Subway to Elevated.
At a railway station where I often go there is in the platform a big, black hole. Over it is a sign, "Subway to the Street." You go down a flight of stone steps into a black tunnel. The tunnel bends and there is no hint of where it comes out, or that it ever does come out. But if you follow along the tunnel you speedily find yourself in a lovely, tree-bordered road, with a river on one side, and tennis grounds, and an elegant club-house.
In Boston it is still more striking; for there, if you want the "Elevated," you must go down into the subway. You must go far down beneath the street, and be whirled through a mile or so of tunnel before at length the car speeds up a long incline and out upon the trestlework, and you find yourself journeying along on a level with the chimneys. It was very damp and gloomy in the tunnel, but the change is instantaneous to fresh air and bright sunshine and wide views. Exhilaration and good cheer flash upon the soul as this transformation is wrought in your surroundings.
Thus often, in our journey through life, we must go down before we can go up, take the subway before we can reach the elevated. Down we must go into gloom and worry and depression of spirits, down into sickness and pain and peril, down into poverty, down into obscurity, down into loneliness, down into fear and doubt and profound misery.
But if our Guide goes with us in this descent, or if we call Him to us out of the depths, He will conduct us through the tunnel. Darkness will flash into sunshine, peril will become safety, turmoil will quiet into peace. Nothing in all the varied experiences of life is more glorious than this passing, under Christ's guidance, from the subway to the elevated.