CHAPTER XXI
Among those sent to Herbert for employment was one Zebulun I. Barnegalt, formerly a soil chemist at an experiment station of a Western State. Zebulun was forty-five, tall and gaunt, with long, narrow bony face, small, deep-set yellow-brown eyes, and a stiff, unruly mop of rusty-looking hair. He sat bolt upright, regarding the land office with disfavor while his new employer read the letter he had brought from Dr. Dowie. "Gosh," thought that new employer, "have I got to keep this?"
Aloud he asked, "What has been your experience in real estate?"
“You have gone to great extravagance here for an office consecrated to the Lord's work," announced Zebulun, in a grating voice. "Our Lord Jesus Christ had not where to lay His head."
Herbert did not know whether to laugh or to throw the man out. Instead of doing either, he said, HI shall be glad to discuss that with you some other time. Just now I'm interested in getting you comfortably settled in your job."
“I don't want comfort," grated Zebulun. "I merely seek to serve my Lord in some humble capacity. ‘Whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant.' "
"So this guy wants to be chief among us!" laughed
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Herbert to himself. "Gosh, what can I do with him?"
Aloud he said, “Well, we need a lot of willing servants on the street gang at Zion City. How would that do?”
Zebulun cleared his throat. It sounded like scraping gravel with a wooden shovel.
“The Lord's work is no place for idle jests, Deacon Renbrush. You have at least intelligence enough to see that I am not a day laborer."
“Well, then, suppose you help Deacon Stoneham here in the office."
“I am not accustomed to taking orders from beardless boys, but I can cheerfully endure any indignity for Christ's sake-at least until I see the General Overseer again."
A few days later Jesse came into Herbert's private office, shut the door, threw up his hands in defeat, and dropped into a chair.
“I give up, boss," he said. "I’ve tried your man Barnegalt at everything and he's worse at each one than at any of the others. And he's got the whole force ready to bite him."
“Have you tried him as time-keeper on the street gang?"
“Time-keep-!" gasped Jesse, pretending to faint.
“Well, you don't have to pay any attention to his reports. I know Riley keeps his men's time and does it all right. But we've got to go through the motions of using this guy somewhere."
A week later, at Zion City, Superintendent Riley of the Street Department stood with one foot on a hub of Herbert's buggy and laid down the law.
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"Moind this, if that long-legged Billygoat or Barneygoat, or whutiver monner o' goat he is at all, comes himmin' and hawin' and passin' his faultfind in' remarruks around my job army more, the good Lord hilp me not to hurrut 'im, but I'll pick 'im up be thu schruff o' the nick and thu seat o' thu britches and put 'im on a thrain fer Chi. I give ye fair warnin'."
When next Herbert saw Dr. Dowie he asked to be relieved of the incubus of Zebulun I. Barnegalt, reviewing briefly that man's shortcomings.
"I wish you would be patient with him, my boy," said the General Overseer. "He recently inherited twenty-seven thousand dollars and has invested his entire legacy in Zion securities. He is a tall gaunt Abraham Lincoln type of fellow and you have only to keep on trying until you find the thing he can do marvelously well."
"But, General Overseer, he's disrupting our working forces. If he must have a salary, I'd be glad to pay it to him to keep away- and I guess every employee of the association would chip in."
"Well, I do not like to have my faithful workers annoyed. Perhaps, after all, you'd better send him to me and I'll make some other arrangement with him. He is an old friend of mine-first came to my meetings in Omaha. His wife was living then-a beautiful young woman, and very fond of me. I was heartbroken when she died in childbirth some years later. He told me the other day how she called for me on her death-bed."
The great man's voice broke, tears ran down his
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cheeks, while he beat the desk in a burst of feeling. After a few moments he said, "No, Herbert, in memory of that beautiful spirit, we must be very kind to Mr. Barnegalt, and I know of no one in Zion who can help me do that better than you."
"Darn it," thought the youth, "that has nothing to do with the case-but what can I say?"
He did, however, transfer Zebulun to a desk in his own private office, there to keep records no one ever saw.
Among those ordained deacon on a Sunday some weeks later was Herbert's angular protege Zebulun I. Barnegalt. "I suppose," thought Herbert, "because he broke up a Zion Seventy when he tried to lead it."
CHAPTER XXII
At Zion City the factory buildings were ready, machinery had been received from England, and Deacon Lucas and his lace-makers had arrived. Huge machines were being installed, drafting-boards had been set up, and Zion lace was being designed. The lace-makers had refused to live in the little hotel built for them. They were not members of Zion, and life in a "city" with no houses and no people looked dreary. They rented homes in Waukegan and commuted daily by train.
Meantime the General Overseer was complaining that Central Zion Tabernacle was too small. Then came the announcement that he had leased the Chicago Auditorium every Sunday afternoon for two years except nine Sundays each year in July and August. Interest, curiosity, devotion brought crowds from the first. Soon more people than ever were turned away for lack of room.
To all these thousands Dr. Dowie preached the Times of the End-and his own special, God-given mission in those Times. Herbert began to be disturbed by whispers among Zion people that the General Overseer was some great figure predicted for these Times by Old Testament prophets, by Christ Himself, and by the writer of the Book of Revelation.
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Herbert had it first from Deaconess Elvira M. Harris. That gray wraith of a woman came to his office one day to inquire about leasing a lot in Zion City. When they had wound up their business, she said: "Oh, Deacon Renbrush, you cannot know how we pray for you-how earnestly and constantly we pray the dear Lord for you. Do you know who Doctor Dowie is?"
Deaconess Harris's conversation did not interest Herbert. He felt only embarrassed and annoyed by her excitement and solemnity. It was on the tip of his tongue to say, "I dunno. He might be the Archangel Gabriel, only he can't play a trombone." But he was too considerate. He replied, instead, "I'm afraid I don't know what you mean, Deaconess."
