The theocrat. [volume] (Zion City [i.e. Zion], Ill.) 1914-1949, 1916-06-17

heard me then
[ have never opened my lips in a reli
gious service since, until | prayed in the
meeting here last Sunday.
I felt as if I had come back from the
grave. My very voice seemed strange te
me. After being buried ten years, it is
singularly appropriate that I should have
my spiritual resurrection on this Easter
Sunday.
It seems almost incredible that man
who has been engaged in active public
work all his life should suddenly become
dumb and almost dead. Yet that is ex-
actly what happened in my case, and that
is part Of the story I want to tell to you
tonight.
feel that it is not only proper, but it
is due from me to you who were my
friends and helpers in the old days, to ex-
plain my attitude toward the work and
faith we love so dearly. To make any
kind Of an explanation will necessitate my
talking about myself, so you must pardon
the personal note that may sound in this
address,
When the crisis Of 1906 came in Zion
Elder Smith here will not admit that it
was crisis; for he simply regards it as
just little bump the devil gave Zion.
However, the Elder is born optimist and
a born fighter We are not all born that
way. [ am not much Of fighter myself
but [ am a great admirer Of the warrior,
and [ would do anything to help the
fighter that lay in my power. Perhaps it
is a case Of admiring in others the qualities
one is conscious of not possessing one s
self. Anyhow, I have the greatest admira-
tion for the way Brother Smith and
Brother Carton have stuck to their guns
in Zion.
I do not know whether my soul was
strung to higher key, or made of finer
stuff, or was more delicately sensitive; I
only know that the crisis Of 1906 struck
me a dreadful blow "a crushing, heart
breaking blow and everything in my
sensitive soul seemed to snap. felt then,
and for years afterward, that I should
never recover. Like a man in the prize
fighting ring who is counted out when he
falls if unable to rise before ten is counted
[ said, "Lord, am out Count me out
Count me out forever!"
[ was stunned and heart broken Tt was
impossible to understand and there was
no one in Australia to explain. Perhaps,
at that time, there was no one in the
world who could explain.
[ do not say I was justified in going
into the silence and into the grave, but I
could not fight with a broken heart.
loved both Dowie and Voliva. I knew
in my heart that no man in the world had
been more thoroughly and conscientiously
loyal to John Alexander Dowie than Will
bur Glenn Voliva had been. I could do
nothing but simply go away and hide my
self and my broken heart in the great quiet
back-country of Central Australia.
Gradually things got clearer; and at
last, so far as Zion itself was concerned,
the dust and smoke of battle cleared
away.
Under the leadership of Wilbur Glenn
Voliva Zion was brought back on the old
lines, and John Alexander Dowie was re-
stored to the spiritual leadership of the
Movement. And that is where history
will place him for all time; and alongside
Of the name of Dowie will be written in
history the name of Voliva.
In the old days of Zion's triumph in
Australia, I always prophesied that Will
bur Glenn Voliva would some day succeed
the Founder of the Zion Movement; and,
although prophesying is risky business,
| congratulate myself that this prophecy
has become fulfilled
[ confess right here that I have always
had a great love for Wilbur Glenn Voliva
"a love amounting to more than friend
ship; and the longing to be with him again
in Zion City has come to me a thousand
times during these long ten years
However, hitherto there have been many
insuperable difficulties, some of which I
cannot refer to tonight. It is much easier
for one in the rank and file to get back
than it is for an officer, especially if that
officer prides himself on being thoroughly
honest with his own soul before his own
God
| know exactly what getting back
means I know Wilbur Glenn Voliva so
well, and love him so well, that unless [