תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

settle the same on trustees appointed by the Quarterly Conference, according to the Deed of Settlement published in our form of Discipline.

2. The General Conference recommend to all the circuits, in cases where they are not able to comply with the above request, to rent a house for the married preacher and his family, (when such are stationed upon their circuits respectively) and that the Annual Conferences do assist to make up the rents of such houses as far as they can, when the circuit cannot do it.

The Stewards of each circuit and station shall be a standing committee, (where no trustees are constituted for that purpose,) to provide houses for the families of our married preachers, or to assist the preachers to obtain houses for themselves when they are appointed to labour among them.

3. It shall be the duty of the Presiding Elders and preachers to use their influence to carry the above rules respecting building and renting houses for the accommodation of preachers and their families into effect. In order to this, each Quarterly Conference shall appoint a committee, (unless other measures have been adopted,) who, with the advice and aid of the preachers and Presiding Elders, shall devise such means as may seem fit to raise moneys for that purpose. And it is recommended to the Annual Conferences to make a special inquiry of their members respecting this part of their duty.

4. Those preachers who refuse to occupy the houses which may be provided for them on the stations and circuits where they are from time to time appointed, shall be allowed nothing for house rent, nor receive anything more than quarterage for themselves, their wives, and children, and their travelling expenses. Nevertheless, this rule shall not apply to those preachers whose families are either established within the bounds of their circuits, or are so situated that in the judgment of the Stewards, or the above-mentioned committee, it is not necessary, for the benefit of the circuit, to remove them.

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 instal

ments.

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 upwards 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 congregations, the cause of missions, and to ask public collections and contributions for the support 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

« הקודםהמשך »