O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. Jeremiah 10:23.

The road through Knight’s Canyon, always perilous to the inexperienced traveler, is often impassable in the rainy season.^{*Account of a journey from Healdsburg to St. Helena, California, made by Mrs. White and a friend, in December, 1881. Friends drove ahead to guide them through a dangerous pass.} We were very thankful for a pilot in this part of our journey. I dared not look either to the right or left to view the scenery, but, holding the lines firmly, and guiding my horse in the narrow passage, I followed our leader. Carelessness here would have been fatal. Had our horse turned out of the right path, we should have plunged down a steep precipice, into the ravine below.

As we rode along in almost breathless silence, I could but think how forcibly this dangerous ride illustrates the Christian’s experience. We are making life’s journey amid the perils of the last days. We need to watch carefully every step, and to be sure that we are following our great Leader. Skepticism, infidelity, dissipation, and crime are on every hand. It would be an easy matter to let go the reins of self-control, and plunge over the precipice to sure destruction….

Infinite Love has cast up a pathway upon which the ransomed of the Lord may pass from earth to heaven. That path is the Son of God. Angel guides are sent to direct our erring feet. Heaven’s glorious ladder is let down in every man’s path, barring his way to vice and folly. He must trample upon a crucified Redeemer ere he can pass onward to a life of sin. Our heavenly Father’s voice is calling us, Come up hither…. The humble, trusting ones are guided and protected in the way of peace. But He who is infinite in wisdom compels none to accept Heaven’s most precious gift—compels none to walk in the path which has been cast up at such a cost. Every one is permitted to choose for himself the narrow, shining steep that leads to heaven, or that broader and easier way which ends in death.^{10The Signs of the Times, January 26, 1882.}