Dowie, Elijah Claims and the Mormon Missionary Tide
By Editor
Since penning the reference to Dowie in the editorial, we have had the privilege of an interview with one who was present when Dowie announced himself as Elijah the prophet returned to earth. He appointed his wife as his successor, and asked how many would support her in that office, and the whole audience voted in the affirmative. He then said that if he and his wife both passed away, he appointed his eldest son, now attending the university, to the succession, and asked how many would stand by him; and the whole audience joined in the affirmative again. But for Elijah to die would be a new experience, would it not? Why can Dowie not be his own successor, and re-incarnate as often as necessary? Yet we are in such an age of folly and deception that some will accept his vagaries. And while these things are going on in Chicago, two thousand two hundred and twenty Mormon missionaries are scattered through the country, propagating their equally wild and delusive doctrines among the people. What is the Church of Christ doing to stem the mighty tide of delusion? The spirit and prayer of the new missionary hymn needs to be fulfilled to the world to-day:— “Flash forth, O ye fathomless heavens,
That flame on this world may be shed;
Speak out, with a voice of a trumpet,
Thou Spirit, that waketh the dead.”