Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 October 1903 — DOWIE IN NEW YORK. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

DOWIE IN NEW YORK.

OPENB CRUSADE WITH HIS BAND OF 8,000 ZIONITE& Grant Host Chartres Gotham in Bottle Against Sin anil Satan—Mon Who Hoo Risen from o Penniless Preacher to-w Millionaire Prophet.

The great crusade of John Alexander Dowie against “sin and Satan in Greater New York’’ opened on Sunday. The hoata of Zion, to tlie number of 3,000, swooped down on Gotham early Friday morning In their special trains from Zion City. From the opening sendees iu Madison Square Garden until the closing exercises in Carnegie Hall, this great hoot, who believe that Dowie Is the reincarnation of tlie prophet Elijah, have been carrying on a house-to-house and offlee-to-offlee campaign from one end of New York to the other. Overflow meetings have beeu hejd in Brooklyn, Staten Island and some of the nearby cities in New Jersey. It Is said by Dowie and hia 'modern crusaders that as a result of the trip 5,000,000 persons have been appealed to in the interest of the new faith, of which John Alexander Dowie is the head and exemplar. The cost of the wonderful movement is estimated at $250,000, all of which has been defrayed by the Christian Catholic Church In

Zion —that marvelous creation of hia genius and his energy which he ha,i established on the shore of Lake Michigan midway between Chicago ami Milwaukee. The program for the Zion crusade in New York City waa simple, yet thorough. Every morning the members of the invading army attended the morn services, conducted by Dowie, after which they separated into bands of ten, each band led by a captain, and spread themselves over the city. Every house and office in the city was visited. While exhorting was done, the members had Instructions not to enter into discussions. Invitations were extended to attend the Dowie meetings at Madison Square Gar den, or Carnegie Hall, and literature, consisting chiefly of Leaves of Healing, tho official organ of the church, was distributed. Dowie believes that he will make 100,000 converts to his faith, which really means the acceptance of Dowie as Elijah, the messenger of God and the only true and authentic revealer of the divine will. Dowie'e Wonderful Career. Fantastic as seem the claims of Dowie that he is the reincarnation of Elijah and of John the Baptist, he has led fully 100,000 persons of almost all races and creeds to believe him. In Zion City, on the shore of Lake Michigan, there are seventy distinct nationalities represented among his believers, and throughout the world there are 100,000 adherents of the new dispensation as announced by sDowie. The growth of his cult Is truly astonishing. Dowie le Scotch by birth and at one time was a member of the Methodist Church. Much of hie life was spent in Australia, where stories differ as to his success in the ministry. Shortly before the World’s Fair in Chicago he appeared In that city, a penniless preacher, without a church. He posed as a divine healer and naturally attracted considerable notoriety. He rented a small building on the South Side and soon had a small following. His discourses, being of the sensational order, brought him a good deal of newspaper advertising, and every attack leveled at his pretensions added to his prominence. One of the cardinal doctrines of his creed is that each member must contribute one-tenth portion of his property and income to the church. It was not long under the application of this rule before Dowie began erecting Zion schools and stores and tabernacles along Michigan avenue. He leased the Auditorium, the largest hall in Chicago, and soon the building was too small to accommodate the crowds which thronged to hear him.* Despite a thin, squeaky voice and a alight lisp, Dowie is a most effective speaker. His personal magnetism is great, and in the Auditorium he waa able to hold vast crowd# for hours, listening to his pleading and more often to his fierce denunciations. Being a faith healer, he was savage in his denunciation of doctors and druggists. He was equally severe upon the newspapers, all of which he classed under the general head of the “reptile press,” and he' often pitched into the churches. Modesw is a word not known in Dowie vocabulary. Alternately he talked of God and Dowie with equal familiarity. But no matter what hia subject and no mntter how coarse ita treatment, hia wonderful eloquence thrilled, and men and women of refinement and education were attracted by-him. Two years ago Dowie announced from the platform of the Auditorium that he was Elijah and that this was hia third reincarnation, the second having been in the person of John'the Baptist, the im* mediate precursor of Christ. The announcement shocked some of his hearers who abandoned him. But it attracted others and it has been attracting men and women from all quarters of the world ever since. An artesian well of salt water has been bored at Bison, Kan. Tho watas. was found at a depth of 400 foe*.

JOHN ALEXANDER DO WiF.