"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 tithe. 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 damnation.
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 scène, 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 God, acting personally upon the sufferer. In their eyes he was simply the representative of God, source of health and healing. It was not he who brought about the cures, but God, and therefore the payments that were made to him were in reality payments to God. 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 gratitude to God; 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 God, 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 God 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 God and to Dowie, His prophet, by founding a colony affiliated to Sionism which paid its tithes regularly.