From the day he granted me to read his divine word on my dear mother’s knees, to the hour He came to me as “the Gift of God,” He has not let a single day pass without speaking to me some of His warning and saving words. I have not always paid sufficient attention to His sweet voice, I confess it to my shame. My mind was so filled with the glittering sophisms of Rome, that many times I refused to yield to the still voice which was almost night and day heard in my soul. But my God was not repelled by my infidelities, as the reader will find in this book. When driven away in the morning, He came back in the silent hours of the night. For more than twenty-five years He forced me to see as a priest, the abominations which exist inside the walls of the modern Babylon. I may say, He took me by the lock of mine head, as He did with the prophet of old and said:
“Son of man, lift up thine eyes now the way towards the North and behold, northward at the gate of the altar, this image of Jealousy in the entry. He said furthermore unto me: Son of man, seest thou what they do, even the great abominations that the house of Israel committeth here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? But turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations. And he brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold a hole in the wall. Then said he unto me, son of man, dig now in the wall; and when I had digged in the wall, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here. So I went and saw; and behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed upon the walls round about. And there stood before them seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel, and in the midst of them stood Zaazaniah, the son of Shaphan, with every man his censer in his hand; and a thick cloud of incense went up.
“Then said he unto me: Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say the Lord has forsaken the earth. He said also unto me: turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than they do. Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.
“Then said he unto me: Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these. And he brought me into the inner court of the Lord’s house, and, behold, at the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs towards the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.
“Then he said unto me: Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? for they have filled the land with violence and have returned to provoke me into anger; and lo! they put the branch to their nose. Therefore, will I also deal in fury; mine eyes shall not spare, neither will I have pity; and they cry in mine ears, with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.” (Ezek. 8.)
I can say with John:
“One of the seven angels said unto me: I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters; with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornications. So he carried me away into the wilderness; and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast full of names of blasphemy having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: and upon her forhead was a name written: ‘Mystery, Babylon, the Great, the mother of the harlots and abominations of the earth.’ And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus; and when I saw her I wondered with great admiration.” (Rev. 17.)
And after the Lord had shown me all these abominations, he took me out as the eagle takes his young ones on his wings. He brought me into his beautiful and beloved Zion and he set my feet on the rock of my salvation. There, he quenched my thirst with the pure waters which flow from the fountains of eternal life, and he gave me to eat the true bread which comes from heaven.
Oh! that I might go all over the world, through this book, and say with the psalmist: “Come, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul.”
Let all the children of God who will read this book lend me their tongues to praise the Lord. Let them lend me their hearts, to love him. For, alone, I cannot praise him, I cannot love him as he deserves. When I look upon the seventy-eight years which have passed over me, my heart leaps for joy, for I find myself at the end of trials. I have nearly crossed the desert.