not even pass through my hands. But I have a
right to my share of the tithes. Have I--or not?"

"Yes."

"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 scene_, 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
sp