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
In the third division of the lecture the Prince of Darkness showed his
skill in manipulating the utterances of the speaker. By a second series
of illustrated charts the lecturer intended to show how alcoholic
beverages, in coursing through the human system, benefited the heart
rather than injured it. In trying to establish this point he used the
subtlest sophistry of Satan.
Through the three divisions of the discourse I heard vigorous applause,
and when, in the smooth language of his final climax, he uttered the
last word and was returning to his seat, there was a deafening roar
from all parts of the vast hall. To the mind of Miss Church-Member the
argument of Dr. Strauss was unanswerable, and consequently she was
obliged to revise her radical opinions on the temperance question; and
not only she, but a host of others from the ranks of the Christian
church were influenced similarly.
After leaving this hall the happy pair spent a long time in passing
through some of the other buildings of the group. _Miss Church-Member
was so filled with the doctrines of the Devil that she thought of going
as a missionary to the pilgrims of the Narrow Way._
During their visit at the Temperance College Mr. World conducted his
ever-faithful friend through some of the fashionable temperance-saloons
connected with the institution.
Miss Church-Member would not have entered and much less indulged in
the questionable beverages, had she not been so strongly influenced
by the prolonged visit at the section of the group devoted to the study
of “_Temperate and Intemperate Drinks._”
I was sorely vexed at the operations of this whole college and, looking
at Blackana, I said impatiently:
“How can your comrades find delight in such an impish work--covering
truth and scattering hellish sophistry abroad?”
“Delight?” repeated Blackana. “This world is but the Devil’s Heaven,
and those in his kingdom find chiefest delight in thorns, and not in
flowers; in spinning sophistry, and not in dead things like truth and
logic.”
CHAPTER XV.
INFERNAL SCHOOL SYSTEM.
1. A general view of the vast University of the World with all its
subordinate operations. All working in harmony to destroy the good
that God would do in the world.
The University of the World is so extensive that one could not visit
all its parts during the course of a life-time, but there is a place
called the Magic Observatory whence an observer can have a bird’s-eye
view of all the principal scholastic operations of the Broad Highway.
The Observatory is owned and controlled by careful agents of Satan who
will allow only certain persons to get the benefit of so extensive a
view.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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