ADVENTISTS. 



AFRICA. 



imperative duty of the Seventh-Day Adventists 

 to take immediate steps for the formation of 

 an Educational Society and the establishment 

 of a denominational school." It is intended 

 to give facilities in this school for the study 

 of the languages of those countries to which 

 the General Conference will send ministers. 



III. ADVENT CHRISTIANS. The Advent 

 Chrittiant believe the doctrines of the imme- 

 diate personal coming and reign of Christ on 

 the earth; holiness of heart; the unconscious 

 state of the dead; their literal resurrection; 

 and of the final destruction of the wicked. 

 Their sixth national camp-meeting was held 

 at Springfield, Mass., August 25th to August 

 31st. It was devoted to religious exercises. 

 Their business is cared for by the Advent 

 Christian Attestation and the Advent Chris- 

 tian Publication Society. They have also a 

 mi^ionary society. The Advent Christian 

 Atiociation is composed of one delegate from 

 each church, "and one additional delegate 

 for every body of fifty members." In the call 

 fur the meeting of 1873 it was specified that 

 " any body of believers in Christ cooperating 

 in the work and design of the Association will 

 be accepted as a church, and every preacher 

 cooperating is entitled to membership." The 

 sixteenth annual meeting of the Association 

 was held in connection with the national 

 camp-meeting at Springfield, Mass., Aui:u>t 

 25th and 20th. It was attended by fifty-nine 

 preachers, several of whom were women, and 

 twenty-nine Jay delegates. Its business con- 

 sisted in listening to an address from the pres- 

 ident, and receiving the minutes and reports 

 of the Association, and of the Advent Christian 

 Publication Society. The treasurer of the 

 Fabrication Society reported that his receipts 

 for the year had been $21,448.55, and his ex- 

 penditures $20, 707.18, leaving a balance in the 

 treasury of $741.37. The property of the so- 

 ciety on hand, including this balance, was 

 valued at $10,401.21. The business agent re- 

 ported the capital of the society to be $18,501.- 

 21. About 1,100,000 pages of tracts had been 

 published during the year. The sum of $885.- 

 65 had been received on the tract fund, being 

 $329.27 more than were received during the 

 previous year. The receipts of the American 

 Adcent Muuionary Society for the year ending 

 August 27, 1873, were $5,532.62 ; its expenses 

 were $5,207.50. 



IV. LIFE AND ADVENT UNION. The Life 

 and Adcent Union is constituted of believers 

 in the doctrines of "life only in Christ" (em- 

 bracing that of the annihilation of the wicked), 

 and of the personal proximate advent of our 

 Lord Jesus. Its camp-meeting and business 

 meetings were held at Springfield, Mass., com- 

 mencing Augnst 10th. The second anniversary 

 of the Life and Advent ilinnionary Society was 

 held at the camp-ground in Springfield, Augnst 

 15th. The receipts of the society were reported 

 to have been $129.77, and its expenditures 

 $78.85. 



AFRICA. The area of Africa (according to 

 Behm and Wagner, Die Berolkerung der Erde, 

 Gotha, 1872) was estimated in 1872 at 11,456,- 

 000 square miles ; the population at 192,520.- 

 000.* 



The religious complexion of Africa has of 

 late undergone great changes. Mohammedan- 

 ism is steadily advancing in Central Africa, and 

 is now once more becoming the leading re- 

 ligion. It spreads among the negro races 

 the fanaticism and fatalism of Islam, but ele- 

 vates many of them by the establishment of 

 schools. The number of the Mohammedan 

 population may now be estimated at 80,000,000. 

 On the other hand, the important island of 

 Madagascar may be regarded as fully secured 

 for Protestant Christianity. The ruling classes 

 have mostly joined the Church, and the Chris- 

 tianization of the whole island may be ex- 

 pected within a comparatively short period. 

 When it shall be complete, Madagascar with 

 its 5,000,000 will be the largest Christian 

 state of Africa, and the Protestant population 

 will be swollen to about 6,000,000, who with 

 the 3,000,000 Abyssinians and 1,500,000 Cath- 

 olics, would form a Christian population of 

 about 10,500,000. 



The steady and rapid growth of Egypt is at- 

 tracting the attention of the civilized world. 

 Werner Munzinger Bey, the learned Swiss 

 geographer who has been appointed by the 

 Egyptian Government Governor of Massowali 

 and Suakin, has firmly established the Egyp- 

 tian rule in the mountain-districts bordering 

 upon Abyssinia; and Sir Samuel Baker, who, 

 in June, 1873, returned from his expedition to 

 the interior of Africa, claimed to have subjected 

 to the rule of the Khedive all the country be- 

 tween the Albert Nyanza and the Victoria 

 Nyanza down to the equator. If this country 

 can be permanently secured for Egypt, its area 

 would exceed 1,000,000 square miles, making 

 it, next to Russia, China, the United States, the 

 British Empire, and Brazil, the largest empire 

 of the globe. The dependency of Egypt upon 

 Turkey is thus becoming more and more nom- 

 inal, and may at any time come to a sudden 

 end. (See EGYPT.) 



In Abyssinia, the rule of Prince Kassa, or, 

 as he is now called, Emperor Johannes, has 

 been greatly strengthened, and he was, in 1873, 

 regarded as the actual ruler of all Amhara and 

 Tigr6. (See ABYSSINIA.) 



The treaty concluded in 1871 between Eng- 

 land and the Netherlands, by which the latter 

 ceded all the Dutch possessions on the coast 

 of Guinea to England, while England, on the 

 other hand, withdrew her former opposition to 

 the extension of Dutch rule on the island of 

 Sumatra, has become for both treaty powers 

 a source of serious difficulties. While the 

 Netherlands have become involved in a war 

 with the Sultan of Acheen, England had to 



* For an account of the area and population of the 

 Alvlnlon and subdivisions, tee AMERICAN ANNCAL 

 CYCLOPAEDIA for 1872. 



