THREE ELIJAHS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1799, 4 July 1906, Page 3

THREE ELIJAHS.

(Christchurch Press.) John Alexander Dowie is not the only Elijah in the world. While he, the third Elijah, is fighting with Yoliva’s faction for the control of Zion City, Sandford, the Elijah at the head of the “ Holy Ghost and Us,” of Shilch, Maine, has just returned, so says an American paper, from an extended yachting trip in the Mediterranean, to be tried for manslaughter, and a negro Elijah has arisen in New Jersey. This latest Elijah seems to outdo Dowie. He is a paralysed negro, William S. Crowdy by name, and he rules the Church of God and Saints of Christ. Crowdy claims to have had a revelation that the ancient Jews were in reality Negroes, a revelation which he has succeeded in persuading no less than 25,000 “ black Jews ” to believe. A representative of a New York paper who was present at a convention of the Saints of God describes Crowdy, as mumbling heavenly revelations at intervals, | “ which, being interpreted, meant re- I quests for less noise and an annual poll-tax of two cents a saint.” The writer says that delegates came by carloads from Philadelphia,. Newark, Boston, and the southern States. The wife of an African bishop, large Virginian mammies, slim yellow girls from Carolina, Jamaicans with a British accent, jot-black Kentuckians, Uncle Bemuses and Aunt Elizas, thin-

lipped descendants of ante-bellum masters, and flat-nosed sons of jungle chieftains, all types were present.” Ten years ago Crowdy was a cook on a Pullman car, when he had a vision informing him that he was Elijah, and

that the chosen people were the socalled sons of Ham. “ False prophets would appear, as told in Scripture, but he was the original Elijah, who went up in a chariot of fire, came back on the mountain, and stayed on the earth ever since. He received a fresh copy of the Ten Commandments, and set about restoring the lost tribes to their inheritance and giving warning to the white Jews, who, he says, are deteriorated offspring of the black stock. He revived, it is stated, the Hebrew worship' in its purity, establishing , tabernacles and appointing officers termed deacons, elders, evangelists, and bishops.” The membership extends through America and Africa, and the church is expected soon to overrun the earth, but, unfortunately, so far only one colorless person has accepted the general invitation to join. A photograph of the new Elijah and his leaders show an extremely dull-looking negro, dressed in a dress suit and decked with rihboDs, surrounded by colored people whose countenances are certainly not remarkable for signs of intelligence. But can we whites afford to throw stones, at the negro’s faith in a man like this ?