THE LATE DR, DOWIE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8378, 12 March 1907, Page 5

THE LATE DR, DOWIE.

A TERRIBLE END. Received March 11, 9.7 a.m. NEW YORK, March 10. Dowie's health had been failing for months. He became delirious on Friday, and died raving. Dowie did not become reconciled to his wife and son.

Received March 11, 10.14 p.m,

NEW "XORK, March 11

Dr. Dowie was the most astounding spiritual adventurer of the nineteenth century, and died wildly vituperating his enemies. Dowie's will disposes of twenty-one million dollars. The Zionite officials declare that his wealth is chiefly imaginary.

The Zionite Official Receiver seized Shiloh House on behalf of Dowie's creditors, as soon as Dowie died.

(Twenty years ago John Alexander Dowie was a Congregational minister in Australia, who took up faith-heal-ing,fpreaching some new doctrines on the subject, and broke with' his church. Setting up as a religious free lance, he attracted attention by his vituperative addresses, and occasionally came into conflict with the civil authority. A meteoric tour through New Zealand followed, in which he visited the principal cities and made many converts, some of them citizens of repute; but he shocked the general community by his wild denunciations of physicians ("sorcerers and imposters"), of freemasonry and of the press. In Wellington he declared that he had undergone imprisonment more than I once in Australia for conscious sake; but this —if true—was an experience not afterwards repeated. His disciples were organised in Australia and New Zealand, and he levied upon them to the extent of a tithe of their income. But the field was too restricted, and in 1890 he went to Chicago, where he had remarkable success. Four years later, he had purchased, with the contributions of the faithful, six thousand acres of the finest land in Illinois, at a cost of something like £300,000. Here he established "Zion City," into which no unclean thing, including drugs and tobacco, was to enter, and which was to be an earthly paradise, free from physical infirmity or moral evil, and in which the founder, responsible to no earthly authority, was to be politically, financially and spiritually supreme. In Zion City Bank all the financial concerns centred, the interest on its stock being guaranteed on his own personal security. As a staple industry he started lace-making,importing skilled workers from Nottingham. The industry had the advantage of a 60 per cent, tariff, but the output after a while exceeded the demand. The inflow of tithes enabled Dowie to overcome business failures, but after a time tithes came only from without. j There was little or no money in Zion save Dowie's own papei', aiic! the faithful had nought else in which to pay their tithes. As its value was purely local, it was wastepaper so far as outside obligations were concerned. As the financial condition went from bad to worse, the prophet's personal extravagance increased, as well as his spiritual pretensions. He first claimed.to be a new prophet, whose words were divinely inspired, and whose commands were to be obeyed without question under pain of divine displeasure. Next, he startled some of his most faithful followers by asserting that he was a reincarnation of Elijah, "the Restorer and Messenger of the Covenant," and later still, in 1905, he announced another promotion—to apostolic rank. He had become "The First Apostle of the Christian Catholic Church, with power to appoint other apostles to hear, confess, and forgive sins." He dressed in splendid robes adorned with gems, and wore jewelled mitre, which he said was after the pattern given by the Lord to Moses. The manifest paganism of the whole business, as welly as the financial stress, led to serious defections. On the other hand, in New York the New Elijah effected a notable capture—no less a personage than Ballington Booth, in charge of the American of the Salvation Army, with his wife and a large number of Salvationists. This, though a great blow to the Army —only a week or two ago there | was a riot in New York between the rival factions —did not in any way help the sinking cause. As the end approached, the leader became restless. He undertook a mission to London, which was a comHe invaded New York with three thousand followers, declaring that he 'would raise five million dollars. At one of the early meetings he announced that some of New York's richest men had become converts, and exhibited their cheques for large amounts. Next day it turned out that the letters and cheques had been forged by some unknown practical joker. An epidemic of influenza prostrated half the crusaders. He declared this to be a judgment on their secret sins, and want of faith, and was immediately himself prostrated by the same complaint. He retired defeated, having made seventy-nine converts and'raised not quite enough money to pay his gas bill. In October, 1903, the sheriffs' officers seized "Zion City, but a week later they were withdrawn money having , been found somewhere; but the 1 residents were suffering great privations, being without food, and many without work,' hungry and penniless.

The .leader was accused of misapplying the funds and of immoral teaching's and acts, and was threatened with deposition. He was allowed to nominate a successor, and chose on a of his stoutest partisans, Voliva, of Melbourne, who went to Zion City to champion the leader. Arrived there, he found a dreadful state of things. "The half had not been told." He joined with the leaders in deposing Dowie, who, violently protesting, was dismissed on a handsome pension; the courts confirming the action on the ground that the leader's position was fiduciary).