JOHN ALEXANDER DOWIE A LIFE STORY OF TRIALS, TRAGEDIES AND TRIUMPHS Published by CHRIST FOR THE NATIONS, INC. Dallas, Texas Reprint 1980 All Rights Reserved – Used by Permission DEDICATION This book is dedicated to the many ministers who are preaching the great gospel of deliverance in various parts of the world. May the dramatic life story of John Alexander Dowie be at once an inspiration and an object lesson to every man of God who ministers healing to the sick and afflicted, a ministry which to no little extent was brought back to the church through the efforts of the man of whom this book is written. This book is also dedicated to the author’s father and mother whose faith in God found much of its source and inspiration during the years they spent in Zion. The author wishes to express his appreciation and acknowledgement of the help received from Overseer Anton Darms, who so kindly checked the manuscript for accuracy, and who made available to him a number of books and rare documents of the Zion story. He also wishes to thank Rev. Theodore Mason who made it possible for him to secure an almost complete library of THE LEAVES OF HEALING. CONTENTS CHAPTER I The Dramatic Appearance of Dowie Upon the World Scene II Early Life of John Alexander Dowie III Young Dowie Begins His Labors As a Pastor IV The Staying of the Plague of Death V His Marriage to Jeanie VI In-Law Trouble VII Dowie Leaves the Organized Church VIII Dowie Tries for a Seat in the Australian Parliament IX Deceived By a Confidence Man X The Hour of Despair XI Beginning of the Dawn XII Vengeance of the Liquor Interests XIII Dowie Leaves Australia for America XIV Through the Golden Gate XV Dowie Visits the False Christ XVI Dr. Dowie Goes to Chicago XVII The Rising Storm in Chicago XVIII Arrested A Hundred Times! XIX Banishment of “The Little White Dove” XX Signs, Wonders, and Miracles XXI Founding of the Christian Catholic Church XXII Organization of the Seventies XXIII The Holy War XXIV The Dream City of Zion XXV An Utopia on Earth XXVI The Elijah Declaration XXVII Shadows Over Zion XXVIII A Tragic Day in May XXIX The New York Visitation XXX Round-the-World Tour XXXI The First Apostle XXXII Winter of Reckoning XXXIII Last Days of John Alexander Dowie XXXIV Memorial Message by Judge V. V. Barnes XXXV A Half Century Passes JOHN ALEXANDER DOWIE A LIFE STORY OF TRIALS, TRAGEDIES AND TRIUMPHS INTRODUCTION The story of John Alexander Dowie is a fascinating one, and suspense and interest builds up as one proceeds with the narrative. However the purpose for which this book was written was of far more importance than merely to entertain. The life of Dr. Dowie is, in the writer’s opinion, as well as that of many others, the greatest object lesson in the history of the church. First, it shows that when any man is chosen of God to be used in an unusual manner, God permits him to go through a training period, which sometimes includes trials and tribulations of the most severe nature. Second, it will be seen that the great successes of Dr. Dowie began only after he fully embraced the message of Divine healing. It was the great miracles of healing that were responsible for giving his ministry its power and authority. Third, it was at that moment when he began to engage in secular activities, and departed from the simplicity of his earlier days, that his decline began. All these things are lessons of solemn interest to us today. We are under no illusion that some will not be disappointed with certain things which we have included in this biography. While our dealing with the subject has been highly sympathetic, we have felt that we would not be fair to our objective, if we did not tell the whole story as it happened. Some believe that Dr. Dowie could have done no wrong, others believe that he was a mountebank and a deceiver. Neither view is correct. God raised up John Alexander Dowie, for a specific work, which was to reintroduce Divine healing to the Church. In a considerable measure this purpose was fulfilled, although his errors of judgment at the closing period of his life are to be regretted. We believe that the church has received an enormous impetus of faith because this man has lived. GORDON LINDSAY JOHN ALEXANDER DOWIE A LIFE STORY OF TRIALS, TRAGEDIES AND TRIUMPHS CHAPTER I THE DRAMATIC APPEARANCE OF DOWIE UPON THE WORLD SCENE THE Christian generation of today knows little of a story, which is as unique and fascinating as any that has appeared in the annals of the church since the days of the apostles. Though forgotten today, in the rapid moving of events, the name of John Alexander Dowie was known to millions throughout the world at the turn of the century. The story of Dowie is that of a man with an amazing mission—a mission that in its scope took in nothing less than the whole world. It is an account of a reformer who, fighting against the greatest of odds, single-handedly challenged the apostasy of his time, and succeeded in bringing to the attention of the church visible, if not to its acceptance, the message of the Gospel of healing—a message of deliverance for the whole man, body, soul and spirit. Against overwhelming opposition, a hostile press, bitterly opposed clergymen, antagonistic city officials, unscrupulous lawyers, who, hired by the combined opposition, used every loophole of the law and