19i She believes in the propriety and utility of holding fiut- dajs, experience meeting*!, anxious meetings, camp-meetings, and other spedal meetings of united and protracted eflTorts for the edification cf the Church and the conversion of sinnenL
16. She beliew that the Gospel ministry. Babbath-echools, edocation, the religious press, the Bible, missionary, temper- ance, and aU other benevolent causes, ought to be heartily
17. &ie believes that the Church ought to reltove and take care of her own poor saints, superannuated ministers, widows, and orphans.
13. She believes that tlie manniactare, traillc, and use of ardent spirita as a beverage or common drink, is, injurious and immoral, and ought to be abandoned.
19. She believes the system or institution of involuntary davery to be impolitic or unctuistian.
90. She believes that all civil wars are unholy and siniul, and hi which the sahits of the Most High ought never to par- tidpate.
21. She believes that civil governments are ordained of God for the general good ; that Christians ought to be subject to the eame ta all things, except what is manifeetlv unscriptn- ral; and that appeals to the law, out of the Chnrdi. for Justice and the adjustment of civil rights, are not inconsistent with the principles and duties of the Christian religion.
22. She believes in the necessity of a virtuous and lioly lifo, and that Christ will save those only who obey him.
23. She believes in the visibiUty, tmity, sanctity, nnivenal- itj, and perpetuity of the Church of God.
24. She believes in the personal coming and reign of Jesus Christ
^. She believes in the resurreotion of the dead, *^ both of the Just and the ni\juBt ;r* that the resurrection of the Just vin precede the rssorrectioD of the unjust
20. She believes in tlie creation of new heavoM and a new earth.
2T. She believes in the immortality of the soul ; in a uni- reraal and eternal Judgment ; and in fhture and everlasting lerards and punishments.
III. Ckwreh Gavemmenl. — *' In church government ^us body is independent and congregational ; yet the members of all churches, when duly organized, are sub- ject to the supervision of a Church Council, composed of the preachers in charge and the elders and dea* cons of each church, all of whom are elected by the members. In addition to the councils of each local church, they have a confederation of churches called an ' Eldership,' consisting of all the pastors within cer- tarn bounds, and an equal number of ruling elders as delegates. She has, in addition to her local churches or stations, larger fields of operation, called circuits. Hence her ministers are some of them stationed, and others travel on circuits, and others are missionaries at large." The elderships meet annually. The Gen- eral Eldership, which consists of delegates fh>m Annu- al Elderships, is held every three years. The General Eldership owns and controls all the common property of the Church. No minister can be delegated to it who has not held a preacher's appointment for five years previous (Gorrie, cited below).
lY. SkOitiks.— The Church has a domestic and for- eign missionary society and a printing establishment, all which are under the control of the General Elder- ship. A weekly paper, the Church Advocate (in 1867, 32d volume), and a Sunday-school paper, called the Gea (established in 1867), are published at Lancaster, Pa. The denomination in 1867 had 11 elderships, about 400 churches, 850 ministers, and 25,000 mem- bers. See Gorrie, Chvrckea and Sects; Winebrenner, Bittory of EeUffious DenominaHoiu f American Baptist
Almanac; Anmtal American Cydopaadia for 1866, p. 112.
CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF THE LAT- TER-DAYS SAINTa See MoMfOWS.
CHURCH OF THE MESSIAH, a religious sect established in 1868, in Maine, by a person named Adams, who previously had been a Mormon elder. The founder of the sect claimed to have visions and special inspirations. Among the peculiar points of the new faith were, that its members are of the tribe of Ephraim, and that, **as the curse was now taken off fh)m Palestine," the time had come for the lost ten tribes to return to the land of their fathers. They anticipated the re-establishment at Jerusalem of the throne of David in greater than Solomon's splendor. , In expectation of the near advent of the Messiah, 156 members of the sect fh>m the State of Maine went in 1866 to Palestine, and established a colony at Jafl%^ the sea-port of Jerusalem, with one president (Adams) and two bishops as its leaders. Through the efforts of the American and English consuls in Jerusalem, they met with a kind reception on the part of the Turk- ish pacha and the people of Jaffii. Land had been se- cured for them before their arrival, through the Amer- ican vice-consul at Jaffit. The colonists built quite a number of houses and a three-^ry hotel, having brought the lumber all the way from Maine. Com- plaints made by the colonists of the hardships they were forced to endure induced the government of the United States to send, at the beginning of 1867, an agent (the Rev. Dr. Bidwell, of Now York) to Jaffa, in order to make a thorough examination into the affairs and prospects of the colony. In the course of the year 1867, a considerable number of the colonists be- came dissatisfied with their condition and the rule of president Adams, and returned home. — See Annual American Cyclop, for 1866, s. v. Messiah, Church of,