A guide-book in the administration of the discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church

Preface

The design of this little manual is to furnish junior preachers with a brief, plain Guide for the correct discharge of their official duties. We have made no attempt to explain and defend our ecclesiastical system ; this has been sufficiently done in several popular works, which are widely spread among our people. Nor have we aimed at endeavouring to impress our rising ministry with a deeper sense of ministerial obligation, and to set forth the moral and religious elements which compose the character of "able ministers of the New Testament." There are already many extensive and able treatises upon these varied topics. But there is a demand, we apprehend, for a practical work which shall

6 PREFACE.

descend to the very minutiae of the pastor's daily duties.

In preparing our manual, we have found ourselves treading in an unbeaten path : none have attempted a work of this kind, if we may except Bishop Hedding's most admirable " Discourse on the Administration of the Discipline." This discourse has created a desire for a more extended work of the same general character. By the extension and division of our work, the young preacher is now often necessarily put immediately in pastoral charge, and is consequently deprived of the counsels and experience of senior preachers, which were formerly enjoyed.

We are not unaware of the difficulty of furnishing a work which shall be generally acceptable, from the different usages which prevail, to some extent, in different parts of the country, and the conflicting opinions of leading men : but it has been our aim to ascertain the general views of the best informed upon the several topics discussed, and to present them in a brief and lucid manner.

PREFACE. 7

We have endeavoured to give particular attention to the several sections relating to Church trials ; guarding, on the one hand, against too close an analogy to civil proceedings and mere ecclesiastical technicalities ; and, on the other, against a loose and arbitrary mode of procedure. The evils which the Church has suffered from these causes should put every administrator on his guard. But we have found it impossible to express our meaning with clearness and precision without employing legal terms more frequently than we have desired.

This work is not presented as an official one ; it is simply suggestive and advisory, for which the author is alone responsible. It is not a record of legal decisions by which the administration of the Church is to be governed, but a brief compend, exhibiting rather the usage than the law of the Church. Most appropriately can we employ the language of our late senior bishop : " I have not the vanity to suppose it is free from errors, but it is an offering of the best light I have on the subject. It

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may be proper to say, however, that on most of the points which contain opinions on discipline I have conversed frequently and largely with many of our most enlightened and able ministers, and they agree with these opinions."

For many years past, w T e have noted down every valuable suggestion which we have heard or read relating to our practical economy; and having modified, written, and rewritten many of them frequently, we are not able now T to give the credit which is due for many of these suggestions. At the earnest request of many friends this little manual is given to the public, hoping that it may prove a vade meaim to the young minister, and render some aid in the discharge of the duties of the pastorate.

