We are nearing the end of a mighty and tempestuous voyage. We are about to enter the harbor. The storm increases as we near our haven. We have many times cast an anchor till the fury of the gale had spent itself. The question is often asked on shipboard; while faces are white with fear and anxiety, “Will the anchor hold?” Life or death may be in the answer. No wonder the cheek is blanched and the lips pinched, and the tongue almost refuses to articulate. But does your anchor hold now while every embattled element of sin, strife, confusion, and deception is striving to throw you upon the rocks of everlasting destruction? Eternal life, or unending death, hangs on the true answer to that question. If it holds, God’s purpose in you and for you will triumph. If it fails to hold, then defeat is written over all that you might have been. Every wind of doctrine that Satan can cause to blow will be struggling to snap your anchor chain or break your anchor hold. They will assail your bark from every point of the compass, and try every possible wrench or strain to throw your bark upon the rocks. Sea captains, in times of exceptional danger, have been known to slip their anchor chain to escape it, but not when the tide and the wind are setting strongly toward the rocks. This is such a time. The danger is great, but it is not a danger that we can escape by slipping the anchor chain. If your anchor is fast in the Rock Christ Jesus, no storm can destroy you. If you let go your hold, if you slip your anchor, nothing can save you. Christ will never allow the storm to break your hold on Him. He will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able to bear—above what He can strengthen you to bear. But He will not hold you against your will; He will not strengthen you for a stand you are unwilling to make. If you drift from His holding, it is because you have let go your hold on Him. There is blessed peace in being in that place where you can say, “I know Him whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to guard that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” If we commit our soul—our life—to Him, He is able to keep that, to guard that, to guard and keep us. The Rock to which you anchored when you accepted Christ can never be moved, tho the islands sink in the sea and the earth be shaken out of its place.8Never waver, never doubt it; do not weigh anchor for a moment thinking to cast it in some surer spot. Do not slip your anchor chain for one moment, thinking thus to run from any danger that seems to threaten. He is “the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.” “In none other is there salvation; for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved.” Acts 4:12. Verily, “the foundation of God standeth sure.” Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” 1 Cor. 3:11. So outside of Him there is no hope; so outside of Him there is no anchorage for the soul. The last great storm of the long voyage is now on. You are riding it out at anchor, and the rocks are near. Eternal life depends on whether that anchor holds, whether you choose to trust your all to Him and rest in His keeping, or whether you let go your hold on Him and His Word, and seek unhelped to work your weak way out of the terrible maelstrom, out of the foaming breakers, out of the very jaws of death itself. If Satan can induce you to do that, he has compassed your overthrow; for the maelstrom is his, the storm is his, the breakers are his, and you have taken yourself out of the hands of Christ and are drifting into his. You can not afford to do it. Better see to it that your anchor holds, and then rest your soul in the peaceful arms of His keeping.