme “bearing of our sins’7 and sorrows upon Calvary’s cross!
“There is no pain that I can bear,
But thou, my Lord, hast borne it;
No robe of scorn that I can wear,
But thou, my Lord, hast worn it.”
(4.) The twin sister of Patience is Hope. The sorely- tried patience of the tempest-tost company would have given out, except for the expectation of the morning light. We are saved by hope; saved from utter recklessness and despair. The Christian’s hope is founded on the sure, unwavering promise that, though weeping may last through the night, joy cometh in the morning. Brother believer! let the storm howl its worst and our canvas snap to ribbons. If we have committed every thing to Jesus, we shall all reach land. This hope we have as an anchor sure and steadfast. But God pity the soul that is risking its eternity upon the broken anchor of a false hope!
A grand sight is an old weather-beaten and battle-bruised ship — like “Old Ironsides” or Lord Nelson’s “Victory” — which has ended its cruise and swung its anchors at the bow. So will Christ’s fleet of triumphant souls lie in the desired haven, upon the sea of crystal, and in the silver light of Heaven’s morning! Over us will be proclaimed those glorious words: “Here is the patience of the saints! Here are they who kept the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus!”