While spending a vacation in the mountains of southern California, I started out alone one morning on a foot journey to a resort a considerable distance away. The weather had been very severe shortly before and had worn away almost entirely the narrow ledge over which the trail led at one point. Many bushes and shrubs had concealed the fact that the path lay above a sheer precipice of fully two thousand feet. Suddenly I noticed the immense distance below and found that I would have to make a skillful leap in order to cross to a point where the path continued. I was overcome with a sense of dizziness such as I had never before known. The trail seemed too narrow even to make it possible for me to turn around or to sit down that I might rest and do my mental work more conveniently. I could only bury my head in my arms against the rocky cliff and try to work in spite of my trembling and the feeling that I must surely fall.
It was not long before the truth became clear to me through the declaration of "the scientific statement of being" from page 468 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by our dear Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, and as though in answer, the following words stood out in my thought as clearly as though a voice were speaking: Look at the path and only at the path!
Obeying this admonition, I did so, noticing with sudden interest that the path was covered with pebbles and small stones of bright colors prettily flecked with mica. Involuntarily I stooped to pick up a few, and in doing so I unconsciously turned completely around in the direction from which I had come, a thing I had until then thought it impossible to do. I began retracing my steps, greatly relieved from fear, the inner voice constantly commanding me to look at the path. I did so until I reached a place of safety from which I could view the spot from which, I realized most gratefully, I had been delivered through faith in God's power revealed by Christian Science.
