Thus I observed the heedless throng from the Valley of Conviction being attracted by the music and pa.s.sing through the pleasure grounds, while an alarmingly large number attended the churches in the fork of the roads. A few stoics, without pausing, pa.s.sed on along the Broad Highway.

Only a few, comparatively, could be persuaded to turn their steps toward the King's Highway.

Mr. World and Miss Church-Member stood for a long time watching the ever-changing panorama of the surging crowds. He was desirous of visiting the groves, but Miss Church-Member was too piously inclined.

So they were halting between these two desires when a saintly looking person approached them.

"To what place are you journeying?" the beautiful stranger asked.

"We are journeying to a place called Heaven," promptly answered Miss Church-Member.

"Congratulations, indeed," spoke the stranger as he smiled. "You belong to the better cla.s.s of travelers. Some, I fear, who go this way will miss Heaven. They are too much attracted by the frivolities of life and never have a desire to go to church."

"But we love the church," spoke up Mr. World. "However we have had little time and no opportunity to enter one for some time."

"You are welcome to the services in one of yonder buildings," said the stranger as he pointed toward the group of the Devil's churches. "There you can listen with pleasure and profit to the latest style of preaching, and the special music will prove entertaining. You should, without fail, attend church, or you will never increase in spiritual knowledge."

Without further hesitation the two pushed their way through the crowd and entered one of the churches where they were greeted warmly and ushered to a prominent seat.

The minister had already begun to speak and was growing eloquent as he warmed to his theme. They listened with absorbing interest to every word that fell from his lips.

"Into this church," the minister said, "come the wearied of heart, troubled perchance with inward fears resulting from the weird occurrences along the pathway through the Valley of Conviction. We bid you cast aside your thoughts of trouble and be at peace. There is a calmness you should covet untouched by such conviction.

"They who sing and preach in that valley are low subjects of ignorance and folly, and happy for you if you succeed in totally forgetting all you saw or heard while pa.s.sing through. Why should you worry about your condition? Are you not good enough? You have come hither from respectable parents, perhaps received Christian baptism, and can easily distinguish between right and wrong. Why should cruel daggers now pierce your heart? What you have done or expect to do is surely pleasing to your G.o.d. If you belong to the church, you are doubly safe. Let time change, or worlds fall, the church will stand forever. If you continue faithful here, you will have a glorious end; only be not influenced by the contemptible advocates of the Narrow Way, who show their vanity by their professions of superior sanct.i.ty. Be satisfied with the good, old, staid principles of this church, and be not swept away by every wind of doctrine that is blasting the earth with its sulphurous breath. Rejoice in your pilgrimage and let conviction no longer sadden your life."

After continuing at some length in this strain, the minister announced that a quartette would render an appropriate selection just received from the mountain-tops of Apathy.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Devil's Auction Here many church members, and others, pay their all for a few baubles of worldly pleasure.] The congregation seemed to be greatly pleased as these words were sung with a show of sentiment:

"Come, ye that struggle With thoughts of conviction; Continue no longer Such burdens to bear.

Throw off forever This needless affliction; And taste of the pleasures That wisdom would share.

"There's rest for the soul In blissful forgetting; 'Tis bought by the prudent At moderate cost.

Then cast to the winds Thy worry and fretting, And live in the sunshine Where shadows are lost."

At the conclusion of the services Mr. World conducted his friend from the church, and as they were moving again toward the surging crowds they heard the voice of an auctioneer.

"Let us tarry a moment," he urged as he turned his footsteps to that part of the Broad Highway known as the Devil's Auction.

A large company of men, women, and children were giving earnest heed to the auction which had been in progress all day.

The auctioneer held in his hand a gaudy bauble of worldly pleasure.

He cried in the full strength of his voice that such beautiful specimens of pleasure were very rare. At once the bidding for it grew lively.

It was soon thrown out to a reckless mortal who seized it with unusual avidity.

Then a door was opened in the rear, and lo, I beheld a series of rooms filled with baubles of every conceivable kind, enough to satisfy all who came for such lightsome things. One of extraordinary beauty was next offered. "What do I hear for it?" l.u.s.tily shouted the auctioneer.

The whole host bent forward eagerly to get a nearer view of the new attraction.

"I'll give one hour of time!" said an aged man.

"An hour of time is bid, an hour of time! Who'll give more?"

"I'll give one day!" joyously bid a thoughtless youth. He received it, and walked off in high glee.

"Here is another! A novelty just out!" boldly cried the auctioneer.

How anxiously all stepped forward, each one wishing to scrutinize the latest kind of pleasure offered.

The highest bidder was a restless youth who offered his all for the coveted prize.

Miss Church-Member was but little interested in these proceedings and urged her companion to the next auction-stand where certain rights and privileges were sold.

On the stand stood a glib-tongued fellow who announced that he would first offer for sale the _Right to Sell Intoxicating Drink_. "How much do I hear?" shouted the auctioneer as the cosmopolitan crowd looked on.

"Hundred dollars per annum!" cried the people of one state.

"One hundred, one hundred, going at one hundred!"

"Two hundred dollars!" bid the representatives of another state.

"Three hundred dollars!" was another offer that immediately came in.

"That is far below the value!" shouted the auctioneer. "Remember, all this money we get for licensing the saloon will go for charity or to help educate and civilise the people!"

Thousands upon thousands cheered to the echo, while the wicked auctioneer and his allies were highly pleased at the spectacle.

"Three hundred, three hundred! Altogether too low a sum for so great a privilege!"

"Five hundred dollars!" cried the authorities of another state.

"Going at five hundred, five hundred, five hundred!" rapidly and hilariously yelled the auctioneer, and the crowd cheered l.u.s.tily.

"Still going at five hundred, five hundred! Who'll give six hundred?

First, second, and last warning, and sold at five hundred dollars to the state represented by yonder group of delegates!"

Thus the program continued, and the right to sell liquor under respectability was sold at varying prices. Mr. World and Miss Church-Member left long before the auction was ended. They paused not at the other centers where Satan's agents were selling their worthless and death-dealing merchandize to the children of men.

CHAPTER XXII.

THE DEVIL'S HOSPITAL.

1. Miss Church-Member, suddenly attacked with heart trouble, is hurried away to the Hospital.

2. She receives the attention of Satan's fiendish surgical operators.

3. A visit through the various wings of the Hospital and sub-offices.

The horrifying work described.