legal technicality to stop him, he fought for and maintained the right to pray for the sick. Despite the fiercest persecution, numerous illegal arrests—as many as one hundred in a year—he outwitted and foiled his enemies, and succeeded in bringing to the attention of the world, the great truth that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever, and established the right for the minister of the Christian Church to obey Christ’s command in the Great Commission to lay hands on the sick for healing. The rise of John Alexander Dowie to international prominence came with an abruptness that reminds one of Elijah, who many centuries ago suddenly appeared before the King of Israel to challenge by a test of fire, the apostasy of the Baal prophets, or of John the Baptist, who “as a voice crying in the wilderness” made his presence known in a dramatic call of repentance to a nation unprepared to meet the Lord Who was already in her midst. When Doctor Dowie first set foot on American soil, he was forty-one years of age, and as far as this country was concerned, was virtually an unknown minister of the Gospel. However, news of the arrival of a man who preached Divine healing, and who got results, soon spread abroad, and he began receiving calls from up and down the Pacific Coast. He at once launched into a series of healing missions, which eventually took him to Chicago, where within a few brief years, a series of dramatic events were to plummet his ministry before the attention of the entire world. 1 JOHN ALEXANDER DOWIE A LIFE STORY OF TRIALS, TRAGEDIES AND TRIUMPHS In 1893, just at the starting of the World’s Fair in Chicago, John Alexander Dowie decided to make his headquarters permanently in that city. He built a small unpretentious wooden tabernacle, just outside the doors of the Fair Grounds. This unimposing structure, contemptuously referred to by his enemies as a “miserable little wooden hut,” became the scene of his first important efforts in his warfare against the vice and iniquity of the great metropolitan city—at that time a city of about two million inhabitants. The services held in this tabernacle did not have an auspicious beginning. Many passed by “the little wooden hut” as they thronged the grounds of the World’s Fair, but they gave it only passing notice. Their interest was in the excitement of that colossal Vanity Fair, which included such hair-raising and blood-curdling features as “The Siege of Vicksburg,” or the “Blood and Thunder” of Buffalo Bill and his Whooping Indians. A few dropped into the tabernacle, and they returned bringing others with them. Nevertheless, the work was small and discouraging. A bitter winter followed that brought gales and storms of unusual violence, sweeping in from the waters of Lake Michigan. Dowie’s strength and courage was severely tried during those dark days. But with coming of spring of 1894, a break came. Notable miracles of healing were now taking place and these began to draw attention. Before long, large crowds were attending and indeed, contesting for standing room in the tabernacle. With success, came an attendant persecution that was perhaps to set a world’s record, and which included no less than one hundred warrants for the arrest of Dr. Dowie during the year 1895. In one of the most bitter of persecutions in the history of America, a relentless opposition, determined to drive Dowie and Divine healing from the city. But these enemies reckoned not of the mettle of which their despised opponent was made, for Dowie possessed a resourcefulness unusual for a non- professional man, unversed in law, and a stubborn courage that accepted no defeat. He pled his case in courts, which were completely dominated by his enemies. The results in these lower courts was a foregone conclusion. When he lost, much to the exasperation of his adversaries, he carried his cause to the higher courts, where the inequities of the lower courts were quickly overruled. His enemies, frustrated and enraged, impotently fought on, until through sheer exhaustion and loss of popular support, they were forced to give up the fight, retire in confusion and acknowledge their complete defeat. Significantly, many who engaged in this persecution against Dowie, either died shortly after, or for some reason or other were compelled to retire from the scene of public life. One such example was the editor of the Chicago Dispatch, a Mr. Dunlop, who had taken the lead in the persecution by the press, and was to find himself, less than two years later, behind penitentiary bars, his own wicked life and crimes exposed before the world. 