Invitation to Ahmadiyyat — Page 292
292 Dowie’s feet to be paralysed so that he could not even rest them on the ground. These were the same feet with which he had threat - ened to trample the Promised Messiah as. He recovered from this but two months later, on December 19, had a second attack which completely prostrated him. Finding himself completely disabled, he left his work to his deputies and went to live in an island whose atmosphere was thought to be good for paralytics. Divine Wrath followed him even there, for God wished to prove to him that he, and not the Promised Messiah as , was the worm. God wished to debase him through the very things because of which he arro - gantly said those words. He continued to grow worse and soon his followers started to ask why he could not heal himself when he claimed to be able to heal everyone else? When they searched his rooms where nobody had been allowed to go, they found bottles of wine. His wife and son confessed that Dowie drank even though he had prohibited his followers from drinking or using any kind of intoxicant or even smoking. His wife said that he had remained faithful to him through adversity but she was now devastated to find out that he had declared it lawful to marry more than one wife just so that he could marry a rich old woman. She produced letters which this woman had written in reply to Dowie’s. His fol - lowers became infuriated and they decided to have the accounts audited, which revealed that Dowie had misappropriated about 1. 5 million dollars. It also appeared that he had given presents worth thousands of dollars to various young women in the town. Upon these disclosures, Dowie’s leading followers decided to depose him and sent him a telegram as follows: ‘Unanimously the organization seriously objects to your expensive habits, hypocrisy,