THE twenty-third Psalm has become especially dear to the adherents of Christian Science, because of its clear and inspired restatement by Mrs. Eddy in Science and Health, where she inserts the word "Love" with such wonderful effect. Under the illumination of this quickened mode of conception, many passages gain in depth of meaning; for instance, the verse: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for [Love] is with me; [Love's] rod and [Love's] staff they comfort me" (p. 578).
An experience in early life, the impression of which has not faded even though many years have passed, may serve for an illustration of this text, as it has proved a means of stimulating courage and reviving hope in many difficult situations. At the close of a beautiful summer day, which had been pleasantly spent on a mountain in Switzerland, a company of men, women, and children undertook to find their way back to their vacation home, a small inn situated in a beautiful valley. When the evening shadows began to fall, it became evident that the road had been missed, and with the coming of night it seemed certain that what had been feared was inevitable; the party had strayed into the stony bed of a mountain torrent, which might possibly lead to the desired destination, but just as likely in an opposite direction and then into totally unknown regions. In any event this dry torrent bed, completely filled with stone, in all particulars unfamiliar, might teem with unspeakable dangers, leading perhaps into inaccessible canyons or over precipitous cliffs in its devious and seemingly endless windings.
Even to the more courageous men it appeared like a well-nigh impossible undertaking to lead the party onward in the darkness, but the women and children were so discouraged that to them nothing seemed left to do but to await where they were, in patient resignation, the approach of their doom. This frame of mind was so confusing that it did not occur to any one that only a few hours later would bring another day and its joyous light, which necessarily would end all the perils of the situation. Their thought could only dwell on dangers and difficulties, caverns and possible pools, and in this condition it was the task of a hero finally to get all under way. Tall dark pines loomed on both sides and the abrupt mountain slopes towered aloft, allowing scarcely a glimpse of a few coldly glittering stars on the night's inky sky. The only available road was the bed of the torrent, in which rocks were heaped, shapeless and vague, and the hesitating travelers slipped and stumbled over stones and pebbles, some round, some sharp, some firm, others movable; the foot sometimes dipped into water, and again it was plunged into a hole or pinched in a crevice.