2 JOHN ALEXANDER DOWIE A LIFE STORY OF TRIALS, TRAGEDIES AND TRIUMPHS Actually, the persecution contributed to the bringing to pass the very thing that his adversaries least desired, and least anticipated would happen. Instead of Dowie being ignominiously driven from the city as they had confidently expected, their persecution had given Dowie such publicity that he was able to move into, and fill the largest auditorium in the city of Chicago. There, from Sunday to Sunday, thousands of people gathered to listen to the man whose dynamic ministry was affecting the lives of countless thousands, in a fashion that Chicago had never before witnessed. In that great auditorium, multitudes acknowledged Christ as their Savior and, under the searching preaching of this man of God, many relinquished evil habits and made restitution for their wrongs. And now, the unusual talents of John Alexander Dowie had opportunity for their fullest expression. His voice cried out against sin in high places and low. The evils of tobacco, liquor and drugs were scathingly denounced, much to the dismay of the great vested interests which engaged in their sale and distribution. He exposed the shams and hypocrisies of an apostate and decadent church. Iniquity in the government or in the pulpit alike, brought forth his stern and uncompromising censure. Several times, attempts were made upon the life of Dr. Dowie, but all attempts failed. He gave the forces of iniquity no respite, and continued to blast at social evils wherever he found them, sparing none. Then in 1896, Dr. Dowie organized the Christian Catholic Church, with a charter membership of five hundred. This number rapidly grew into thousands. For some time, Dowie had contemplated the building of a great city, to be inhabited only by Christians, where the use of tobacco, liquor and other kindred vices would be perpetually barred. With this in mind, he negotiated secretly for the purchase of 6,600 acres of land on the shores of Lake Michigan at a site 40 miles north of Chicago. Once the land had been secured, sub-divided and opened for lease, thousands of people rushed to secure leases which by contract were extended for a period of 1,100 years. Within two years, nearly ten thousand people had been drawn to this new city which he had named “Zion”. Factories and industries were invited to find sites in the community, and one industry, for the making of fine lace, was imported from Great Britain— machinery, managing personnel and all. Meanwhile interest in the Christian Catholic Church continued; branches began to spring up in cities all over the nation. Missionaries and workers were sent to establish churches and missions in various parts of the world. During these years, Dowie planned one enterprise after another, laboring with a feverish intensity, as a man working against time. He organized what he called the Seventies, which, in a methodical way, went out two by two, carrying the Gospel to every home. Later he disbanded the Seventies and organized in their place, the Restoration Host. He engaged in a “three month’s holy war” against Satan’s forces in Chicago. 3 JOHN ALEXANDER DOWIE A LIFE STORY OF TRIALS, TRAGEDIES AND TRIUMPHS Dowie was a prolific writer, editing during his ministry, sixteen volumes of a weekly publication, called LEAVES OF HEALING, of quarto size, each volume having from 800 to 1000 pages. He wrote poetry. He made a trip around the world. In one of his boldest ventures, he chartered a series of trains which carried thousands of his followers to New York City. During the day his followers systematically went from house to house carrying tracts and information about his work, while in the great night services, he spoke to vast multitudes in Madison Square Garden. It was a Herculean effort; nothing like it since the Crusades had ever been attempted in the church. Dowie was now received by congressmen, by governors, and on one occasion, by President Theodore Roosevelt, who left a cabinet meeting to meet him. Dowie continued to dream. He was restless and looked for “more worlds to conquer”. He proposed to strike the devil such a blow, that if it were possible, would usher in the Millennium. In accordance with this proposal, he planned on building “Zions” all over the earth, with the largest one at Jerusalem. It was at this point that his dreams became visionary, and a dark and ominous cloud settled upon his affairs. But we must pause for we are getting ahead of our story. We should not fail to mention that the man God used in these epochal adventures of faith, endured dark years of discouragements and reverses, when to all appearances everything seemed lost. He knew what it was to taste the bitterness of poverty, to be scorned as a ne’er-do-well by his relatives, to find himself in a position unable to adequately support his family. Once he ran for public office, and was soundly defeated. During those days, however, he did have a most remarkable experience which was to influence mightily his future. While pastoring at Newtown, suburb of Sydney, a devastating plague swept through the area, threatening to wipe out the whole population. It was during the hours of tragedy that God revealed to him the glorious ministry of healing, and he was able to pray the prayer of faith with such results that the plague, as far as his people were concerned, was stayed—not another member of his flock died from the epidemic. Despite this vivid experience of God’s manifestation of healing power, Dowie was not then prepared to enter fully into such a ministry. Man is a natural imitator of what he sees others doing. There appears to be uncertainty and insecurity in taking unknown paths. Dowie tried the usual methods that he saw other reformers using. He denounced the evils of his day with an eloquence, of which he was not lacking. He fought vehemently against the liquor evil, helped organize temperance societies, and became champion of those opposed to traffic in alcoholic beverages. At the insistence of friends, he ran for public office, thinking that a seat