The Deadbeat Prophet

Illinois, 1906

Yes, why does not John Alexander Dowie, "First Apostle," pay his debts? That question was bandied forth and back in Zion Sunday and it broke up a meeting arranged by Dowie. Police were called in, but they could do little more than keep the faithful and deluded from strangling each other.

It is a pity that it could not have been answered for Dowie that his debts have been paid. It appears that in these days it is necessary for a man to pay his bills if he lays any claim to being an apostle. The one who will not pay may overlay himself with a coating of seeming sanctity and saintliness and apostleship, but his competitors for the favor of the faithful are likely to get him in a corner at any time and call him a deadbeat The opponents of a professedly pious man are inclined at times to get raggedly familiar with him if he does not and will not pay his bills.

The lesson to be learned from all this is that if you expect to play the role of apostle with success here on earth it has become necessary for you to keep the finances straight. Certainly the time will come when a prophet who does not pay his bills will find himself without honor at home.

—The Daily Review, Decatur, IL, May 14, 1906, p. 4.