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Show Who Is Dowie? "John Alexander Dowie: The Prophet Pro-phet and His Profits," is the title of a paper by John Swain, in the October Century, which is described in a subtitle sub-title as "A Study at First Hand of a Modern Elijah." The character of Dowie's rule may be deduced from the following paragraph: "Divested of his mantle and other accessories, ac-cessories, Dowie is, in fact, a Scotchman, Scotch-man, a former minister of the Congregational Congre-gational church, a faith-healer, and the general overseer of the Christian Catholic Cath-olic Church of Zion (John A. Dowie, owner and proprietor). Possessing all the usual characteristics of the first three of these, and being the only example ex-ample we have yet had of the fourth, he is susceptible of ready analysis and examination. He had a long head for business, a canniness that passes belief, be-lief, and a bump of acquisitiveness that recalls at once the fate of Mark Twain's three Glasgow Jews, who could not get car fare to escape from Scotland. He has implicit, unquestioning faith in God, a tendency to believe that too large a share of this world's good things cannot come his own way and another tendency toward finding the hand of God in all that pleases him and the unconquerable force of the Adversary in all that does not. He has a pisty that is not cant, and a sincere good-the good-the love of all who become intimate with him. As a faith-healer he has a power which, with the present slight understanding of such prenomena, ap-Droaches ap-Droaches the marvelous, and which. by virtue of hypnotism, telepathy or some subtle suggestion, actually does relieve great numbers from pain. As head of the Christian Catholic church in Zion (it is as general overseer that he is almost always referred to by his followers), he possesses the most autocratic rower, it is possible to wield in tffls republic, having absolute absol-ute spiritual and temporal sway over all who believe in him. In this city of Zion, which is the capital of the world to the 'Dowieites,' he is supreme. sup-reme. Wherever an adult made Dowl-eite Dowl-eite is, there, is a vote to be cast as Dowie directs. Wherever a dollar is in the pocket of a Dowisite, there is ten cents that belongs by riglit to Dowie, and 90 cents more that he can have if he really needs it, as he often does. Wherever the cross and crown of Zion are found, there no alcoholic beverage or tobacco is used, no pork or oysters or drug is consumed, no card game played, no profanity is heard; for these things Dowie, as general overseer, has tabooed. Moreover, he Is plain John A. Dowie, citizen of Illinois, a very human hu-man man, and one wrorth studying and knowing." . |
