The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1903-10-24
.PARKauRST ON DOYLE
Zion city's Chief as Viewed ~
Noted Clergyman.
GREED DEEMED SOMEWHAT FINE.

New York Pastor, Who Heard the
SELF styled Elijah III. Speak, says
he Is Disgusting ana his Pretense
10 Healing Grotesque-- eelares He
Is TOO wiIIfuIIy Conscious aud
Coarse Grained.
The Rev. Charles II. Parkhufst, D. D.,
pastor Of the Madison Avenue Presby-
terrain church in New York. who was
asked 81 the New York American for
his Impressions Of John Alexander
Dowie leader Of lions restoration
host that recently invaded the metrop-
oils, said:
You ask me to state my impressions
Of Dowie and OF his service held in
Madison Square Garden last evening
{Oct. 1g). / have tried aud with fair
success, / believe, to diYest myself Of
prejudice; have gone even further than
that and as far as possible have made
use of the principle stated by Carlyle
in his Essay on Yoltaire, that no
character is rightly understood until It
has first been regarded with certain
feeling not of tolerance only, but Of
sympathy"
Dowie is presumably Ike other peo-
pie in this respect that he is neither
/ unmixedly good nor unmixedly bad The
easiest question to ask and the most
difficult to answer Is whether he is
I hypocrite. This Elijah business Of his
IS confessedly q good deal Of strain
on eredulity. Probably he did not be-
lieve III it himself when he started out,
but In trying TO convince others Of It he
4 has persuaded himself and In this way
hammered down his hypocrisy into sim
certify. That is not difficult. Indeed it
4 IS very easy with man Of his peculiar
psychological outfit.
Dowie is good perhaps, but at any
I rate he is clever aud has a phenome-
nal faculty for converting cleyerness
into dollars This is not alleged criti-
eisn. Cleyerness IS good, ana dollars
are good, and we all wish we had
more genius for converting the one into
the other, and If it is wrong for a
preacher TO have a bank account it Is
wrong for a layman. There Is only one
genuine standard Of righteousness. It
IS net claimed that Dowie las made
his money fraudulently nor that lie is
using it dishonesty. His people come
closer to him in these matters than we
do. and they appear to respect him and
indeed to love him. Another accusa-
ton urged against him Is that be drives
fine team Pastors, rectors and even
bishops are sometimes liable TO the
same imputation The original Elijah
rode in a chariot so Scripture tells us,
drawn by a span by the side Of which
Dowie's steeds are not even a circum-
stance.
Dowie has founded a city which In
point of orderliness and deccncy casts
New York entirely in the shade The
laws are observed there better than
they are here The saloon question IN
Zion City IS dealt with frankly and
uneqnivocally. Zion City's new court
{ closes with the doxology Perhaps
that lis rather extreme, but there would
Z UE no Nat4A All HAAllAAAA4Gl- AAAE punt "
the attention Of our local judges and
E justices and if prudent to the public
G prosecutor Of the county There Is
( certainly administrative and executive
timber IN the man, and we ought to
give even the devil his due, although
do not intend this disrespectfully
! Were he mayor he would he IN con
I slant rows with his heads OF depart.
ments, for ia Zion City lie Is "the
I whole thing the entire bureau
shelves, drawers and till, the very arch
I fiend OF all bossism,
Dowie's people are fond Of him, ant
be has the appearance of being very
thoughtful OF them His thoughtful
/ ness comes out in little, unobtrnsiye
/ ways that for that very reason denote
Il all the more A modest example L
seen in the fact that he recommended
\ to the people who were TO come on
4 here New York. with him that befor
leaving Zion City they should deposi
In lions vaults the valuables, souve
Mrs. kniekknacks, etc, they were leav
: ing behind at the rate of So. But ever
q Zionist holiness .has certain curren
it expenses that have to be met, and ev
cry poultryman who deyotea himsel
TO feeding his birds expects to ge
some of it back In feathers.
e Like this IS what some one has writ
e ten about Dowie's sanitarium bushes
p and by one who stands quite generous
~ affected toward him, He began It i
= 1893, when he opened a divine healin
home, which was simply a boardin
house with a lot Of prayer. Ever
morning he gathered The inmates
preached to them, prayed with thei
and laid hands on them, and ever
week Mrs Dowie collected the boar
money nothing extra for the prayer
The only adverse thing to be said aboJ
the performance Is that It holds Il
piety and the shekels in SO close juxt
position that it leaves a funny lmpre
sion. and yet that perhaps is not veI
different from the familiar fact thi
other pastors preach 50 many sermon
IN the year and pray 50 many praye
in the year and get 50 much quid ri
quo at the end Of the year or quarterl
The pretense that Dowie makes
supernatural healing is Of course a gr
II $780,. ..stt-- hs.A.a,.n D. a.- dr-ettr.