she would be speaking of the ills of liquor or lust or ( more and more lately ) gambling-always in a quiet , slightly tremulous voice-and the visions god had sent her of a tampa burned black by its own sins , a smoke-wisped wasteland of charred soil and smoldering piles of wood where homes had once stood , and she would remind them all of lot 's wife and implore them not to look back , never to look back , but to look ahead to a shining city of white homes and white clothing and white people united in love of christ and prayer and earnest desire to leave behind a world their children could be proud of .