n, it means that in the struggle
for that particular soul, the devil has been victorious."

So, supported by this thesis, Dowie triumphed over the objections of
his critics, not only in the eyes of Sion, but of all Chicago. Even
when he lost his only daughter, Esther, his authority was in no way
affected.

Esther Dowie was twenty-one, and the pride of her father's heart. She
had finished her studies at the University of Chicago, and a happy
future seemed to be opening out before her. One day in the month of
May she was preparing for a large reception which was being held in
honour of young Booth-Clibborn, grandson of General Booth of the
Salvation Army. The event was an important one, for it was hoped that
this meeting would bring about an understanding between the
Salvationists and the Sionists, and Miss Dowie wished to give the
visitor the most gracious welcome possible. She was lighting a
spirit-lamp, for the purpose of waving her hair, when a draught of air
blew her peignoir into the flame. It caught fire, and the poor girl
was so terribly burned that she succumbed soon afterwards, although her
father and all the elders of the Church prayed at her bedside, and
although Dowie permitted a doctor to attend her and to make copious use
of vaseline. After her death, the jury decided that she must have been
burnt internally, the flames having penetrated to her throat and lungs.
Before she died she begged her father to forgive her for having
disobeyed him--for Dowie strictly forbade the use of alcohol, even in a
spirit-lamp--and implored the adherents of Sionism not to expose
themselves to death through disobedience, as she had done.

The attitude adopted by the prophet under this blow was almost sublime.
Letters of condolence and of admiration rained upon him. He wept over
his daughter's dead body, and was broken-hearted, while, instead of
drawing attention to the extenuating circumstances for his own
inability to save her--as he would have done in all other cases--he
fervently prayed to God to forgive her for having sinned against the
laws of Sion. His grief was so sincere that not only the Sionists but
the whole of Chicago joined in it.

Lack of faith was not the only thing that prevented cures. Omitting to
pay the tithes could also render them impossible; for the tithes were
due to God, and those who failed to pay them committed a voluntary
offence against the divine power. When we remember that there wer