Anchored to the Rock by F. A. Noble

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 6, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 42.

Anchored to the Rock.

By F. A. Noble

Readers of Darwin will recall the description he gives of a marine plant which rises from a depth of one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet, and floats on the surface of the water in the midst of the great breakers of the western ocean. The stem of this plant is less than an inch through; yet it grows and thrives and holds its own against the fierce smitings and pressures of breakers which no masses of rock, however hard, could long withstand. What is the secret of this marvelous resistance and endurance? How can this slender plant face the fury of the elements so successfully, and, in spite of storms and tempests, keep its hold, and perpetuate itself from century to century? The answer has leaped to every lip: It reaches down into the still depths, where it fixes its grasp after the fashion of the instinct that has been put into it, to the naked rocks; and no commotion of the upper waters can shake it from its fastenings.

When a man has deep and inner clingings to God, when the roots of his life go down and take hold on God, mere surface agitation and pressures will not overcome him. He may be floated here and there within a given sweep, like a plant bosomed on the sea, and there may be times when it is very rough, and the strain is great, but he will survive it all and preserve his integrity.—Dr. F. A. Noble.