“But, Deacon Renbrush," she said, "God has chosen you to uphold the hands and help guard the life of the Prophet Elijah."
She said this with her gray, heavily lined face rapt, her almost staring gray eyes wet but glowing, her voice sunk to an awed whisper.
A few weeks later Herbert was talking with Peter Larson, foreman of one of the building gangs at Zion City. Larson said, "Well, we'll do it just like the blessed General Overseer says, Deacon. We should rejoice and thank God to obey him in all things at all times, because God has revealed to me, through His Word, that he is Elijah."
During the weeks that followed, Herbert had continued to hear from the more earnest Zion people that Dr. Dowie was Elijah, 'but still he gave the subject little thought. He was only mildly disturbed
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when he read in an editorial in "Leaves of Healing," late in May, 1901, that God had long before revealed to Dr. Dowie that he was Elijah and now laid upon him the duty of making solemn proclamation of his mission. This declaration was formally made at the Chicago Auditorium on Sunday afternoon, the second of June. The logic of it was simple:
The last two verses of the Old Testament, Malachi, IV, 5 and 6, read:
"Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord:
"And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."
"The great and dreadful day of the Lord"-namely, the end of the world-had not yet happened; therefore, Elijah had not yet come and gone.
Dr. Dowie's work had been for many years to "turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers"; the "great and dreadful day of the Lord" was near at hand; therefore, Dr. Dowie must be the promised "Elijah the Prophet."
His disciples asked Jesus (Matthew, XVII, 10 and 11), "Why then say the scribes that Elias [Elijah] must first come?
"And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things."
Dr. Dowie's mission had been to restore much of the teaching and practice of Jesus, especially healing of the sick, belief in the Full Gospel of Salvation,
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Healing, and Holy Living, the Seventies, baptism by triune immersion, tithing, sacredness of the marriage vow, and a separate place of residence for God's people. He had therefore begun to "restore all things." He had plans for still more restoration, therefore he was Elijah the Restorer.
Members of the Christian Catholic Church in Zion Throughout the World were not obliged to believe this in order to retain their membership, but all were urged to study the Scriptures prayerfully, so that belief might follow and they be happier and more useful in this mighty work ushering in the Consummation of the Age and the coming of Christ to reign as King.
At two o'clock Monday afternoon the healing-room was full of ordained officers. Its atmosphere was subdued, expectant, apprehensive.
The General Overseer came bounding in and almost immediately said, "In my declaration of yesterday afternoon I stated that acceptance of myself as Elijah the Restorer was not essential to fellowship in the Christian Catholic Church in Zion throughout the World. I have called you together, as ordained officers, to talk with you about the bearing of that declaration upon your future work for God in Zion. But before we proceed with that talk I want to say, plainly and frankly, that if any ordained officer does not believe that I am Elijah who is come to restore all things, he must retire from this meeting at once and tender his resignation as an officer. If there are any such, they may retain their fellowship in the Church. But the work God has called us to do in
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these times is so momentous, and you must all be so close to me in sympathy and understanding, that we must all see eye to eye on the person and mission of Elijah the Restorer."
Five officers arose and with angry faces went out.
Herbert did not believe.
He was not sure he disbelieved.
One thing he was sure of-he was not going to jump up and run out in anger. Time enough to decide later what he would do. For the present he would stay and hear what was said.
One after another overseers and prominent elders got up and told of their joy in the General Overseer's declaration; gave their reasons for accepting it.
None of them impressed Herbert-in fact, the more they talked, the more childish the thing seemed.
Then lesser elders, evangelists, deacons, and deaconesses spoke-and, in his mind, only made things worse.
Several times, when one officer or another said something illogical or foolish, he was on the point of walking out. Only his original resolve to stay through kept him in his seat. His mind was nearly made up. He would go quietly to Dr. Dowie, at the first opportunity, and resign his office. Whether or not he would care, after that, to remain a member of Zion he did not know, but he suspected he could not.
Then up rose Deacon Andy MacLachlan from his chair almost beside Herbert.
“Like the puir mon in the ninth chapter-r-r of Saint John I can say 'Why herein is a mar-r-rvelous
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thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes. Now we know that God hear-r-reth not sinners: but if any mon be a wor-r-shiper-r of God, and doeth His will, him He hear-r-reth ... If this mon wair-re not of God, he could do nothing.' "
Andy's voice shook, faltered, choked-he sat down.
His story had been one of the first Herbert had heard in Zion and had gone deeply down into his most sacred feelings. All these emotions flared up as Andy spoke, stronger because of the disbelief of only a moment before. The young man was shaken, his throat swelled and ached, tears ran down his cheeks.
He took this storm of exalted feeling as a direct revelation from God that Dr. Dowie was Elijah. From that moment he ceased to analyze the question -it was settled. Reason, judgment, logic, expediency were all against this Elijah absurdity, but he believed that Dr. Dowie was Elijah the Restorer-because the man himself said so. But he would not talk with any one about it. When the subject was brought into conversation he kept silent. If directly challenged, he had a stock reply: "He says he is, and he ought to know. Suppose he's mistaken-does it hurt anybody for him to work at restoring true Christianity?"
Soon after this the Illinois State Legislature moved to investigate Zion City Bank. Against Attorney Endicott's advice, Dr. Dowie publicly, gleefully, and with abuse and ridicule, defied the lawmakers. Newspapers blazed with headlines and editorials for a few days. Then the State's Attorney-General advised the legislature that it had no authority to investigate a
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private bank and the sensation fizzled out. But the gloating of Dr. Dowie and Zion was merciless. Years later the world learned why the head of Zion's Bank made that spectacular bluff.
