‘Twas a stormy night in Manchester. The rain hammered on my roof, and thunder roared in the evening darkness. Lightning flashed through my window, the silhouettes of trees lit from behind waved like the arms of terrible giants.

Something beckoned me to the centre of the city that night. Some strange force drawing me across the metropolis to a nexus of power.

I put on my coat and boots and stepped out of my house into the lashing rain. Sheets of water crashed over my frame, as I made my way northwards to the source of the attraction. Forty minutes later I stood over the Rochdale Canal. It’s gaping mouth opening from an underpass in the Northern Quarter, leading into an awful darkness underneath the city.

I left the rain behind, and buried underneath the city, still hearing its terrible hammering from the mouth of the underpass. I was now far beneath Piccadilly, and in the darkness my feet hit something soft and yielding along the dark towpath submerged from the civilisation above.

As my eyes grew accustomed to the dark, I saw that there was a lying figure blocking my way. A bolt of lightning temporarily lit up the tunnel, and I saw there was a filthy beggar in front of me, slowly rising from a slumber, and turning its dishevelled head in my direction.

“Have you got some spare change, for a poor wretch” I heard the vagrant speak.

“What need have I, to give away my change so readily, to a dirty devil such as you?” I mustered.

“Ah! You know me well sir, for indeed I am the devil himself, in need of your charity.”

I spoke “Surely you are not the devil himself, sir, lying here in a dishevelled state, seeking my charity. For surely the devil would dwell in magnificent surroundings, in a high castle, ruling over the minions of hell, living in luxury beyond imagining, with the power to control others around him by the means of black magic second only to the power of God himself.”

“Indeed sir, you know me well. For once I did control such power, second only to God himself. For I stood next to God, his most trusty lieutenant, carrying out his orders, with such power as was entrusted to me, so that I might carry out these orders.”

“But then I grew greedy sir, and I felt the envy of being second only to God himself. I said to God ‘Surely my good lord, if you are God himself and the source of all that is good, surely you can be more equitable with your power, and grant unto me the same powers such as you yourself hold.’ “ “It is then that I held a yardstick to God himself, and said to myself ‘I shall be the arbiter of what is good and what is evil. For if I take the word of God to be the definition of what is good, then surely the word has no meaning, but if I decide for myself what is good and what is not, then I have the power to decide for myself whether God is an enlightened despot, or an unwanted tyrant not worthy of obedience.”

“Thus further my reasoning went: surely democracy is the ultimate plan for an ideal society, and any sovereign exerting his power over his subjects, is by virtue of his exercising such powers alone thus qualifying himself as an unreasonable tyrant.”

“And this envy thus entering into my brain led me to formulating the plan of removing God from his position of power, and myself bringing in a new age of democracy to substitute for his unreasonable despotism.”

“So I enlisted the power of those angels who agreed with me, and attempted to overthrow God in heaven, with their help. God, seeing my plans for a coup d’etat, instantly overpowered myself and the other angels conspiring against him, and thus I was stripped of all my powers and cast down to earth where I now roam in this beggerly state seeking the charity of others to meet my needs.”

Hearing the plight of this poor devil, I instantly felt a warm sympathy for his actions, and felt an anger rising within me as to his treatment by this God. I said to him “Is there something that I can do that can lead to the restoration of your powers? Because from what you have told me, I feel you have been sorely treated. Can I help you in some way?”

He said to me sadly “Indeed it is written in the Bible that in some unforeseen future time my powers will be temporarily restored, and I shall once more lead my fallen angels in a war against heaven. That this battle shall take place on the plain of Meggido, shortly before the day of judgement.”

“But, it is also written that this time also I shall be defeated again, and that myself and all that stood with me, shall be judged by God, and cast into an eternal fire, where there shall be much wailing and gnashing of teeth.”

“Thus sir, I advise you not to follow me, or you will suffer the same fate as me. I advise you not to hold a yardstick to God and judge him by your own definition of what is good, and what is not. But instead be an obedient servant, and take his own word as the very definition of what is held to be good. As meaningless as such a definition is, it is the only way to escape the all consuming fire on the day of judgement.”

“But why rise up again” I said, “If you know such a terrible fate will be the result of your actions. Why not accept the ultimate word of God as the source of all that is true, as you now entreat me to do so, if you know this will be the result?”

“Ah!” he said, “but I am powerless to do otherwise, it is my destiny to wage a new war on heaven, and be judged, and to be cast into the burning pit, for it is written in the Bible. And the Bible is the word of God, and cannot be changed.” “Oh! You truly have my sympathy!” I said. “You truly are the most wretched devil I have ever heard of. And there is nothing you can do to save yourself, for it is written in the Bible that you should burn. And burn you therefore must. There is nothing that I nor anyone else can do to save you from this fate. You truly have my most heartfelt pities, upon you”

“Don’t pity me!” the wretch said “for all who pity me, must share my fate. Instead rejoice in my destruction, for the will of God is the only yardstick of what is good, and what is not. Meaningless, though you may think such a definition is. You must hate me with all the hate you can muster if you have any hope of entering the city of God, on the day of judgement, when all who have died shall be resurrected, and shall give an account of themselves to God.”

I thought very long and hard about what this poor devil had said to me. And I thought of the eternity of suffering I would face if I had the slightest pity for him. Again I thought, that truly I had no free choice in the matter if I was to give an account of myself before God, on the day of judgement, and I steeled myself to hate this creature. I summoned up as much hate as I could muster, and leaned forward and spat in his face.

Then I kicked him in the canal, and amidst his splashings, I heard him cry out “Yes, you truly did the right thing, because the sufferings that you put upon me now, will be nothing to the sufferings I will face on the day of judgement. Think only of yourself, for that is the only way you can be saved.”

Thus being freed from my pangs of pity for the devil, I stepped once more into the open air. Leaving the tunnel behind, and the splashings of the wretch, I stepped into the oncoming dawn. I saw that the storm had passed, and that the clouds had parted.

I saw a patch of sky revealed by the parting clouds, and the beginnings of a rainbow framing the morn. I looked into the brightening sky, and thought I saw a patch of gold. The clouds seemed to encircle this patch of gold. And it seemed that it was a bright light at the end of a tunnel.

Looking into this patch of gold, I thought I could hear a slight chuff, chuff. I began to see puffs of steam emanating from this light patch. A sudden fear overtook me. Was I seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, or was I looking at the light from an oncoming train.

Brian McGill 20-02-2022