4 ADVENTISTS, SEVENTH-DAY. 



AFGHANISTAN. 



Australia, the Sandwich Islands, and Russia. 

 The question was brought up of what attitude 

 should be assumed by the denomination to- 

 ward indictments for working on Sunday, 

 which were beginning to be numerous in some 

 of the States. Prosecutions had already been 

 carried out against Seventh-Day Adventists in 

 Tennessee and Arkansas for offenses against 

 the State laws by working on Sunday, and the 

 cases of the defendants had been carried up on 

 appeal to the Supreme Courts of those States. 

 The committee to which the subject was re- 

 ferred made a long report upon it, setting forth 

 some of the reasons of the " Sabbath-keepers " 

 for their practice, and advice in the matter, 

 which was adopted by the Conference. Its 

 principal points are: 1. The divine com- 

 mandment to keep the seventh day as the Sab- 

 bath is obligatory, and allows of no option. 

 2. It is not only a most solemn duty to obey 

 the precept of the law, but the God-given 

 right is also claimed of enjoying the permission 

 contained in the law, and the right of any gov- 

 ernment to take it away is denied. This per- 

 mission is to work six days in the week. 3. 

 When laws are enacted which take away the 

 rights given by God, and which are used to 

 hinder the keeping of his law, the authority 

 of the Scriptures is given to obey him and 

 keep his commandments, even at the expense 

 of suffering the penalties of human enact- 

 ments. 4. The dictum of the courts that the 

 law forbidding all labor on Sunday is no in- 

 fringement of the rights of any, is denied, for 

 it would compel "Sabbath-keepers" to rest 

 two days of the week. 5. Evidence was pre- 

 sented in support of the assertion that the 

 arrests were acts of persecution. In view of 

 the considerations presented, brethren were 

 advised to " continue, in a peaceable and quiet 

 manner, to obey God in keeping the seventh 

 day," and to exercise their natural and relig- 

 ious right to work six days; in case of prose- 

 cution, to secure the best and most upright 

 counsel ; if convicted, to take an appeal to the 

 Supreme Court of the State ; if the conviction 

 is affirmed then, to avoid paying fines, if pos- 

 sible, and suffer imprisonment instead; and, 

 the adverse decision having been established, 

 to contest no more cases, but let them go by 

 default, and suffer the consequences. 



On the question, "If a contractor sublets 

 a part of his work, and the sub-contractor does 

 work upon the Sabbath, is the contractor re- 

 sponsible?" the Conference, after considering 

 in detail the difficulties presented under such 

 conditions, expressed the opinion that a strict- 

 ly conscientious regard for the Sabbath on the 

 part of the contractor would guard him from 

 making a contract which would wound his 

 conscience, or give the world occasion to re- 

 proach him. 



The Conference declared that it was neither 

 consistent nor expedient to receive into the 

 churches persons who hold to trine-immersion, 

 and directed a work on the subject to be pre- 



pared in the German language. A plan was 

 adopted for calling attention to camp-meetings 

 wherever they are held, by advertising, hand- 

 bills, and the circulation of papers and cards 

 of invitation. For the purpose of training 

 evangelistic laborers, it was recommended that 

 every conference, having within its boundaries 

 cities of sufficient size to make such a step de- 

 sirable, should establish at least one mission 

 where candidates may be taught in connection 

 with actual work. It was also advised that 

 each of the missions should have connected 

 with it a man and his wife. Stress was laid, 

 in resolutions and reports, on the importance 

 of ministers making their labors more of an 

 educational character than of merely sermon- 

 izing, and of their becoming thoroughly in- 

 formed. The jurisdiction of local elders was 

 defined to be limited to the church which 

 elects them, or, as the only extension allowable, 

 to a church to which the elder may be sent, 

 under special circumstances, by the Conference 

 committee. Steps were taken with reference 

 to having prepared a special history of the 

 missions of the denomination. Appropriations 

 were made of $15,000 for the Central Euro- 

 pean mission, $15,000 for the Scandinavian 

 mission, $5,000 for the English mission, $5,000 

 for the Australian mission, $10,000 for the In- 

 ternational Tract Society, and $10,000 for the 

 support of city missions. 



AFGHANISTAN, a monarchy in Central Asia. 

 The ruler, called the Ameer, is Abdurrahman 

 Khan, who resides in Cabul. He was placed 

 on the throne under British protection, and is 

 bound by treaty to follow British advice in his 

 foreign relations, and the British Government 

 is under a treaty obligation to aid him in repel- 

 ling unprovoked aggression on his dominions. 

 He receives a subsidy of a lac of rupees per 

 month from the Indian Government. The Af- 

 ghan tribes inhabit the mountainous region 

 forming the valleys of the Cabul, Helmund, 

 and Argandab rivers, and lying between the 

 Hindoo-Koosh and Kohl Baba ranges on the 

 northwest and the Soliman Mountains on the 

 southeast. The Ameer rules also, as conquered 

 provinces, the district of Herat, peopled mostly 

 by a Persian race, and the northern slopes of 

 the Hindoo-Koosh, as far as the Oxus river, which 

 are inhabited by Tadjiks, Ozbecks, and semi- 

 nomadic Turkomans. 



Frontier Commission. The British and Russian 

 Governments appointed a mixed commission to 

 demarkate the northeast boundary of Afghan- 

 istan separating that country from the newly 

 annexed Turkoman districts of Russia in Asia, 

 from the Heri Rud to the Oxus or Amu Dar- 

 ya river. The chief commissioner represent- 

 ing the British Government was Sir West 

 Ridgeway, and on the Russian side M. Lessar. 

 They began their labors in the autumn of 1885, 

 and continued them until obliged to go into 

 winter quarters. On March 12 they contin- 

 ued the survey; but the demarkation was 

 soon stopped, to await the decision of their re- 



