“Seest thou,” continued my guide, “with what cunning Satan hath builded this tower? By its exterior beauty he gaineth the confidence of the unwary, and thus winneth countless thousands to his cause. And seest thou the depth to which it reaches, not six thousand feet below us, but ten times six thousand feet, into the bowels of the earth?”
Then could I see, at a glance, the whole under-ground dominions stretching their borders far, wide, and deep. There was a small empire of groveling imps, each bent on the work of his particular branch.
“Look thou now into the apartments of those ponderous wheels,” directed my glorious guide.
Neither metal nor granite obstructed my vision. I saw delicate and complex machinery, and half-human creatures in league with mortal man, all bending to their tasks.
“They all work in league with the Devil’s Optical College. The inventive genius of Hell hath contrived, in these graded departments, all the modern lenses that are so terribly warping the vision of an alarming number in the church and the world.
“And seest thou,” continued the angel, as he pointed to a far section of the city, “those inventors plying their ingenuity in behalf of Satan’s Medical Colleges and Hospitals?
“And also witness, in that nearer section, the viler groups at work inventing snares and traps for Satan’s allies to use in catching Heaven-bound pilgrims.
“Also behold,” he continued, turning to another part of the city, “that special class of geniuses who work for Satan’s general emissaries as they journey far and wide to do exploits. How terribly they influence the weaker servants of our King!”
Then I stood gazing, as the angel continued his interpreting, until I had seen the foul workings of this whole city.
I was so filled with a mixture of grief and indignation that I cried out in painful anguish: “Why does not God send thunderbolts from his eternal throne, and smite this city to fragments?”