Section I. — Members. PAGH

1. Pastors the constituted authority to receive members 23

2. Membership should not depend upon a vote 24

3. Receiving members residing in another charge 24

4. How expelled members can be received 25

5. How withdrawn members can be received « 26

6. Reception of members from other orthodox Churches 26

7. Orthodox Churches denned 27

8. The " usual questions " propounded 27

Section II. — Probationers

1. Caution in receiving members on trial 28

2. By whom received 29

3. General qualifications required 29

4. Period of probation 30

5. Rights and privileges of probationers 31

6. Not liable to Church trial 32

Section III. — Withdrawal

1. Church relation depends upon the pleasure of the parties 34

2. When the Church can be a party to a withdrawal 34

3. When a member can claim a right to withdraw 35

4. The Church may suffer a withdrawal 36

5. Relation of societies which reject regularly-appointed pas-

tors 37

6. When a request to withdraw can be recalled 37

7. Relation of such persons as refuse to perform their cove-

nant vows , 37

PAGE

Section I. — Annual Conferences

1. First Annual Conference .... 38

2. Districts 38

3. Circuits 39

4. Relation of Episcopacy to the General and Annual Confer-

ences 40

5. Prerogatives of the president of an Annual Conference....... 41

6. Division of circuits •. 42

7. Commencement of Conference year 42

8. Who must attend Conference 43

9. Preachers refusing to go to their work , 43

10. Demanding a location , , , , , 43

11. When the act of location takes place , .... 43

12. Certificate of location ,.. 44

13. Readmission . 44

14. Withdrawal a bar to readmission...,.,... , 44

15. Preachers from the British, Irish, and Canada Conferences- 44

16. Admission from other Churches 44

17. Pdghts of superannuated preachers , , 45

18. Their Quarterly Conference relations... 45

19. The relation of superannuated preachers to individual

societies 45

20. Preacher on trial 45

21. Term of service on an individual charge — 46

22. Every effective preacher must receive an appointment 46

23. Preachers appointed to schools and colleges , 46

24. Advisory character of Conference requests respecting ap-

Section II. — Quarterly Conferences

1. Origin of Quarterly Conferences 47

2. Powers 47

3. Members 48

4. President 49

5. President when two circuits are united 49

6. Secretary 49

7. Power over Sunday schools and Sunday-school societies 49

PAGE

8. Sunday-school quarterly report of the preacher to be enter-

ed on the journals 50

9. By whom the Quarterly Conference must be appointed 50

10. Adjourning from day to day 50

11. Adjourned by the president 51

12. Quorum 51

13. Approval of the Minutes 51

Section III. — Leaders' Meetings

1. Origin of leaders' meetings 52

2. Of whom composed 53

3. Powers and duties 53

4. To whom class-leaders are responsible 55

Section I. — Presiding Elders

1. Origin of the office 5G

2. Nature of it 56

3. Relation to individual societies 57

4. President of the Quarterly Conference 57

5. Permitting a preacher to leave his work 57

6. Power to remove preachers 58

7. Superintendents of domestic missions 58

8. Testimonials of applicants for foreign missions 58

9. Subjects of missionary correspondence 59

10, Presiding in an Annual Conference 60

Section II. — Preacher in Charge

1. The term denned 60

2. Duties of the preacher in charge GO

3. To whom responsible 65

Section III. — Local Preachers

1. Mode of obtaining license 65

2. By whom given 65

PAGE

3. Renewal of license refused without impeachment 66

4. How long a license is valid , 66

5. Ecclesiastical year denned 67

6. Ordained local preachers , 67

7. Recommendation to travel 68

S. To whom amenable 68

9. Prerequisites for ordination 69

10. When local preachers from British Conference are eligible.. 69

11. How long recommendations are valid 70

12. Control of appointments 70

13. Withdrawal of local preachers 70

Section IV. — Extorters

2. Duties of exhorters.... 7l

3. Under the direction of the preacher in charge 71

4. Who are eligible to be exhorters 72

5. By whom licensed 72

6. To whom responsible 72

Section I. — Note of Recommendation

1. Who are entitled to such note 73

2. Withholding a certificate 73

3. Who are not entitled to a certificate 73

4. Removal without a certificate 74

5. Erasure of name 74

6. To whom a member is responsible after he has taken a

letter 74

7. How long a certificate remains valid 75

8. All proper certificates to be received 75

9. By whom certificates must be given 75

10. Certificates to those who withdraw 76

11. Certificate of official standing 76

Section II. — Love-Feasts. PAGB

1. Origin of love-feasts 76

2. Why discontinued 77

3. Design of their institution in our Church 78

4. Love-feast tickets 78

5. Who may be admitted 79

6. Love-feasts at the quarterly meeting 79

Chapter V. Church Trials

Section L — Trial of Members,

1. Christian discipline protected by civil authority 80

2. Privileged communications 82

3. Rights of members 83

4. Mr. Wesley's mode of removing disorderly members 84

Section II. — President of the Trial

1. Preacher in charge..., 85

2. President appointed by presiding elder 88

3. Junior preacher incompetent 88

Section III. — Complaint

1. Committee of investigation 88

2. Bill of charges 89

3. Insufficient evidence 89

4. Period within which responsible 90

5. What is indictable 90

6. Accessories to crime 90

7. Mode of drawing bill of charges 91

8. Object of formal charges 91

9. What the charge must involve 92

10. Correspondence between charges and specifications 92

11. How expressed 92

12. Different crimes to be separately given 93

13. To what extent specific 93

PAGK

14:. What errors no bar to the proceedings 93

15. By whom charges are to be signed 94

16. When to be signed by the pastor 94

17. When several persons are involved 95

