Mr. World and Miss Church-Member: A Twentieth Century AllegoryHarris, W. S. (William Shuler)
Religion
Mr. World and Miss Church-Member: A Twentieth Century Allegory
Harris, W. S. (William Shuler)
Christian fiction
2. A description of the “Century Session” held by the demons having
in charge the Theatre interests of Satan.
The College of Theatres lay between the second and third divisions of
the Schools of Literature. The numerous structures were built on so
large a scale, and after such winning designs, that the attention of
many travelers was attracted to them and thereby to the performances
given within their walls.
Here could be found some of the graduates of the Schools of Literature
who were constantly engaged on one or another of the stages.
All these theatrical attractions belonged to the first grade and formed
a part of a great system of Theatres which lay in seven grades, one
below the other, each serving its part to engross the human mind with
the carnal and sensual things of life.
The performances of the first grade were practically free from the
vulgar touches found, with increasing intensity, as one goes downward
toward the seventh grade which lay beneath the Midway in the Valley
of Temptation.
In these Satanic Theatres of the first grade respectability is
maintained purposely so as to ensnare as many professing Christians
as possible, for there are many in the ranks of the church who are
building with nothing but wood, hay, and stubble. The scheme works so
well that the Devil is trying to form a “Stage Trust,” and get all the
talent of the King’s Highway to unite. Thus Satan seems to encourage
morality in order to carry out his deeply laid schemes of moral
pollution.
I looked into the inward workings of this terrible system. I saw
multitudes descending downward from the first grade, many of whom
ceased not until they had passed through all the seven grades. The
scenes and revelations that came to my eyes beggar all description.
My heart sickened as I beheld the millions wallowing in the mire of
fleshly lusts, apparently living for no higher purpose than to see the
latest novelties of expressing lewdness and sensuality.
“This is brute life, indeed,” I soliloquized, “for it can be easily
seen that the hearts of these people are so seared and their ears so
dull that they have no desire for the music of celestial choirs, or
the ecstacies that rise from heart-communion with God.”
I also saw that there were numberless underground connections between
the lower Theatres and the Schools of Suicide, and with the varied
haunts of Prostitution that infested the whole region.
This startling fact also forced its way to my attention:--_the money
flowing from the entire seven grades fell into one treasury_, so that
they who moved in the supposed moral atmosphere of the first and second
grades were, nevertheless, patrons of the whole iniquitous business.
At once I thought of the churches that were in sympathy, or league,
with this part of the work along the Broad Highway. And I inwardly
uttered these sad sentences:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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