People of New Jerusalem, I bring you good news! The might of the Lord and His power through prayer have brought to ruin and destruction the evil forest of Satan; and as witness to that power I stand before you to praise and glorify the Lord our God.
I was amongst the first to see at first hand the vile abomination of the Devil which sprang up to menace our godly town. It was I who brought intelligence to the town of the horrors concealed behind its unnaturally fair visage -- the cracking paint of a sluttish whore. I saw and I prayed to the Lord that it might be cast down and returned to the uttermost pits of Hell from whence it sprang.
On the 8th day of this month, fortified by a day of prayer and preparation, I gathered together a small band of men recommended to me by the good preacher Elijah Richter for their strength and experience of withstanding the dangers to the body and soul of the wilderness; but above all for their uprightness and fortitude as servants of the Lord. Taking the auslander Marck Gregor as our forward scout and servant we set off to see if we might discover some way to bring the plots and schemes of the Enemy to naught.
Singing of the strong castle which is our Lord, we marched through the seething green hell towards its very centre, sure that there we should find the heart of the corruption. And indeed we found there that which we sought for its destruction. In the centre of blasted lines of ash we saw at last a foul temple of the Dark One -- a great grim stone altar besmirched and befouled by satanic rite, orgy and sacrifice and surrounded by drab, dead shrubs, destroyed by the malefic evil of that place.
Straightway we set to our prayer, posting Marck Gregor to guard against the coming of Satan's more physical minions. Richter and his servant Lukkentrager at intervals made certain his continued safety as we prayed (for we well knew that the ways of the Evil One would be devious and deadly should the faith of any one of us falter). The preaching shepherd, stout-hearted Johann Altemann and I directed our prayer without ceasing against the hateful shrine.
All that day we spent in prayer, praising the Lord for his countless bounties and asking that he might through us smite from the face of his clean earth the abomination we saw before us. All day we prayed without ceasing and on into the night. All through the night we prayed, praising the Lord and we were strong in our faith. All through the night we prayed and the spirit of the Lord grew strong within us.
I recall little of what happened next and must tell you of the words of my fellows who watched over me. Preacher Richter and Lukkentrager saw brave Johann and myself fall to the ground in an ecstasy from which they might not wake us despite their most strenuous and concerned efforts. Thinking that the Devil might have struck us down they were much exercised by our plight, but could do nothing save to guard us from further harm.
We awoke some time later, firstly myself and then good Johann; v and as we did so the hand of the Lord reached down and destroyed the evil shrine with fire before our very eyes, thrusting it back into the flames from whence it came. We rejoiced mightily in the power of the Lord and made our preparation to leave knowing with fear and awe but also great exultation that through us had the Lord's work been accomplished.
The fury of Satan at our success and the triumph of the Lord was manifest as the flames spread outwards to reclaim his wicked illusion. As we marched before the flames he sought to accomplish our downfall by whatever means he could. Having seen with our own eyes the might and power which the Lord might wield, our faith was unassailable and our souls might not be vanquished; but Lucifer struck at our frail bodies with his potent curse. Physically wearied by many hours of prayer we were weak; and he worsened our condition beyond all natural bounds so that we might scarce move our feet to escape the fire. All would have been lost, but the Lord took pity upon those weak mortals who had done their best to serve Him and given Him their praise, and he gave us the strength we needed to overcome our exhaustion and to avoid the clutching arms of Satan.
People of New Jerusalem, Listen to me and have faith in the Lord! He has delivered me, and my companions, and this godly town of New Jerusalem from the vile sorcery which threatened it so closely. Doubt not that the Lord is nigh, for you have seen the evidence of itself. Praise the Lord!