Dr. W. L. Watkinson, commending the Bible as the chart of life, gives
this illustration:
A famous Swiss guide was once interviewed. He was a man who
had never suffered an accident. Invariably he had brought his
parties successfully through the most ambitious undertakings.
The man who interviewed him spoke of the failures of other
guides. His reply to that was, “There are guides and guides.
One takes you up and trusts to luck. He is ready for anything,
but he does not know what is coming. He guesses where he is
when you ask him, ‘Where is the top?’ I never do that. Before I
start on a new track, or one I have not made before, I study it
thoroughly. I watch it through the glass until I know it. I make
a map of it. When I say, ‘Go,’ then I can see what is before me.
On the mountain I must always know where I am. If you come to
me for science, it is no good; but I must carry my map with me
and point, ‘We are here.’ I never start without my compass, my
thermometer, and my aneroid; so that when you come to me at any
moment and ask, ‘Where are we?’ I can say, ‘Here! and it is so
many feet to the top.’”
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