CHAPTER IV.

THE SUPPORT OF MISSIONS.

1. THE support of missions is committed to the Churches, congregations, and societies, as such.

2. It shall be the duty of each Annual Conference, where missions have been or are to be established, to appoint a standing committee, (which shall keep a record of its doings, and report the same to its Conference,) whose duty it shall be, in conjunction with the President of the Conference, to make an estimate of the amount necessary for the support of each mission and mission school, in addition to the regular allowance of the Discipline to preachers and their families from year to year: for which amount the President of the Conference for the time being shall draw on the Treasurer of the Society in quarterly instalments.

3. It shall be the duty of each Annual Conference to form within its bounds a Conference Missionary Society, which shall appoint its own officers, fix the terms of membership, and otherwise regulate its own administration. But it shall pay all its funds into the treasury of the Parent Society.

4. It shall be the duty of each Presiding Elder to bring the subject of our missions before the Quarterly Conference of each circuit and station within his district, at the

first Quarterly Conference in each year; and said Conference shall proceed to appoint a committee, of not less than three nor more than nine, (of which the preacher in charge shall be chairman,) to be called the Committee on Missions, whose duty it shall be to aid the preacher in charge in carrying into effect the disciplinary measures for the support of our missions.

5. It shall be the duty of the preacher in charge, aided by the Committee on Missions, to provide for the diffusion of missionary intelligence in the Church and congregation.

6. It shall be the duty of the preacher in charge, aided by the Committee on Missions, to institute a monthly missionary prayermeeting, or lecture, in each society, or Church and congregation, wherever practicable, for the purpose of imploring the divine blessing on missions; for the diffusion of missionary intelligence; and to afford an opportunity for voluntary offerings to the missionary cause.

7. It shall be the duty of the preacher in charge, aided by the Committee on Missions, to appoint missionary collectors, and furnish them with suitable books and instructions, that they may call on each member of the society, or Church and congregation, and on other persons, at their discretion, for his or her annual, semi-annual, quarterly, monthly, or weekly contributions for the support of missions. Said collectors shall make monthly returns (unless otherwise instructed by the committee) to the preacher

in charge, or to the Missionary Treasurer of the Church, if there be such treasurer appointed by the Committee on Missions. Such returns shall be fairly entered in a book, which the committee shall provide, together with collections and contributions received from other sources. Such entries shall set forth the name of each collector, the real or assumed names of the contributors to each collector, with the amount contributed by each.

8. Each preacher in charge shall report at Conference, to the Executive Committee, or Board of Managers of the Conference Missionary Society, a plain transcript of the record of the returns provided for in section seven, comprehending the name of each collector in his charge, and the name, real or assumed, of each contributor to each collector of fifty cents or upward during the year; and the aggregate sum of all contributions under fifty cents each, that they may be by said Executive Committee, or Board of Managers, properly arranged by districts, and by charges, for publication in the Annual Report of the Conference Missionary Society; together with the contributions and collections received from other sources, unless the Conference shall by vote declare such transcript returns, and such publication, not to be advisable.

9. It shall be the duty of the preacher in charge, with the aid of the Committee on Missions, to present once in the year, to the Societies, or the Churches and congrega

tions, the cause of missions, and to ask pub lic collections and contributions for the sup port of the same. The manner of asking and taking such collections and contributions shall be at the discretion of the pastor and the Committee on Missions, with this injunction, that the pastor shall preach, or cause to be preached on the occasion, one or more sermons; and with the recommendation that one whole Sabbath day be given to the cause, on this annual presentation of missions, in our principal Churches and congregations.

10. It is earnestly recommended that each Sunday school in our Churches and congregations be organized into a Missionary Society, under such rules and regulations as the pastor, the superintendent, and teachers may prescribe.

11. Each Annual Conference shall designate the month or months in which the public collections and contributions for missions shall be taken within its bounds.

12. The President of the Conference, at each session, shall appoint one of its members, with an alternate, to preach a missionary sermon during its next succeeding session, at such time and place as the officers of the Conference Missionary Society shall designate, and said officers shall cause timely notice of such sermon to be published abroad.

13. It will be expected in the examination in the Annual Conference, reference will be had to the faithful performance of

the duty of preachers on this subject in the passage of character.

14. Each Presiding Elder is charged with sceing that the foregoing provisions, so far as applicable to his district, are faithfully executed within his district.

15. The Corresponding Secretary of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church shall be a member of such Annual Conference as he may, with the approbation of the Bishops, select.

16. Any Annual Conference may, at its option, by a vote of two-thirds of its members, assume the responsibility of supporting such missions, already established within its own limits, as have hitherto been reported under the head of "Missions in the Destitute Portions of the Regular Work ;" and for this purpose it shall be at liberty to organize a Conference Domestic Society, with branches; provided such organization shall not interfere with the collections for the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, as required by the Discipline. Provided, also, that in case more funds shall be raised for such missions than are needed, the surplus shall be paid over to the Treasurer of the Parent Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, at New-York, to be appropriated to such mission or missions, under the care of the Society, as may be designated by said Conference.