THE writer of the epistle to the Hebrews, counseling the brethren to be diligent in seeking the full meaning of the Christian hope, following the example "of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises" of God, urges them "to lay hold upon the hope set before us: which hope," he says, "we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil."
Those who have turned to divine Love seeking to lay hold upon the rich promises held out by Christian Science, learn that this "anchor of the soul" must be cast into the spiritual realm wherein is the presence and power of the Most High. The ever alert and careful navigator of a ship, when encountering a storm while in the vicinity of shoals and sand bars, will head his vessel into deep water, and there cast anchor and rest securely until the storm is over. Then he may safely enter the narrow channel that winds through the shallow depths. We, too, navigating our "bark upon the ever-agitated but healthful waters of truth" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 254), when nearing shoals of malice, criticism, and other bars of mesmeric mortal belief or seeming obstructions to our safe progress, will have need for our anchor; and if alert to suggested dangers we shall rest upon this sure hope until the winds of greed, selfishness, and hate have spent themselves.
Our Leader says (ibid., pp. 40, 41), "The nature of Christianity is peaceful and blessed, but in order to enter into the kingdom, the anchor of hope must be cast beyond the veil of matter into the Shekinah into which Jesus has passed before us; and this advance beyond matter must come through the joys and triumphs of the righteous as well as through their sorrows and afflictions." How comforting it is to know that, however much our bark may seem to be buffeted on the tempest-tossed sea of the world's evil thinking, we are not navigating a channel unmarked or uncharted; for the Way-shower has gone before and left for us warning buoys, pointing out every obstruction, and from the fullness of his love has illumined the passage with instructions that no earnest seeker can mistake.
