Invitation to Ahmadiyyat — Page 293
293 misstatements, exaggerations, and ill-temper. Therefore, you are hereby deposed from your office. ’ Dowie could not refute these charges and all his followers turned against him. He finally decided to return and personally address their concerns but only a few came to receive him at the railway station and no one gave any weight to what he had to say. He turned to the law courts but they refused to give him control over the funds of the organisation and only allowed him a little stipend. He was reduced to such helplessness that his servants had to carry him from room to room and he lived in pain and anguish. The handful of friends who continued to associate with him advised him to see a doctor but he refused to do so as he had always advised others against receiving conventional treatment. While previously he had over a hundred thousand followers, he was now left with barely two hundred. He was frustrated in the courts and his ailment continued to grow. Unable to bear all this, he practically lost his sanity. One day he appeared before his fol - lowers covered all over with bandages. He said that his name was Jerry, that he had been battling with Satan the whole night, and that his general had been killed in the battle while he himself had incurred some injuries. This confirmed to his remaining followers that he had indeed lost his mind and so they too abandoned him. Finally, on March 9, 1907, the prophecy of the Promised Messiah as was fulfilled word for word and Dowie left this mor - tal world ‘in great pain and anguish’. At the time of his death, he had only four men left with him and his assets amounted to about thirty rupees! A worse picture of pain and anguish cannot be imagined. Dowie’s death was a lesson and a sign for the peo - ple of the West. Many newspapers were forced to admit that the