The times., 1897-04-26
THE DEVIL MAKES US SICK
Rev. Mr. Dowie Denies That God
Creates Disease.
TAKES ISSUE WITH JOB
A Striking Sermon at New National
Theater on the Philosophy of Sin
and Suffering-The Thorn-in-the-
Flesh Theory-Theologi and
Medical Doctors Scored.

Rev John Alexander Dowie preached a
sermon last night at the New National
Theater, the several points OF which
pleased a very large proportion of the
audience. A very fair presentation OF this
reformer's style and matter was given iii
The Times yesterday Last evening he
said good many things which have al
| ready been reported.
| His general text was Faith, the Defer,
the Scriptural basis being How God an
nointed Jesus or Nazareth with the Holy
Ghost md with pow er, and lie went about
doing good and healing all that were
oppressed OF the devil, for God was with
Him. He began by saying that he would
| deal as effective a blow as he could at
certain false teachings.
The audience was fairly large, filling
| the lower floor, and several others being
in the dress circle. Before the sermon
he Offered prayer, Including the Lords
| prayer, on which he made a running COM
InentaTy, and then invited free will
offering He said that the expense OF
these meetings would be about S200. he
expected the audience TO contribute that
much But If you DON'T" said be, may
the Lord have mercy, on your little, mis-
erahle souls, because 1 know you are able
to do it; but if you don't, never mind, the
Lord Will see me through
After the statement of the case, as
given above, the speaker reverted TO a
Bible reading in which God was declared
| to be no respecter of persons, and the
| manner in which that principle was taught
to st. Peter in the vision. He thought it
very contemplate, this sympathy for the
Greeks as against the Turks, simply be-
cause the Greeks were "Chrstians,' and
on account of the heroism Of the Greek
king. The fact OF that matter was that
there wasn't a drop OF Greek blood 10
1.-THE whole outfit, meaning King Georges
family. He was surprised that the Greek
church should be called Christian, a
prosecutor OF Jews and banisher OF men
and women and children TO the mines. The
Greeks worshiped pictures, adored bread,
and kissed eikons. So far as the senti-
mentality of it was concerned, Christ died
for Turk as wen as Greek. The Turk is
narrow, bitter, ETC., but if the audience
had been born Turks they would act very
much as they do in Turkey. The speaker
then paid his respects to the Catholic
church, and especially to the pope, the
kissing of the toe and the dogma of in
fallibility, the latter being conferred by
a number of fallible bishops
God alone was truth, truth was infinite,
and the man is fool who claims that
he can define truth. AS God was the
ultimate ruler, SO the ultimate of religion
must be theocfacy. Lots of people pray
to Jesus Christ, some to the Holy Ghost
AS for himself he would as well pray TO
the Virgin Mary as to Christ, for ChrisT
Himself, left the injunction to pray W
the Father
The next part of the argument was q,
show that God, being incapable of beiast
or doing evil, sin and disease must perf
force, be the works of the devil He
would denounce as wicked, Internal lie
the statement that God made people sick.
Mems habits made them sick, and yet they
quoted Scripture to say that whom the
Lord loveth He chasteneth." He char
acterized tobacco chewers very Sc
yereIy, and people who ate pork rs
.miserable pork pots" He believed that
| Christ intended to curse the swine when
he ordered the legion of devils into them at
| Gadara.
| He disposed of the 'loveth and
| chasteneth'' theory by claiming that
| the Greek text was mistranSlated. and
| that chasteneth ought to be educates.
| brings up, elevates, etc. He challenged
| contradiction this point. He thought
| that the Lord would get tired of sucn q
prayer as that of the Episcopalians, about
| doing what they shouldn't do, and omitting
! to do what they ought TO do. "Are there
| any miserable Episcopalians here?" he
asked, whereat the laughter must have
| been from the Presbyterans, Methodists,
| Baptists, and other brethren. but the Bap-
| fists at least stopped laughing when he
hit them, and so on among the other de-
| nominations. He didn't believe in the
| Episcopal form of prayer Men should
| not be making the same prayer and excuses
every day. The Lord would be better
| pleased with them If they did their best
every day.
He then took issue with Job and his
| teachings, that the evils he suffered were
| from God lie said that Job blundered and
| that the bols and the destruction of the
| family and cattle were the devils work
| Even the storm was sent by the devil, who,
the speaker contended, had power over the
| wind This was proved, he said, by the
! New Testament, in which it was stated
| that Christ ..rebuked" the wind when the
| apostles were fearing for their lives at sea.
He then gave his version of what was
meant by the Thorn in the flesh" THE
| Christian minister or scholar, he said, who
| tells you that the thoIn in the flesh re-
| ferred TO by st. Paul is disease is either
| an ignoramuso or a wiIfulliar." The preach
| er's explanation of this thCrn IN the flesh
| was inerelyia reporter or scribe of the
olden time, who published some scandalous
| matter about Paul and some woman or
women spoken OF in one of the apocrypha.
| While on this theme he made reference to