IS. Notification of the accused 96

19. Where the notice is to be left 96

Section IV. — Select Committee

1. Who eligible 96

2. By whom appointed........ 97

3. Character of the committee 97

4. Duty of the committee , 99

5. Definition of "society" 100

6. Verdict to be based on testimony......... 100

7. Making up judgment 100

8. Relation of the presiding officer to the committee 102

9. Ambiguous or equivocal terms 103

10. Females entitled to vote 103

Section V.—The Trial

1. Duty of the presiding officer... 104

2. Mode of conducting a trial 105

4. Refuging to answer 105

5. Second indictment *.. 106

6. Plea in abatement 106

7. New issues 107

8. Ruling out specifications.. 107

9. Adjournment by presiding officer. 107

10. Immaterial facts 108

11. Evading a trial 108

12. Limited to the charge 109

13. Refusing to entertain bill of charges 109

14. Dismissing the case 109

15. Counsel to be restricted to the members of the Church 110

16. Preachers as counsel 110

17. Where the trial should be held 110

18. Testimony not to be copied without consent 110

Section VI. — General Laws of Evidence. PAGB

1. Should be understood 110

2. First rule, evidence correspond to the allegation Ill

3. Second rule, sufficient if the substance be proved Ill

4. Third rule, obligation of proving lies upon the complainant 112

5. Fourth rule, the best evidence must be produced 113

6. Hearsay evidence .' 114

7. When it is to be admitted 114

Section VII. — Witnesses

1. Number of witnesses . 115

2. Party in the suit 115

3. Husband and wife , 116

4. Incompetent witnesses 116

5. Atheists 117

6. •' Witnesses from without 51 , 117

7. Admissibility a question of law 117

8. The pastor as a witness..., 117

Section VIII. — Examination of Witnesses

1. By whom first examined 118

2. Examined out of each other's hearing.... 118

8. Mode of giving testimony 118

4. Leading questions . 119

5. Writing their testimony 119

6. Impression and belief. , ....... 119

7. Correction of testimony ,. 120

8. YvTien exceptions should be taken 120

9. Refusing to answer 120

10. Questions by presiding officer 121

11. Putting under oath ., 121

12. Evidence of good character 121

Section IX. — Depositions

1. When to be taken 122

2. Notification 122

3. Form of notice , ,.„ 123

U o is X E JS r T B.

PAGH

4. Form of deposition 123

5. Should be sealed up 125

6. Ex parte deposition 125

7. Commission at Conference 125

8. Part of a deposition 126

Section X. — Appeal

1. Privilege of a2)peai...c « 126

2. Whether it can be entertained 126

3. Bar to appeal . . 127

4. When to be taken.... 127

5. Withdrawal from the Church a bar to appeal.. 123

6. Impeachment of motives 128

7. Imperfect records 128

8. Records not signed . 129

9. Mode of conducting appeals v ..... 129

10. Power of appellate courts 130

11. New evidence 130

12. Appeal of local preacher places the ease beyond the power

of the Quarterly Conference 131

13. Effect of reversing a decision 131

14. Restoration of official relation 131

15. When a decision is final 132

16. Relation of a person who has taken an appeal 132

17. Appeals to be entered on the records 132

18. Prosecuting appeals 133

19. Power of presiding officer in case of appeals 133

Section XI.— New Trial

1. By what authority granted 133

2. Right of the pastor 131

3. Steps to be taken 134

4. When to be allowed 135

Section XII. — Trial of Local Preachers

1. Ministerial responsibility 135

2. When a committee to be called 136

3. Number of the committee 137

PAGB

4. Who may constitute the committee 137

5. Mode of conducting the investigation 138

6. By whom suspended 138

7. Acquittal no bar to subsequent trial 138

8. Mode of conducting the trial 138

9. What testimony to be admitted , 139

10. Trial in the absence of the accused 139

11. Punishment awarded by Quarterly Conference 139

12. Limit of Quarterly Conference action 140

13. When the decision to be given , MO

14 Charges not to be altered 140

15. Not self-accuser 141

16. Case before the civil tribunal 141

17. Counsel not disqualified as members.... 142

18. Rule under which the case is brought 142

Section XIII. — Trial of Travelling Preachers

1. Nature of investigating committees 143

2. Of what offences take cognizance 143

3. Reference at the Annual Conference 144

4. Reference to the presiding elder for examination 145

5. Acquittal by the Committee no bar to subsequent trial 145

6. By whom suspended 146

7. Committee when Conferences are divided 146

8. Powers of presiding officer in the examination of a presiding

elder 146

9. Place of holding the investigation 147

10. For what offences arrested 147

11. Form of trial 147

12. Trial in the absence of the accused 148

13. A suspended preacher cannot afterward be expelled for the

same offence 148

14. Period of suspension 14S

15. Location without consent 149

16. Duty of the secretary 150

Section XIV. — Church Offences

1. Specific rule 150

2. The different rules 150

PAGE

3. When Church labour is required 151

4. Disseminating erroneous doctrines 151

5. Mode of treating such as disseminate errors 152

6. Omission of duty 153

7. Slander 154

8. When the truthfulness of the statement may be proved 154

9. By whom the charge of slander must be made 154

Section XY. — Penalty.

1. Design of penalty 155

2. Different awards 155

3. Forgiveness 155

4. Censure and suspension 157

5. Period of suspension 158

6. Penalty based upon charges 153

7. Repelling from love-feasts 158

8. Penalty for maladministration 159

9. Readmission of expelled members 159

10. Restoration by the Annual Conference 160

11. No discretionary power given to the president after the

verdict is rendered 160

12. Public confession 160

13. "Reading out" of society 161

14. Refusing to comply with the requisition of the Church 162

Section 'KYI.— Arbitration.

