SECOND ADVENTISTS, a religious organization having six slightly differing branches in the United States. They are Protestants and their belief is character ized by faith that at some time in the future there will be a visible reappear ance of Christ. They do not agree among themselves whether this "divine return" will be visible to all the Church, or to the whole world, or to certain elect "first fruits" of the Church. The original Ad ventists were called Millerites, and were followers of William Miller (1782-1849). Miller promulgated a belief that the world would end and that the millennium would begin in October, 1843. Many peo ple had such implicit faith in his proph ecy that they did not "plant or reap" crops, neglected their business, and spent months of time before the appointed hour in religious exercises so as to be in readi ness to ascend to heaven. When Miller's prediction proved a failure, some of his followers lost faith in the doctrine, while others decided that an error in calcula tion had been made. Other predictions
have been made since that time. Disap pointment, however, has not materially lessened the number of Adventists, since from 50,000 in 1843 they increased to 60, 000 in 1890, and in 1900 attained a fol lowing of over 125,000. In 1919 there were 4,181 churches with a membership of 162,667, and 5,610 Sunday schools with 171,914 members. All sects of Advent ists are congregational in church govern ment. They are very orthodox and strict to an extreme in their mode of living. Many kinds of amusements are prohib ited. The denominations are: Evangeli cal Adventists, Seventh Day Adventists, Church of God, Life and Advent Union, Age to Come Adventists, and the Advent Christians.