SCIENCE, EDUCATION, RELIGION 



717 



"district conference," and the "quarterly con- 

 ference." Prior to 1872, the general conference 

 was composed exclusively of preachers. It now 

 consists of two laymen for each annual conference 

 and one minister for every forty-five members. 

 It meets quadrennially on the first day of May, 

 anl is presided over by the bishops. It is the 

 sole legislative body of the Church. It elects 

 li>hups, missionary and educational secretaries; 

 book agents, and editors of its periodicals, and 

 is also the court of final appeal. The annual 

 conference consists of traveling preachers. A 

 !>i-h<>I> is the presiding officer, or in his absence 

 the conference may appoint its president. Its 

 powers are simply administrative. It holds 

 its members responsible, passing their character 

 under examination each year. The district con- 

 ference is composed of the presiding elder of the 

 district, pastors, local preachers, exhorters, and 

 one steward and Sunday school superintendent 

 from each pastoral charge. 



Mohammedanism, the name com- 

 monly given in Christian countries to the creed 

 establislied by Mohammed. His followers call 

 their creed Islam (entire submission to the 

 irees of God), and their common formula of 

 tith is, " There is no God but Allah, and Moham- 

 is his prophet." The dogmatic or theoretical 

 part of Mohammedanism embraces the following 

 points: (1) Belief in God, who is without 

 beginning or end, the sole Creator and Lord of 

 the universe, having absolute power, knowledge,* 

 glory, and perfection. (2) Belief in his angels, 

 who are impeccable beings, created of light. 

 (3) Belief in good and evil Jinn (genii), who are 

 created of smokeless fire, and are subject to 

 death. (4) Belief in the Holy Scriptures, which 

 his uncreated word revealed to the prophets, 

 these there now exist, but in a greatly cor- 

 ipted form, the Pentateuch, the Psalms, and 

 Gospels; and in an uncorrupted and incor- 

 )tible state the Koran, which abrogates and 

 "ses all preceding revelations. (5) Belief 

 I's prophets and apostles, the most distin- 

 shed of whom are Adam, Noah, Abraham, 

 Jesus, and Mohammed. Mohammed 

 the greatest of them all, the last of the prophets 

 t excellent of the creatures of God. 

 Belief in a general resurrection and final 

 it, and in future rewards ami puni-h- 

 jpts, chiefly of a physical nature. (7) The 

 In i. oven to the extent of fatalism, of God's 

 absolute foreknowledge and predestination of all 

 both good and evil. The practical part 

 of Mohammedanism inculcates certain observ- 

 >i -duties, of which four are most important. 

 The first is prayer, including preparatory purifi- 

 cation-. I 'raver must be engaged in at five 

 stated periods each day. On each of these occa- 

 sion- the .Mod* -MI has to offer up certain prayers 

 held to be ordained by God, and others opium 1 

 prophet. Dm r it is necessary 



that the face of the wor-liiper be turned towards 

 th<- kebla, that i-. in the direction of Mecca. 

 Prayers may be said : lace, but on 



they must be said in t he mosque. Second 

 in Importance to prayer st&ndi the duty of giving 

 aim-, \i-\t comes the duty of fasting The 

 i must abstain from eatmi: and drink- 

 ing, and from every indulgence of th> senses, 



every day during the month of Ramadhan, 

 from the first appearance of daybreak until 

 sunset, unless physically incapacitated. The 

 fourth paramount religious duty of the Moslem 

 is the performance at least once in his life, if pos- 

 sible, of the pilgrimage to Mecca, after which he 

 becomes a Hadji. Circumcision is general 

 among Mohammedans, but is not absolutely 

 obligatory. The distinctions of clean and un- 

 clean meats are nearly the same as in the Mosaic 

 code. Wine and all intoxicating liquors are 

 strictly forbidden. Music, games of chance, and 

 usury are condemned. Images and pictures of 

 living creatures are contrary to law. Charity, 

 probity in all transaction's, veracity (except in a 

 few cases), and modesty, are indispensable 

 virtues. After Mohammed's death Abu Bekr, 

 his father-in-law, became his successor, but dis- 

 putes immediately arose, a party holding that 

 Ali. the son-in-law of Mohammed, was by right 

 entitled to be his immediate successor. Tnis 

 led to the division of the Mohammedans into the 

 two sects known as Shiites and Sunnites. The 

 former, the believers in the right of Ali to be con- 

 1 sidered the first successor, constitute at present 

 the majority of the Mussulmans of Persia and 

 I India; the latter, considered as the orthodox 

 I Mohammedans, are dominant in the Ottoman 

 I Empire, Arabia, Turkestan, and Africa. The 

 I total Mohammedan population of the world is 

 estimated at fully 215,000,000. 



Moon. The orb which revolves round the 

 earth; a secondary planet or satellite of the 

 earth, whose borrowed light is reflected to the 

 earth and serves to dispel the darkness of night. 

 1 1 - mean distance from the earth is about 237,000 

 miles; its diameter is 2,160 miles and its magni- 

 tude about one-forty-ninth of that of the earth. 

 It completes its revolution round the earth, in a 

 mean or average period of twenty-seven days, 

 seven hours, forty-three minutes, eleven and 

 one-half seconds, which constitutes the sidereal 

 month. The satellite of any planet. 



Moravians. A religious sect, called at 

 first Bohemians, and constituting a branch of 

 the Hussites, who, when the Calixtines came to 

 terms with the council of Basel, in 1 l.i.i, refused 

 to subscribe the articles of agreement, and con- 

 stituted themselves into a di-tinct body. 

 Their tenets were evangelical. .In l.~2. they 

 made advances to Luther, who partially recoff- 

 ni/.ed them, but thev ultimately adopt 

 vinistic views as to the Lord's Supper. 

 by persecution, they scattered abroad, and for 

 a time their chief settlement was at Fiji- 

 Moravia, whence they were (ailed Moravian 

 Brethren, or Moravians. On 

 was born Nicolaus Ludwi^, Count 

 dorf, son of the chamberlain and Mate minister 

 of Augustus ll.. Klector of Saxony and K 

 Poland. Having met \\iih a Moravian refugee, 



Who told him of the jM-r-ecut ions to \\luch his 



fleet was exposed in Austria. Count /in. 



offered him and his con I ironists an asylum on 



his estate. The man. uhose name was David, 



accepted the offer, and in 1722, settled with three 



other men, at a place called by Zinzendorf 



>e Lord's guard). Under hi- 



the sect greatly increased in 



strength Till I on May 9, 1760, he 



