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THE PILOT'S ANSWER

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 17, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 16.

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THE PILOT'S ANSWER.

MANY waste precious time studying error, owing to the idea that one must understand all the windings of error in order to be prepared to escape it, or that one needs to see the evil side of life in order to be able to teach others to shun the evil and to appreciate the good. The true principle is well illustrated by the old story of the pilot.
A traveler stood watching a pilot on a river steamer, and at length asked him, “How long have you been running on these waters?”
“About twenty years.”
“Then I suppose you know every rock, and shoal, and bank, and place of danger?”
“No, I don't.”
“You don't!” exclaimed the passenger in alarm. “Then what do you know?”
And there was a world of meaning in the pilot's answer: “I know where the deep water is.”