Modern Saints and Seers Part 11

III

The definite organisation of Dowieism--or Sionism, as it is more usually called--dates from 1894. From this time forward Dowie ceased to be merely a shepherd offering the shelter of his fold to those desiring salvation, and, allowing evangelisation as such to take a secondary place, became the director, inspector and general overseer of a religious society founded upon community of both material and moral interests, and upon fair administration of the benefits of a commercial and industrial enterprise having many sources of revenue. In this society, political, sociological and religious views were combined, so that it offered an attractive investment for financial as well as spiritual capital. Dowie was not only the religious and temporal leader of the movement, but also the contractor for and princ.i.p.al beneficiary from this gigantic co-operative scheme, which combined selling and purchasing, manufacture and distribution, therapeutics, social questions and religion.

Like most founders of sects, the prophet of the "New Sion" was at first surrounded by those despairing invalids and cripples who try all kinds of remedies, until at last they find one to which they attribute the relief of their sufferings, whether real or fancied. Such as these will do all that is required of them; they will give all their worldly goods to be saved; and they paid gladly the tenth part which Dowie immediately demanded from all who came to him, some of them even pouring their entire fortunes into the coffers of the new Elias. The ranks of his recruits were further swelled by crowds of hypochondriacs, and by the superst.i.tious, the idle, and the curious, who filled his temple to such an extent that soon he was obliged to hire a large hall for his Sunday meetings, at which he was wont to appear in great magnificence with the cortege of a religious showman.

These displays attracted widespread attention, and indeed Dowie neglected nothing in his efforts to make a deep and lasting impression on the public mind. Here is the account of an eye-witness:--

The prophet speaks. The audience preserves a religious silence. His voice has a quality so strange as to be startling. To see that broad chest, that robust and muscular frame, one would expect to hear rolling waves of sound, roarings as of thunder. But not so. The voice is shrill and sibilant, yet with a sonority so powerful that it vibrates on the eardrums and penetrates to the farthest corners of the hall.

Presently the real object of the sermon is revealed. The enemies of Sion are denounced with a virulence that borders upon fury, and the preacher attacks violently those whom he accuses of persecuting his church. He poses as a martyr, and cries out that "the blood of the martyr is the seed of faith"; he pours out imprecations upon other religious sects; calls down maledictions upon the qualified doctors, who are to him merely "sorcerers and poisoners"; consigns "the vipers of the press" to destruction; and, carried away by the violence of his anathemas, launches this peroration upon the ears of his admiring audience:

"If you wish to drink your reeking pots of beer, whisky, wine, or other disgusting alcoholic liquors; if you wish to go to the theatre and listen to Mephistopheles, to the devil, to Marguerite, the dissolute hussy, and Doctor Faust, her foul accomplice; if you wish to gorge yourselves upon the oyster, scavenger of the sea, and the pig, scavenger of the earth--a scavenger that there is some question of making use of in the streets of Chicago (_laughter_); it you wish, I say, to do the work of the devil, and eat the meats of the devil, you need only to remain with the Methodists, Baptists, or such-like. Sion is no place for you. We want only clean people, and, thanks to G.o.d, we can make them clean. There are many among you who need cleansing. You know that I have scoured you as was necessary, and I shall continue to do it, for you are far from clean yet."

Then, entering into a dialogue with his hearers upon the vital point of Sionism, he asks:

"Does America pay her t.i.the to G.o.d?"

The audience replies "No."

"Do the churches pay their t.i.thes to G.o.d?"

"No."

"Do you yourselves pay your t.i.thes to G.o.d? Stand up, those of you who do."

The listeners stand up in thousands.

"There are a number of robbers here who remain seated, and do not pay their t.i.thes to G.o.d. Now I know who are the robbers. Do you know what should be done with you? I will tell you. There is nothing for you but the fire--the fire! Is it not villainy to rob one's brother?"

"Yes."

"Is it not villainy to rob one's mother?"

"Yes."

"Is it not the vilest villainy to rob G.o.d?"

"Yes."

"Well, there are some among you who are not ashamed of committing it.

You are robbing G.o.d all the time. You are like Ahaz, the Judean king famed for his impiety, and if you remain as you are, you will be doomed to eternal death. To whom does the t.i.the belong? What is done with it? I am going to answer that. If anyone here says that what I possess is taken out of the t.i.thes, he lies--and I will make his lie stick in his throat. The t.i.thes and all other offerings go straight to the general fund, and do not even pa.s.s through my hands. But I have a right to my share of the t.i.thes. Have I--or not?"

