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appoint an agent or agents for the benefit of our literary institutions, and an agent for the German publishing fund.

4. In the intervals of the Conferences, to change, receive, and suspend preachers, as necessity may require, and as the Discipline directs.

5. To travel through the connexion at large.

6. To oversee the spiritual and temporal business of our Church.

7. To ordain Bishops, Elders, and Dea

cons.

8. To decide all questions of law in an Annual Conference, subject to an appeal to the General Conference; but in all cases the application of law shall be with the Conference.

9. To point out a course of reading and study, proper to be pursued by candidates for the ministry for the term of four years.

10. A Bishop may, when he judges it necessary, unite two or more circuits or stations together, without affecting their separate financial interests, or pastoral duties.

Quest. 4. If a Bishop cease from travelling at large among the people, shall he still exercise his episcopal office among us in any degree?

Answ. If he cease from travelling without the consent of the General Conference, he shall not thereafter exercise the episcopal office in our Church.

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Quest. 5. What shall be done when there no bishop to travel at large?

Answ. In case there be no Bishop to travel through the districts and exercise the episcopal office, on account of death, or otherwise, the districts shall be regulated in every respect by the Annual Conferences and the Presiding Elders in the interval of General Conference, ordination excepted.

SECTION II.

Of the Presiding Elders, and of their Duty. Quest. 1. By whom are the Presiding Elders to be chosen?

Answ. By the Bishops.

Quest. 2. By whom are the Presiding Elders to be stationed and changed? Answ. By the Bishops.

Quest. 3. How long may a Bishop allow an Elder to preside in the same district? Answ. For any term not exceeding four years; after which he shall not be appointed to the same district for six years.

Quest. 4. What are the duties of a Presiding Elder?

Answ. 1. To travel through his appointed district.

2. In the absence of the Bishop, to take charge of all the Elders and Deacons, travelling and local preachers, and exhorters, in his district.

3. To change, receive, and suspend preachers in his district during the intervals of the Conferences, and in the absence of the Bishop, as the Discipline directs.

4. In the absence of a Bishop, to preside

in the Conference. (See part i, ch. iii, § 3, quest. 4, p. 35.)

5. To be present at, as far as practicable, and to hold all the quarterly meetings; and to call together at each quarterly meeting, a Quarterly Conference, (see part i, ch. iii, § 4, p. 37,) consisting of all the travelling and local preachers, exhorters, stewards, and leaders of the circuit, and none else, to hear complaints, and to receive and try appeals, and to transact such other business as is provided for in part i, ch. iii, § 4, pages 38, 39.

6. To oversee the spiritual and temporal business of the Church in his district, (see page 189,) and to promote, by all proper means, the cause of Missions, (see page 191,) and Sunday Schools, (see page 85,) and the publication, at our own press, of Bibles, tracts, and Sunday-School Books; and carefully to inquire, at each Quarterly Conference, whether the rules respecting the instruction of children (see page 85) have been faithfully observed; and to report to the Annual Conference the names of all travelling preachers within his district who shall neglect to observe these rules.

7. To take care that every part of our Discipline be enforced in his district. And to decide all questions of law in a Quarterly Conference, subject to an appeal to the President of the next Annual Conference; but in all cases the application of law shall be with the Conference.

8. To attend the Bishops when present in his district; and to give them, when ab

sent, all necessary information, by letter, of the state of his district.

9. To direct the candidates who are admitted on trial, to those studies which have been recommended by the Bishops.

10. To explain to those preachers who are on trial, as well as to those who are in future to be proposed for trial, that they may be either admitted, or rejected without doing them any wrong.

11. If any preacher absent himself from his circuit, the Presiding Elder shall, as far as possible, fill his place with another preacher, who shall be paid for his labours out of the allowance of the absent preacher, in proportion to his usual allowance.

Quest. 5. Shall the Presiding Elder have power to employ a preacher who has been rejected at the previous Annual Conference?

Answ. He shall not, unless the Conference should give him liberty, under certain conditions.

SECTION III.

Of the Election and Ordination of Travelling Elders, and of their Duty.

Quest. 1. How is an Elder constituted? Answ. By the election of a majority of the Annual Conference, and by the laying on of the hands of a Bishop, and some of the Elders that are present.

Quest. 2. What is the duty of a Travelling Elder?

Answ. 1. To administer baptism and the

Lord's supper, and to perform the office of matrimony, and all parts of divine worship. 2. To do all the duties of a travelling preacher.

No Elder that ceases to travel, without the consent of the Annual Conference, certified under the hand of the President of the Conference, except in case of sickness, debility, or other unavoidable circumstances, shall on any account, exercise the peculiar functions of his office, or even be allowed to preach among us: nevertheless, the final determination in all such cases is with the Annual Conference.

Quest. 3. What shall be the time of probation of a Travelling Deacon for the office of an Elder?

Answ. Every Travelling Deacon shall exercise that office for two years, before he be eligible to the office of Elder; except in the case of missions, when the Annual Conferences shall have authority to elect for the Elder's office sooner, if they judge it expedient.

When a preacher shall have passed his examination, and been admitted into full connexion, and elected to Deacon's office, but fails of his ordination through the absence of the Bishop, his eligibility to the office of Elder shall run from the time of his election to the office of a Deacon.

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