Sink New Shafts.
We are told that in the Pennsylvania anthracite region alone there are 7,000 miles of old tunnels that are now useless and a heavy expense to the operators. All the coal that can be reached by them was long ago removed. Nevertheless, the miners must keep water out of them, lest the accumulation flood the present workings, and they must pump fresh air into them lest gas form there and stretch out its deadly fumes into the tunnels that are being worked. And, of course, these 7,000 miles in the anthracite region must be multiplied several times to reach the total for the great bituminous coal fields.
An immense amount of timber has been locked up in these abandoned tunnels to bolster them up. Mine timbers and lumber cost the large sum of five million dollars every year. The Pennsylvania mountains have been stripped of trees for this purpose and now the Southern mountains are called upon for their contribution.
What an expense all this is may be seen from the fact that a single company spent more than half a million dollars and dug eight miles of tunnel before it took out a single pound of coal.
All of this has its precise analogy in the conduct of life. When we begin to do active work, the coal and ore of our minds and souls are near the surface. Almost spontaneously we give forth thoughts and feelings and acts.
Later, however, as we mine farther back in our natures, we find we are constructing tunnels. We are less spontaneous and more thoughtful. We have methods to follow, processes to respect, theories to serve, precedents to regard, our past to think about as well as our present and our future.
And if we are not careful these tunnels of ours will prevent us from doing our best work and furnishing to the world the output which they have a right to expect from us. We shall be spending our time and energy in the upkeep of ourselves, and shall supply the world with little that is really valuable.
What we need is now and then a fresh shaft. We need to make a different vent for our thoughts and powers. We need to reach our soul from a novel angle. We need to explore ourselves and the world from a new direction.
It costs a lot to sink a shaft a mile into the earth, and engineers will not do it unless it is positively necessary; but it is an easy thing to sink a new shaft in spiritual mining. The Bible is full of guides for new shafts; so is practical life. Every reform, every crying need of the world, every impulse of the every-young Spirit of God, bids us sink new shafts and tells us where to sink them.
There is no excuse for trudging over and over the same damp, dark, empty tunnels. Drive new ones, leading out of a brave new shaft! They will open up fresh veins of interest and profit, and you will be a spiritual millionaire before you know it.