THE 



ANNUAL CYCLOPAEDIA. 



A 



ABBOT, Rev. GORHAM DTJMMKB, LL. D., an 

 eminent scholar and teacher, a son of Rev. 

 Jacob Abhott, and younger brother of the pro- 

 lific and popular writers, Messrs. Jacob and 

 John S. 0. Abbott; born in Brunswick, Me., 

 September 8, 1808 ; died at South Natick, Mass., 

 August 3, 1874. Mr. Abbot was educated, like 

 his brothers, at Bowdoin College, from which 

 he graduated in 1826, and pursued a partial 

 theological course at Andover with the class 

 which graduated there in 1831. He was next 

 settled as a Congregationalist minister at New 

 Rochelle, N. Y., where he remained for three 

 years, doing at the same time some literary 

 work for the American Tract Society. He 

 then established a female seminary, first in La- 

 fayette Place, then on Washington Square, 

 then the Spingler Institute on Union Square, 

 where he remained for thirteen years, and sub- 

 sequently remodeled the Townsend Mansion 

 on Fifth Avenue, which for a time he con- 

 ducted in connection with the Spingler Insti- 

 tute, and finally his school was removed to the 

 Suydam Mansion on Park Avenue. During 

 much of the more than thirty years he was 

 thus engaged in teaching, his seminary occu- 

 pied high rank not only in New York but 

 throughout the country. Mr. Abbot was not 

 only a skillful and successful teacher, but he 

 was an excellent judge of character and pos- 

 sessed great executive ability. He retired 

 from his seminary in 1869 or 1870 with an am- 

 ple competence, which subsequent unfortunate 

 investments materially diminished. But Dr. 

 Abbot (he received the honorary degree of 

 LL. D. from Ingham University in 1860) was 

 not a teacher only, he had also achieved a 

 good reputation as an author. His " Family 

 at Home," " Nathan Dickerman," " Mexico 

 and the United States," and other works, were 

 creditable alike to his thorough research and 

 his rhetorical ability. He was greatly inter- 

 ested in Biblical study, and imported at his 



VOL. XIV. 1 A 



own expense a set of the plates of the Anno- 

 tated Paragraph Bible of the London Tract 

 Society, and published several editions of that 

 admirable work, at a low price, to facilitate 

 Biblical instruction. 



ADVENTISTS. I. SEVum-n-DAY ADVENT- 

 I8T8. The statistical returns of this denomina- 

 tion show it to have fifteen State Conferences, 

 three hundred churches, seventy-five ordained 

 ministers, sixty licentiates, and fifteen thou- 

 sand members. Meetings of the General Con- 

 ference were held at Battle Creek, Michigan, 

 in November, 1873, and August, 1874. At 

 the former meeting, November 14, 1873, the 

 treasurer reported his receipts to have been, 

 including the balance on hand at the time of 

 making his previous report in March, 1873, 

 $9,039.63, and his expenditures, $4,879.88; 

 showing a balance still on hand of $4,159.75. 

 A committee, appointed at the previous Gen- 

 eral Conference for that purpose, reported that 

 several families holding the views of the de- 

 nomination had been induced to remove to 

 Battle Creek, where the Conference was en- 

 deavoring to establish a strong centre of in- 

 fluence. This committee were requested to 

 continue their efforts for another year. Fifty- 

 two thousand dollars had been pledged to the 

 fund for the establishment of a denominational 

 school. Resolutions were adopted by this Con- 

 ference declaring the denomination to be intrust- 

 ed with two great truths, which it was its 

 duty to set before men, viz. : " The doctrine of 

 the near advent of Christ, and that of the 

 commandments of God and the holy Sabbath ; '' 

 expressing regret at the opposition of many of 

 the Advent people u to the Sabbath and the 

 law of God ; " but disavowing the existence 

 toward them of a spirit of contention or bit- 

 terness, and uttering the hope "that with 

 many of them a more candid spirit toward 

 these great truths might yet prevail." The 

 Seventh-Day Baptists were recognized as "a 



