lecturers are mediums, who are believed to speak under the influence or direction of the spirit who guides or controls them. They follow the Scriptural injunction: "Take no thought how or what ye shall speak, for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.' When a lecturer appears before an audience, therefore, he asks that a subject be given him, and when he receives it begins to speak upon it without hesitation. Summer gatherings or camp meetings, which continue from one to ten weeks, have become prominent among the spiritualists. In 1891 twenty-two such meetings were held.

The spiritualists report 334 organizations, with 30 regular church edifices, not including halls, pavilions, and other places owned or occupied by them. There are 45,030 members, and the value of the property reported, which includes camp grounds as well as church edifices, pavilions, etc., is $573,650. Not many of the halls are owned by them. There are members in thirty-six States, besides the District of Columbia and the Territories of Oklahoma and Utah. Among the States Massachusetts has the greatest number, 7345; New York stands second, with 6351; and Pennsylvania third, with 4569. There are 307 halls, with accommodations for 72,522.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.

THE first branch of this society in the United States was founded in New York in November, 1875.

clared objects are:

"First, to form a nucleus of a Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, without distinction of race, creed, or color.

"Second, to promote the study of Aryan and other Eastern literatures, religions, and sciences, and demonstrate the importance of that study.

"Third, to investigate unexplained laws of nature and the psychical powers latent in man.”

A circular, issued for the information of inquirers by the general secretary of the American section, states that the society is unsectarian and interferes with no person's religious belief. Another circular, entitled "An Epitome of Theosophy," issued by the secretary of the executive committee of the Pacific Coast, states that some of the fundamental propositions of Theosophy, or "Wisdom Religion," are: That the spirit in man is the only real and permanent portion of his being; that between the spirit and the intellect is a "plane of consciousness in which experiences are noted," and that this spiritual nature is "as susceptible of culture as the body or intellect"; that spiritual culture is only attainable as the grosser interests and passions of the flesh are subordinate; that men, systematically trained,

may, by their interior faculties, “attain to clear insight into the immaterial, spiritual world"; that, as a result of this spiritual training, men become able to perform works usually called "miraculous."

The Theosophical Society has branches in seventeen States and the District of Columbia. Forty organizations are reported, with 695 members. Of the 40 organizations 14 are in California. There are 38 halls, with accommo

CHAPTER XL.

THE UNITED BRETHREN.

THE United Brethren in Christ are sometimes confounded with the Unitas Fratrum or Moravian Brethren. Though some of the historians of the former body claim that it was connected in some way with the Ancient and Renewed Brethren of Bohemia and Moravia, the United Brethren in Christ and the Moravians are wholly separate and distinct, and have no actual historical relations. The Moravians were represented in this country long before the United Brethren in Christ arose, which was about the year 1800.

Philip William Otterbein, a native of Prussia and a minister of the German Reformed Church, and Martin Boehm, a Mennonite pastor in Pennsylvania, of Swiss descent, were the chief founders of the church of the United Brethren in Christ. These men, preaching with great earnestness and fervency, had revivals of religion in Pennsylvania and Maryland, resulting in many accessions to membership of the churches they served. Others of like mind assisted them in the ministry, and they met occasionally in conference concerning their work. The first of these informal conferences was held in Baltimore, Md., in 1789. The movement, though meeting with some opposition, gradually developed into a separate denomination. At a conference held in Frederick County, Md., in 1800, attended