From Gateway to Hell, Hutchinson, 1970

From Gateway to Hell, Hutchinson, 1970

Chapter 7 - The Barbecue

......As the journalist drove them through the streets of the city, Richard asked him: 'While doing your job. have you ever come across any evidence that there are Satanist gatherings in Santiago?'
The Scottish-educated Chilean laughed. 'Good gracious. no, Mr Eaton. As in every city there are a few old crones who are credited with practising witchcraft, but I've never heard of their getting together to hold a Sabbat. What with their radios, motor-cycles and self-service stores, most of the people who live in Santiago are much too modern-minded to believe in that sort of thing.'
'That applies to most other countries now,' Richard replied.
But the fact remains that Satanism is still practised in them.'
'If you say so, Señor. I will take your word for it. But any educated person would now look on believing in the Devil as nonsense.'
'Of course they would if they think of the Devil as people did in the Middle Ages: a terrifying apparition with horns, hooves and a spiked tail. But that was only a form his emissaries took as suitable to the beliefs of the period. Now that people have so many things, other than religion. to occupy their minds, they naturally give little thought to the powers of good and evil. That is because they are not tuned in to such influences. But it does not mean that the Devil no longer exists.'
To Richard's surprise McTavish replied. 'If not by nation-ality, by heredity and education I'm a down-to-earth Scot. I can accept that the Devil is still stooging round tempting people with this an' that in exchange for their immortal souls.'
'May I ask if you are a Christian?'
'Aye, I'm certainly that.'
'Then, if you believe in God, you cannot logically disbelieve in the Devi1, because he was part of the original Creation. What is more, when Lucifer was cast out of Heaven. God gave him this world as his province. That is made abundantly clear in the New Testament, in the passage where Satan took Jesus Christ up into a high place, showed him all the cities and the fertile valleys and said, "All this will I give to Thee if Thou wilt bow down to me." He couldn't have offered something that wasn't his to give.'
'I suppose that is so.'
'It certainly is. And it's a great mistake to imagine that the Devil went out of business with the coming of the scientific age. He simply went underground, and adapted his methods to modem conditions. 'One of his names is "Lord of Misrule", and his object is to destroy all law and order among mankind. What could do that more effectively than the creation of wars, in which countless thousands of people legally murder one another, and there follows widespread. arson, pillage, rape and anarchy? In the present century, the Devil has brought about two world wars and a score of minor ones, by bemusing the minds of statesmen, and about the best interests of their peoples; so it seems to me that he has surpassed himself.'
'Am I right, Señor, in thinking you have formed the idea that these parties given by Glasshill are some form of Sabbat'?'
Suddenly it struck Richard that, should that prove the case, it would be just as well to keep McTavish in ignorance of the fact. Although Don Caesar had banned any account of what they found out being published, McTavish might, if the story had the making of a juicy scandal, sell it to a friend for publi-cation in another paper. After a moment, he replied, 'It's just possible; but I doubt it. Otherwise, surely you or one of your colleagues would have picked up some rumour about Satanic rites being practised in Santiago.'.......