in the Australian parliament might be God’s way in which he might most effectively 4 JOHN ALEXANDER DOWIE A LIFE STORY OF TRIALS, TRAGEDIES AND TRIUMPHS secure a reformation of social conditions. In the interests of reform, he corresponded with William Gladstone, the famed English statesman. But at every step his plans seemed destined to frustration. He got into debt, his fair weather friends forsook him, and his own relatives thought that he was beside himself. It was only after years of the bitterest of trials and tribulations, that he gradually became aware of God’s great plan for his life. Little by little as his soul reached out, at first in a kind of desperation, then with more certainty, he began to see the light. As he entered into a ministry to the sick and the afflicted, the tide of failure turned. Slowly at first, but finally, success came his way. In a few years his ministry attracted international interest. Then in a meteoric rise to fame, as a champion of the truth of Divine healing, he found himself plummeted into the spotlight of world attention. But before we begin a more detailed narration of the life of this man of God, and trace the story of God’s dealings with him, we shall take the liberty to quote from the lines of Overseer Anton Darms, who knew Dr. Dowie personally. These words graphically summarize the unique ministry of this prophet of the Nineteenth Century. “John Alexander Dowie holds a unique and definite place in the development of apostolic ideals for the Church of the Twentieth Century. His life, mission, and work present a fascinating, romantic object lesson for those interested in progressive Christianity. “Singlehanded, as Elijah of old, he denounced the decadent order of the day, and protested mightily against apostasy, both of the Protestant and Catholic divisions of the Church, and heralded a New Day of a thousand years when Jehovah would hold sway over a redeemed earth. “Like a clap of thunder out of a clear sky, John Alexander Dowie started on his world-wide mission of setting forth the Word of God, and putting into practice, the ideals and principles of the coming Messianic Kingdom; and thereby succeeded in making “Zion” a household word throughout the whole world. “It has been said that in him were treasured up the rarest gifts and talents ever given to man. As an iconoclast, he denounced evil in high and low places, tore off the mask of unfaithful shepherds behind the pulpit, protested against the shams and the fads of a giddy world, and heralded the death-knell of a dying age. “Sudden and unexpected as was his entry upon the public arena, so sudden and unexpected also was his demise, compelling thousands of devoted followers to whom God’s Inspired Word was a sealed book, to acknowledge that his faithful ministry had resulted in making the Bible a new book to them.” 5 JOHN ALEXANDER DOWIE A LIFE STORY OF TRIALS, TRAGEDIES AND TRIUMPHS CHAPTER II EARLY LIFE OF JOHN ALEXANDER DOWIE JOHN Alexander Dowie was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, May 25, 1847. Those who attended his birth could scarcely have dreamed of the impression that this child should some day make upon the world. As many others who have been signally used of God, not excluding the Lord, he was born in poverty. In his early years, he had opportunity to observe the darker side of life, and to witness, first hand, the misery and sorrow which resulted from sin. Very early in life he developed a deep revulsion to evil, and his hatred of it, was later to find expression in his fierce denouncements against sin, which he saw brought nothing but heartache and sorrow to the human race. The lad’s childhood days were not happy. He was often sick, and more than once his parents despaired of his life. His attendance at school was irregular, partly because of the shabby condition of his clothes, and partly because he was sick so much of the time. His young mind, however, had a keen thirst for knowledge, and he made the best of such opportunities that he had. Some of his friends were kind enough to lend him books which he read eagerly. Being a precocious lad, he read the Bible through at the age of six years. John Alexander received a definite call from God at the early age of seven. He accompanied his father as often as he could on preaching journeys. He also attended the street preaching of a humble minister by the name of Henry Wright, and, through listening to him, was led to give his heart to God. This obscure preacher could have had little realization that one in his audience was destined some day to speak words that would turn thousands to Christ, and who should also, in no little measure, be the instrument in the hands of God to restore to the Church the ministry of healing. Even before his conversion, the young lad was to develop a hatred for the iniquities of the liquor traffic. He suffered the consequences of intemperance of some he loved, and, as a child, learned of the sorrows of others who became victim of the curse. A temperance movement was rising in Scotland at the time and at the age of six, he signed a pledge against the use of intoxicating liquors. Toward tobacco too, he developed an early antipathy. As a lad he took his stand against its use and later was to become the world’s greatest champion against the accursed nicotine habit. 6