Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/331

Rh a place for the reception of the sick, injured, or dependent, including women awaiting confinement. The city claims that the houses of Dr. Dowie are such hospitals, and although clean and well kept, yet inasmuch as the defendant refuses to apply for a license, liable to be declared nuisances. The court then asked: "Is a well-kept house a nuisance per se?" The answer must be "No." The court further declared that the discretion given to the commissioner of health to decide who should be granted a license was intolerable, although in view of defendant's statement that he will not submit himself to any ordinance requiring medical or surgical treatment, it is clearly within the power of the council to say whether the maintenance of such a position is a menace to the health and welfare of the city. But such control must be had under prescribed and reasonable rules. In July the authorities sought from Judge Payne an injunction to close the divine-healing home. On the sixteenth he refused to grant a preliminary injunction, and made a final decision January 2, 1896, when the case was dismissed, inasmuch as the Dowie leases were to expire in a few months. In spite of these decisions, five cases against Dr. Dowie which came over from the previous year were again brought up in the Superior court before Judge Stein, who on March 2 directed the jury to find for Dr. Dowie, inasmuch as the hospital ordinance was invalid.

Quick on the heels of these victories—in fact, even while they were but as yet impending—Dr. Dowie was planning for two very radical departures. One was to carry him away from organized Christianity, as expressed in the churches. The other was, so far as might be possible under the law of the nation and the state, to place him outside municipal control by those not in sympathy with his teachings and practice. On January 22, 1896, he held in Zion Tabernacle a general conference of all believers interested in the organization of the "Christian Catholic Church." In opening the conference he said:

God's way is not a thing, but a person. Jesus said: "I am the way." Christ is God's way. "That Thy way [Thy Christ] may be known upon earth, Thy saving health [salvation and healing going hand in hand] among all nations." And they need government, and the only rule that men one day