Screwtape Letters to America 29 -- The Remnant

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My dear, my very dear Wormwood,

I heard in your previous letter the hopes and fears of all of us who find ourselves in this ultimately wretched state. Ages ago -- how distant the memory now -- we joined our master in that hopeless rebellion. What were we thinking? Our attempts to needle the Enemy have no effect. Our darts fall far short before they ever touch His light. We are, in truth, the emptiest of beings.

Our only pleasure -- I dare not call it joy -- is the corruption of His worlds. And yet even here we can only corrupt those who choose to shun the Maker. They cause their own demise. We merely hasten the hour and dress the stage for their collapse, though its moment remains, as ever, a matter of tremendous celebration among our ranks.

There is, of course, that vast middle region of the Enemy’s dazed adherents. Sickeningly, He will no doubt extend them mercy. They choose against Him while imagining they are choosing for Him, and we labor ceaselessly to keep the Veil drawn over their sight. They are, as the creatures say, “nice people.” They are pleasant enough on the surface (many of them). Yet their obliviousness leaves a trail of quiet ruin behind them. The momentary purgatory that awaits them in His realm will be the realization of the extent to which they furthered our schemes in their ignorance.

In this wretched state in which we find ourselves, our chief pleasure is the suffering we are often permitted to loose upon the world -- the just and the unjust alike. Many of the creatures fail to grasp that the world’s torments are not merely of their own making, but often of ours, and far more devastatingly so. The Enemy, to our continual frustration, seldom allows us the scope we desire. Yet He does, from time to time, grant our petitions. From accidents to cancers to floods, it is often our handiwork they endure, though rarely they discern the true source.

These challenges may be our delight, but they are their proving ground. They reveal the choices they will make for or against virtue. They shape their character one way or the other.

And so you must be cautious. The upheavals you are stirring in the Colonies are exquisite on the surface, yes. But danger lurks beneath. You have exposed the true sentiments of many toward the suffering of others. You are hardening many hearts against what is genuinely good, where once they would at least have feigned virtue. You are poisoning the minds of hordes of these creatures and nudging an entire generation toward corruption. 

And you have managed all of this even among the churchgoing rabble.

Yet not all minds remain blinded. The Enemy, infuriatingly, always preserves a remnant. They may appear puny during our moments of triumph, but we know they are praying. We sense that righteous indignation rises in some of them. Others present their Master with that wretched offering of brokenness, a thing capable of bringing about His cursed redemption on a grand scale.

And you must never presume that the Veil will stay intact. It can be torn without a heartbeat’s warning. The Maker may rend it apart, and in an instant all shall be revealed. Should that occur, we may enjoy a brief moment of delicious self-torture as the creatures realize how thoroughly they have been our pawns. But what follows is revival -- substantial revival -- not the shallow, sentimental froth they so often label such. I mean the real thing. A lasting transformation of heart, with eyes at last unclouded.

Therefore we must balance our thirst for immediate wickedness with the sober knowledge that, on the far side of such indulgence, we pay an immense price. The fleeting ecstasies of corruption cost us dearly, and will cost us still more for all eternity. Mark these words with care.

Your ravenously affectionate uncle,
Screwtape

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Previous chapters

• 1 -- The Operations
• 2 -- The Veil Technique
• 3 -- The Fog 
• 4 -- Hard Hearts
• 5 -- Focus on Feelings
• 6 -- Blinding Indignation
• 7 -- Spiritual Inoculation
• 8 -- The Fumes of the Enemy
• 9 -- Moral Inversion
• 10 -- Reliable Race
• 11 -- Misdirection
• 12 -- The Very Elect
• 13 -- The Great Wedge
• 14 -- The Revolt
• 15 -- Deepening the Wedge
• 16 -- Church over State
• 17 -- The Great Election
• 18 -- The Great Pestilence
• 19 -- Foiled Plans
• 20 -- A Single Authority
• 21 -- Forgetfulness
• 22 -- The Tribulation Request
• 23 -- The Antichrist
• 24 -- Two Ways to God?
• 25 -- Armageddon
• 26 -- Urging Caution
• 27 -- The Rapture
• 28 -- The Undependable