DEVIL WORSHIPPERS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5395, 4 March 1929, Page 3

DEVIL WORSHIPPERS.

FOLLOWERS OF OLD CULT.

SEVERAL CASES IN ENGLAND.

It is amazing to find that in this year, of 1929, in civilised England, the terrible old cult, of devil-worship is a real factor in everyday life. Devilworship is fairly common among the negroes of Africa, but it is astounding to find it in London to-day. The Rev. jplseph Shepherd, writing in the “Sunday News,’’ says :— “A short time ago I saw a man \ery uncomfortable during a service in Islington Chapel. There was a re verant atmosphere of .worship, but. this man did not join in the hymns, and when we repeated Our Lord’s Prayer—‘Deliver us from evil’ —he was strangely silent. I saw him sneer and I wondered why he was so cynical and hostile. “The man c.ame to me after, the service and asked me if 1 knew any churches that would be closed. 1 said, ‘Thank God, Ido not.’ He said’, ‘I am sorry. Nothing gives, me more delight than to see churches empty, and then closed. The people are leaving your God.’ I thought of Russia, and the closed churches in that unhappy] land. I said, 'You are not a Christian.’

“ ‘No,’ the man replied, ’I am a I give my life t° evil, and I do far better out of evil than you do out of good.’ A devilworshipper in London — a man proud of evil works ! I was so surprised that l c.oul.d make no reply. He left me with a sneer and a cur,se.

“We have many strange cults in England. They all try in their own way to make life brighter and better, but the devil- worshipper is determined to drag life down to depths lower than the wild beasts. He is crafty and cruel. He revels in mud andl mire. Perverted literature, the cult of cr.ime and immorality are the food of the devil-worshipper.

“A few years ago I saw a kraal of devil-worshippers in Africa. A traveller,, n;ho narrowly escaped! death because he had seen their shameful ceremonies from a distance, declared every one ’ought to’ be shot. Their craving for cruelty found a perverted gratification, in the blood of three young men. At the end! of 'their* orgy there were three young mutilated) bodies.

“I have a mask that was actually used in the devil-dances in 'Africaany woman was seen during the ceremonial 'of the mask she was. swiftly put to death. The devil-wbrshipper loves darkness rather than li&ht. His seerpts are guarded by certain death to any intruder. eH woi;ks in the dark. He polutes public life secrets iy.

“We have been rather disturbed recently by the grave warnings of eminent religious leaders that we are slipping, back into paganism. I wonder if they have seen the scum of this cruel old quit floating on the turbulent waters of our, public life. “Governments have surprised devilworship not because it was a strangp cult, but because it fostered cruelty and obscenity. It is a very olci bult, traceable thrpughout human history. In the seventh century Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote against ‘those who pay divine honours to certain angels and evil-doers.’ If anyone sacrificed) to demons there must be one year of penance. People practised the licentious ceremonial of devil-,worship by dressing in the skins of animals. When they were discovered they had to do penance for, three year.s. “Ecgberht, Archbishop of York, said, ‘lf anyone be found. Who hath offered sacrifice to devils, no matter howsoever trifling an occasion,, let him fast one year?

In Pendle, there was an old lady named Elizabeth Demdike, whei was acknowledged! ‘a general agent of the devil? She dedicated her children and her grahdchilreu to the ;ervice of Sa tap.

“Devil-worshippers held their worship from midnight to dawn. There was the ‘invocation to the devil,’ which was followed by a general, confession, when each made mock acknowledgment eif any good done, and uttered foul blasphemy and filthy adjurations. ‘The Ten Commandments, may be thought out of date to-day, but we should do well to remember the warning, of Moses: ‘See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil? To-day there are in London people who deliberately select death and evil in the worship of the devi.”