"Yes."

"Yes, and I shall take it when I have need of it. It is you whom I address--you vile robbers, hypocrites, liars, who pretend to belong to Sion and do not pay the t.i.the. Do you know what is reserved for you?

You will burn in eternal fire. Rise--depart from Sion!"

But no one departs. All the defaulters hasten to pay, for the prophet inspires them with a terror very different from their dread of the tax-collector, and there is no single example of one sufficiently obstinate to brave his threats of d.a.m.nation.

In other ways also Elias was all-powerful. He made a mock of political or ecclesiastical elections, holding that a leader's power should not be subject to suffrages or renewals of confidence. Thanks to these sermons, dialogues, and the general _mise en scene_, the autocracy of Dowie was beyond question.

IV

The new Elias called himself "the divine healer," and, like Schlatter, he attracted all who believed in the direct intervention of G.o.d, acting personally upon the sufferer. In their eyes he was simply the representative of G.o.d, source of health and healing. It was not he who brought about the cures, but G.o.d, and therefore the payments that were made to him were in reality payments to G.o.d. This teaching was largely the source of Dowie's power.

There were two large hotels in Chicago which were continually filled to overflowing with pilgrims from all parts who came to seek "divine healing." These left behind them sums of money--often considerable--in token of their grat.i.tude to G.o.d; not to the prophet, who would accept nothing.

It is obvious that if none of his cures had been effectual, Dowie, in spite of his power over credulous minds, could not have succeeded.

Thaumaturgy must perform its miracles. If it fails to do so, it is a fraud, and its incapacity proves its ruin. But if it accomplishes them, its fame becomes widespread. These miraculous cures generally take place, not singly, but in numbers, because there are always people who respond to suggestion, and invalids who become cured when the obligation to be cured, in the name of G.o.d, is placed upon them. Thus Chicago saw and wondered at the miracles, and had no doubts of their genuineness.

There was the case of Mr. Barnard, one of the heads of the National Bank of Chicago, whose twelve-year-old daughter was suffering from spinal curvature. She grew worse, in spite of all the efforts of the most eminent doctors and surgeons, and it seemed that nothing could be done. The child must either die, or remained deformed for the rest of her life. The father and mother were overcome with grief, and after having gone the round of all the big-wigs of the medical profession, they tried first bone-setters, then Christian Scientists, without avail. Finally they went to Dowie, who had already cured one of their friends. Up till then they had not had confidence in him, and they only went to him as a counsel of despair, so to speak, and because a careful re-reading of the Bible had persuaded them that G.o.d could and would cure all who had faith in His supreme power. Dowie, perceiving that they and their daughter had true faith, laid his hands on the child and prayed. In that same moment the curvature disappeared, and the cure was complete, for there was never any return of the trouble.

In recognition of this divine favour Mr. Barnard, who had hitherto belonged to the Presbyterian Church, voluntarily joined the Sionists, and became their chief auxiliary financier. Dowie made him manager of the Bank of Sion, under his own supervision, and confided to him the financial administration of the church.

Similarly a Mr. Peckman, whose wife he cured, and who was leader of the Baptist Church of Indiana, gave thanks to G.o.d and to Dowie, His prophet, by founding a colony affiliated to Sionism which paid its t.i.thes regularly.

There are many other examples of successful cures, but also many failures. These, however, did not lower the prestige of the modern Elias, who said to his detractors: "G.o.d has the power to cure, and all cures are due to Him alone. He desires to cure all who suffer, for His pity is infinite; but it may very well happen that the consumptives and paralytics who come to me after being given up by the doctors, are not always cured by G.o.d, however much I pray for them. Why is this? The reason is simple. Disease and death must be looked upon as ills due to the devil, who, since the fall of the rebellious angels, is always in a state of insurrection against G.o.d. And it is certain that whoever has not faith--absolute and unquestionable faith--is in the power of Satan.

The Scripture tells us precisely, 'he that believeth and is baptised shall be saved; he that believeth not is condemned.' When a sufferer is not healed through my intercession, it means that in the struggle for that particular soul, the devil has been victorious."

So, supported by this thesis, Dowie triumphed over the objections of his critics, not only in the eyes of Sion, but of all Chicago. Even when he lost his only daughter, Esther, his authority was in no way affected.

