newal of exhorters' licenses; to recommend to the annual conference suitable persons for admission on trial in the annual conference; to recommend suitable persons to be ordained as local deacons and elders; to recommend the re-admission of located elders and deacons to an annual conference; to appoint a recording steward to keep all the records of the quarterly conference; to appoint a district steward to meet in convention. and estimate the amount necessary to be raised for the fuel and table expenses, house-rent, &c., of the presiding elder; to advise the action of trustees, and take all such steps for the wellbeing of the church or churches within its bounds, as shall be deemed expedient and right.

4. In all questions of law, the presiding elder shall be the judge, subject to an appeal to the president of the next annual conference, but the application of law shall remain with the quarterly conference.

SECTION IV.

OF LEADERS', OR OFFICIAL MEETINGS.

1. These meetings originally embraced only the leaders of classes, but by common consent, and as a matter of utility, they now embrace all the members of the quarterly conference, the preacher in charge being the chairman thereof.

2. The official board, or leaders' meeting, usually meets once in each month, when convenient, or oftener when necessary and is subject at all times to the call of the preacher in charge.

3. It is the business of the leaders' meeting to recommend suitable persons to the preacher in charge, for license to exhort; otherwise, the duties of the same are not very clearly defined in the Discipline; common usage, however, makes it the business of such meeting to advise and assist the preacher in charge in the administration of discipline; to recommend suit

SOCIETY AND CLASS-MEETINGS.

303

able persons, whose term of probation has expired for membership in the church; to attend to the financial interests of the church, and devise ways and means for raising the allowance of the preachers, and to do all other business of an ecclesiastical nature, which may properly come before them.

SECTION V.

OF SOCIETY AND CLASS-MEETINGS.

1. These meetings are frequently held for the purpose of spiritual improvement; to hear complaints against members, and to judge of the guilt or innocence of the accused; to judge of the qualifications of probationers as to faith and doctrine, who apply for membership in the church, and to transact such other business as may be referred to them, either by the pastor, or official board. The preacher in charge always presides 'a such meetings.

2. In this section may be noticed also the fact that a single class has power to recommend suitable persons to the preacher in charge for license to exhort, and to do such other business as properly belongs to it as a class. A preacher or leader may preside over the class in its business deliberations; and either the preacher or leader may call a meeting of the class at any time, although the members of the class are not obliged to attend such a call more than once a week.

CHAPTER V.

OF THE PUBLIC AND SOCIAL MEANS OF GRACE.

SECTION I.

OF PUBLIC WORSHIP.

1. PUBLIC Worship on the Lord's day consists of singing, Frayer-concluding with the Lord's prayer-reading the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, singing, preaching, singing, prayer, and the benediction.

2. On the evening of the Lord's day, and on other days of the week, the same order is observed, excepting the reading of the Scriptures.

3. In administering the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper, the forms prescribed in the Discipline, and prepared by Mr. Wesley, are invariably used. These forms are short but comprehensive, and are merely abbreviations of those found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England. It is thought by many, that the form relating to baptism needs revision, as it seems to endorse the dogma of baptismal regenera tion, which is certainly not the doctrine of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In the burial of the dead, and the solemnization of matrimony, the forms prescribed in the Discipline are generally but not always used.

4. Public worship is usually held each Sabbath on stations, once in two weeks on circuits, and occasionally on week evenings. Preaching at four or five o'clock in the morning-sc

much the practice in Mr. Wesley's time, and in the earlier days of Methodism-has, in the United States, very generally fallen into disuse.

5. The rule of discipline requiring the men and women to sit apart in all our churches, is fast becoming obsolete, especially in such churches as are built with pews or slips, to sell or rent. It is found most convenient, in large places, for families to be seated together, and we may express the hope that a rule which cannot be enforced, and which has no scriptural warrant nor precedent, will be expunged from the page of disci

SECTION II.

OF CLASS-MEETINGS.

1. These, according to discipline, are required to be held weekly, in every place. The object of class-meetings is to inquire into the spiritual state of each member of the class, and to advise, reprove, comfort, and exhort, as occasion may require. There are usually about twelve persons in a class, although there are frequently found twenty, thirty, or more.

2. The exercises of class-meeting consist of singing, prayer, and the relation of Christian experience. These meetings are of immense importance to the church, and cannot be neglected without detriment to its spiritual interests, but whether Mr. Wesley ever designed to establish class-meetings as a term or condition of church-membership, is a question which has not been largely discussed, nor finally settled. One thing appears to be certain, namely; that all Methodists who enjoy a sense of the pardoning favor of God, love class-meetings, even though they are but a prudential means of grace, and on the other hand, a wilful neglect of class-meetings is an almost certain indication of a low state of religious enjoyment.

3. Strangers-that is, persons not members of the church or

Society-may be admitted to the privileges of class-meeting twice or thrice, but not oftener, without violating the rules of the Society. This rule may be considered by many as savoring too much of a spirit of sectarianism, but when the nature and design of a class-meeting is duly considered, we feel persuaded that none but the bigoted and uncharitable will object to them on that account. Indeed, the design of class-meetings would be completely frustrated if all of every class, whether pious or ungodly, were admitted thereto. Even members of the Methodist Church have no ecclesiastical or conventional right to meet in any class but their own, without the permission of the leader.

4. Leaders are required frequently to meet each other's classes. The object of this rule is to give the members of the different classes the benefit of the advice and counsel of the various leaders, and to prevent as far as possible a spirit of formality.

SECTION III.

OF BAND MEETINGS.

1. Two, three, or four true believers, who have confidence in each other, form a band; and in each band all must be men, or all women; and all must be married, or all single. The bands meet once a week to converse on purely spiritual matters, and to help each other in the way to heaven, by complying with that command of God, expressed by the apostle James, "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed." The members of the band pledge themselves to abstain from all sin, and zealously to maintain good works.

2. Belonging to a band is perfectly voluntary on the part of all the members. Indeed, none but the decidedly pious and devoted can have any desire to meet therein. The band meet.