1. History of the rule 162

2. Discretionary power of the pastor 163

3. Definition of terms 163

4. Arbiters members of the Church 164

5. President of the arbitration 164

6. Mode of conducting an arbitration 164

7. Parties residing on different circuits 165

8. When required to arbitrate 165

9. Dispute with a corporation 165

10. Power of presiding elder respecting arbitration 165

11. Refusing to arbitrate 166

12. Refusing to abide judgment 166

13. Lawsuits 166

14. Accounts of those "who fail in business" 166

Section I. — Building Churches and Parsonages. PA^H

1. Pecuniary liabilities 1G8

2. Personal liability of the building committee 169

3. Liability when they exceed the estimated expense 370

Section II. — Trustees

1. By whom Church property is held 170

2. Mode of creating trustees 172

3. Who are eligible as trustees 173

4. Limitations of power 173

5. Entitled to possession 175

6. For what purposes only the church can be used 175

7. Trustees of an unincorporated society 176

8. Term of office 176

9. Powers of trustees and stewards , 176

10. To whom responsible 177

11. Powers restricted to the objects of their creation 178

Section III. — Pews

1. Legal rights of pew owners 178

2. Right of occupancy on all public occasions 179

3. Restriction of rights 180

4. "When a right expires 181

5. Contract for a pew must be written 181

6. Pews as real or personal estate 182

7. Exempt from taxation 182

8. Selling pews at auction 182

9. Form of deed of a pew 183

Section IV. — Subscription Papers

1. To whom made payable 184

2. When payment must be demanded 184

3. Conditional subscriptions 185

4. Fictitious subscriptions 185

5. Deductions by the collector . 186

6. When not collectable 186

Section I. — Allowance*

1. Salary at different periods .......... 187

2. Definition of allowance. >..**,. ....... > 188

3. Fuel and table expenses ,... 188

4. Fifth Collection 189

5. Allowance of superannuated preachers 190

6. Travelling expenses of preachers 190

7. Travelling expenses of editors 190

8. Estimating committee ,. 191

9. Appropriations to those in debt to the Book Concern 192

10. Supply of the pulpit during the session of the Annual Con-

ference 193

11. Support of presiding elders.... 193

12. Relative claims of presiding elders and stationed preachers 194

13. District stewards 194

14. Absent on official business 195

15. Serving a corporation or benevolent institution 195

16. Suspension cuts off claim 195

17. Widow's claim 195

18. Adopted children 196

19. Table expenses 196

Section II. — Stewards

1. Origin of stewards 196

2. Their duties 197

3. By whom appointed 200

4. To whom responsible 201

5. Recording stewards 201

6. Resignation of office 201

7. Stewards displaced by uniting two circuits •. 202

Chapter VIII. Rules Op Order

PAGE

1. Parliamentary rules 203

2. Temporary organization , , 203

8. Permanent organization 205

4. Presiding officer 205

5. Secretary 207

6. Members , 209

7. Motions 210

8. Indefinite postponement 211

9. Laying on the table . 211

10. Referring to a committee , 212

12. Filling blanks , 213

13. Amendments 213

16. Orders of the day 217

17. Incidental questions , 218

18. Questions of order..., , , 219

19. Previous question , , , 219

20. Order of proceeding.,,, ,, ,,., 221

21. Order in debate....." 222

22. Taking the question , 224

23. Reconsideration 225

24. Committees , , 226

25. Reports of committees , 227

26. Minority report 228

27. Committee of the whole 228

28. Rules of the General Conference from 1836-^52 230

Chapter IX. Formulas

Section I.— -Formulas for Preachers in Charge.

1. Note of recommendation to a member 234

2. Exporter's license 235

3. Recommendation of a local preacher 235

PAGK

4. Class-book 236

5. Quarterly Sunday-school report 236

6. Church register for a successor 237

7. Register of the children..,.. 237

8. Statistical report 237

9. Annual Sunday-school report... 238

10. Collections for benevolent objects, 239

11. Steward's certificate ..,,, 239

12. Benevolent institutions.,, 240

Section II,—- Formulas for Presiding Elders.

1. License of a local preacher. ,, 242

2. Recommendation to the travelling connexion 242

3. Recommendation for deacon or elder's orders 243

4. Recommendation for recognition of orders 244

5. Recommendation for restoration of credentials 244

6. Superannuated preacher's certificate. 245

Chapter X. Course Op Study

Section I. — For Probationers and Travelling Deacons.

First year 246

Second year 247

Third year 248

Fourth year 249

Section II. — For Local Preachers who are Candidates for Deacon and Elder's Orders

Candidates for deacon's orders 251

Candidates for eider's orders 253

A GUIDE-BOOK

IN THE

ADMINISTRATION OF THE DISCIPLINE.