Esther Dowie was twenty-one, and the pride of her father's heart. She had finished her studies at the University of Chicago, and a happy future seemed to be opening out before her. One day in the month of May she was preparing for a large reception which was being held in honour of young Booth-Clibborn, grandson of General Booth of the Salvation Army. The event was an important one, for it was hoped that this meeting would bring about an understanding between the Salvationists and the Sionists, and Miss Dowie wished to give the visitor the most gracious welcome possible. She was lighting a spirit-lamp, for the purpose of waving her hair, when a draught of air blew her peignoir into the flame. It caught fire, and the poor girl was so terribly burned that she succ.u.mbed soon afterwards, although her father and all the elders of the Church prayed at her bedside, and although Dowie permitted a doctor to attend her and to make copious use of vaseline. After her death, the jury decided that she must have been burnt internally, the flames having penetrated to her throat and lungs.

Before she died she begged her father to forgive her for having disobeyed him--for Dowie strictly forbade the use of alcohol, even in a spirit-lamp--and implored the adherents of Sionism not to expose themselves to death through disobedience, as she had done.

The att.i.tude adopted by the prophet under this blow was almost sublime.

Letters of condolence and of admiration rained upon him. He wept over his daughter's dead body, and was broken-hearted, while, instead of drawing attention to the extenuating circ.u.mstances for his own inability to save her--as he would have done in all other cases--he fervently prayed to G.o.d to forgive her for having sinned against the laws of Sion. His grief was so sincere that not only the Sionists but the whole of Chicago joined in it.

Lack of faith was not the only thing that prevented cures. Omitting to pay the t.i.thes could also render them impossible; for the t.i.thes were due to G.o.d, and those who failed to pay them committed a voluntary offence against the divine power. When we remember that there were at least sixty thousand Sionists, it is obvious that these t.i.thes must have amounted to an enormous sum--and of this sum Dowie never gave any account. His spiritual power was founded upon his moral power. It is certain that he tried to influence his followers for good in forbidding them alcoholic drinks and gambling, and in advising exercise and recreation in the open air, and the avoidance of medicaments and drugs which he believed did more harm than good. He said to them--"Your health is a natural thing, for health is the state of grace in man, and the result of being in accord with G.o.d, and disease has no other cause than the violation of law, religious or moral." He ordained that all should live in a state of cleanliness, industry and order, so that communal prosperity might be a.s.sured. And of this prosperity which they owed to G.o.d and to His representative, what more just than that a part of it should be given to G.o.d and to Dowie, His prophet? What more legitimate than that there should be no separation between the material life and the spiritual life?

He had a special machine constructed which registered, by a kind of clockwork, the intercessions made on behalf of the various applicants for healing. Each one would receive a printed bulletin, stating, for example--"Prayed on the 10th of March, at four o'clock in the afternoon, John A. Dowie." If the patient was not in Chicago, Dowie would pray by telephone, so that the immediate effect of the divine power might be felt. He also made use of a phonograph for recording his homilies, sermons and prayers, and these records were sent, at a fixed price, to his adherents in all parts of the world.

V

The city of Sion lies between Chicago and Milwaukee, about forty-two miles to the north of the former. It comprises an estate of 6400 acres on the sh.o.r.es of Lake Michigan. This land--some of the best in Illinois--was let out in lots, on long lease, by Dowie to his followers, and brought in thousands of dollars yearly. At the same time that he created this principle of speculation in land, he was also engaged in founding a special industry, whose products were sold as "products of Sion." His choice fell upon the lace industry, and thanks to very clever management he was able to establish large factories modelled on those of Nottingham, employing many hundreds of workers whose goods commanded a considerable sale.

Before he undertook its organisation the possessions of the Church were few. Fifteen years afterwards, it had a fortune of more than a million pounds.

In order to carry out his plan of building a town in which neither spirits nor tobacco should be sold, and which should be inhabited only by Sionists, it was necessary that all the land should belong to him, and he had to reckon with the probably exorbitant demands of the sellers. To circ.u.mvent these his real intentions had to be hidden, and with the help of his faithful auxiliaries this was successfully accomplished.

I do not know what has become of Sionism during recent years. Will the dynasty be continued after the reign of John Dowie by that of his son William Gladstone Dowie; or will the death of the prophet, as stated by those who have seen the eclipse of other stars of first magnitude, be the signal for the dissolution of the sect?

What matters, however, is the genesis and not the duration of an enchantment which has united around one central figure, so many thousands who thirsted for the simultaneous salvation of their souls and of their purses.