The attitude 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 circumstances for his own
inability to save her--as he would have done in all other cases--he
fervently prayed to God 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 tithes could also render them impossible; for the tithes were
due to God, 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 tithes 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 God, 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 assured. And of this prosperity which
they owed to God and to His representative, what more just than that a
part of it should be given to God 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
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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