ADVENTISTS. 



found lead in every specimen. The use of 

 sheet-iron \VSM-!S instead of tin plato is on this 

 account advised. The marbleized iron-ware, 

 which was popular a few years ago, is not so 

 much used since a professor of Harvard Uni- 

 versity pronounced it to be olive with poison. 

 ADVENTISTS. SEVKNTU-DAY ADVENTISTS. 

 The following is a summary of the statistics 

 of the Seventh-Day Adventists for the year 

 ending November 7, 1879: 



The number of ministers was 27 ; of church- 

 es, 50 ; of members, 1,064, greater than in 1878. 

 The number of licentiates was 151, or 3 less 

 than in 1878. The amount of moneys pledged 

 to the Systematic Benevolence Fund was $51,- 

 714, or $4,076 more than in 1878. 



The General Conference of the Seventh-Day 

 Adventists met in its eighteenth annual ses- 

 sion at Battle Creek, Michigan, November 7th. 

 Twenty conferences and two missions were 

 represented by thirty-nine delegates. The Con- 

 ference Treasurer reported that his receipts and 

 expenditures for the year had been respectively 

 $8,848. A committee, who had been'appointed 

 by the previous General Conference to look af- 

 ter a number of Russian "Sabbath-keepers" 

 who had settled in Dakota, reported that they 

 had been found to be holding fast to their 

 principles, and were anxious to become identi- 

 fied with the denomination. The denomina- 

 tion attaches importance to a gift of prophecy 

 which it believes to be possessed by Mrs. E. 

 G. White, and several sessions of the Confer- 

 ence were devoted to the consideration of the 

 subject. The report which was adopted upon 

 it declared that the past experience of the de- 

 nomination had fully proved " that our pros- 

 perity as a people is always in proportion to 

 the degree of confidence we cherish in the 



work of the spirit of prophecy in our midst; 

 that the most bitter opposition it had to meet 

 was aimed atrain.-t this work, showing that its 

 enemies realized the importance of the same ; 

 and that great light had shone upon it through 

 this channel. It also recommended several mea- 

 sures for the publication and more extensive 

 circulation of the writings of Mrs. White, par- 

 ticularly the volumes of the " Spirit of Proph- 

 ecy " and the " Testimonies of the Churcn," 

 and declared it to be the duty of the ministers 

 to teach the " Scriptural view of the gift of 

 prophecy " and of the relation it sustains to the 

 work of God. Resolutions were adopted ex- 

 pressing the opinion, as the sense of the Con- 

 ference, " that none but those who are Scrip- 

 turally ordained are properly qualified to ad- 

 minister baptism and other ordinances," and 

 that it is " inconsistent for our Conferences to 

 grant credentials to individuals to occupy offi- 

 cial positions among our people who have never 

 been ordained or set apart by our people." A 

 committee was appointed to consider the sub- 

 ject of the proper qualification of ministers, and 

 report to the next meeting of the Conference. 

 A Mission Board of nine members was consti- 

 tuted, and charged with the special oversight 

 of all the foreign missions of the denomination, 

 which is to report annually to the General Con- 

 ference. The Conference resolved that it was 

 the duty of all members of the denomination 

 to become members of the American Health 

 and Temperance Association, and to induce 

 others to do the same ; that health and tem- 

 perance clubs ought to be formed in every 

 church ; that persons should be encouraged to 

 fit themselves to engage in health and temper- 

 ance work; that ministers especially should 

 prepare themselves to present these subjects 

 and make it a part of their work ; and " that 

 it should not be considered that any minister 

 has fully discharged his duty in any new field 

 where a company of Sabbath-keepers has been 

 raised up, until he has fully advocated, in pub- 

 lic and in private, the subjects of health and 

 temperance and spiritual gifts, and organized 

 systematic benevolence ; and a failure in this 

 shall be considered worthy of censure." 



The twentieth annual meeting of the Sev- 

 enth Day Adventist Publishing Association was 

 held at Battle Creek, Michigan, November llth. 

 The Treasurer reported that the Association 

 possessed property to the value of $215,237, 

 and that its assets over the amount of indebt- 

 edness were $103,712, showing an increase of 

 net assets during the year of $4,599. The re- 

 ceipts for the year had been $284,799. The 

 Association published a general religious news- 

 paper, the "Advent Review and Sabbath Her- 

 ald," papers in the Danish, Swedish, and Ger- 

 man languages, a health journal, a monthly and 

 a weekly paper for youth, lesson - sheets for 

 Sabbath-schools, and books and tracts. The 

 periodicals had in all 23,133 subscribers; the 

 total amount of issues of books and tracts dur- 

 ing the year had been 14,274,560 pages. 



