of which they are members, and after approval by a committee of elders. Baptism is administered by immersion. The Adventists are Congregational in polity, excepting the Seventh-Day branch, which has a government of a presbyterial character. Camp-meetings form prominent and popular annual gatherings among the Adventists. On these occasions some of their societies hold business sessions.

The following is a complete list of Adventist bodies, excepting the Adonai Shomo, which is a small communistic body, and is given elsewhere in that group:

1. Evangelical Adventists,
2. Advent Christians,
3. Seventh-Day Adventists,

4. Church of God,

5. Life and Advent Union,
6. Churches of God in Christ Jesus.

I. THE EVANGELICAL ADVENTISTS.

Those who could not accept the views of the Advent Christians as to the mortality of the soul began in 1855 to hold separate meetings, and to be known as Evangelical Adventists. They believe that the soul is immortal; that all the dead will be raised, the saints first and the wicked last; that the former will enter upon the millennial reign with Christ and after the judgment receive as their reward an eternity of bliss; that the wicked, who will rise at the end of the millennial reign, will be sent away into everlasting punishment. They also hold, contrary to the belief of the Advent Christians, that the dead do not always sleep, but are in a conscious state. In other respects their doctrinal views do not differ from those of the second branch.

They have two annual conferences, besides five congre

gations, unattached, and are found in Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania. Besides the church edifices reported, this denomination occupies as places of worship 5 halls, etc., with a seating capacity of 775.

2. THE ADVENT CHRISTIANS.

A difference of opinion on the question of the immortality of the soul led to a division in 1855. Those who believe that man, both body and soul, is wholly mortal, and that eternal life is to be had only through personal faith in Christ as the gift of God, constitute the branch known as the Advent Christian Church. They hold to the proximate personal coming of Christ, and that after he comes the millennium will begin; they deny the inherent immortality of the soul, insisting that those only shall put on immortality at Christ's coming who are his true disciples; they believe that all the dead are in an unconscious state;

that all shall rise therefrom-the just first, to receive the gift of immortality and to reign with Christ; the unjust last, to receive sentence of banishment and to be punished by annihilation.

The Advent Christians have twenty conferences, with which three fifths of them are connected. The rest are in congregations which are not associated. The congregations are somewhat loosely organized, there being no general set of rules or particular form of government provided for them. They occupy as places of worship 281 halls, schoolhouses, and private houses, with an aggregate seating capacity of 34,705 for the two former. The seating capacity of private houses is not given in any of the tables in this volume.

3. THE SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS.

These form a branch of the general movement of 1840-44. They differ from other Adventists in observing the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath, in interpretation of the prophetic periods, and in form of organization. They believe that the prophetic period of 2300 days referred to in the Book of Daniel closed in 1844; but that the coming of Christ was not to be looked for then, but is to occur in the indefinite future. They hold that Christ, in 1844, at the termination of the 2300 days, entered as priest upon the work of cleansing the heavenly sanctuary, or temple, from "the presence of our sins." This period, which is to be brief, is to close with the second coming, the time of which cannot be forecast. The observance of the seventh day began with a congregation of Adventists in New Hampshire in 1844. The doctrine respecting the "cleansing of the sanctuary" has helped to establish and confirm this observance. They believe that the second advent is to precede, not follow, the millennium, that the state of the dead is one of unconsciousness, and that immersion is the proper form of baptism. They practice the ceremony of feet-washing when the Lord's Supper is administered.

Their congregations are organized into conferences, of which there are twenty-six, besides five missions. There is also a general conference, which meets annually, composed of delegates from the various conferences. Ordained ministers are not pastors, but traveling evangelists. The local churches are served by local officers who need not be ordained ministers. Members are expected to contribute a tenth of their income to the church.