special benefit of seamen and for the American Bible Society, or for any State Bible Society auxiliary thereto; the Presidents, Principals, or Teachers of seminaries of learning, which are or may be under our superintendence; or the Preacher stationed at the Five Points Mission in New York or at the American Chapel in Paris; and also, when requested by an Annual Conference, to appoint a Preacher for a longer time than five years to any seminary of learning not under our care: provided, also, that with the exceptions above named he shall not continue a Preacher in the same appointment more than five years in ten. Nevertheless, if in any case the term of five years shall expire in the interval between the sessions of the Annual Conference, he may continue him until the next session, provided the time shall not be more than six months.

§ 4. He shall have authority, when requested by an Annual Conference, to appoint an Agent whose duty it shall be to travel throughout the bounds of such Conference, for the purpose of distributing Tracts; an Agent to promote the cause of Temperance; and also to appoint an Agent or Agents for the benefit of our Literary Institutions; an Agent for the German Publishing Fund; and for other benevolent Institutions; also to appoint Editors of unofficial papers or magazines published in the interests of the Methodist Episcopal Church, provided their Annual

Conferences request such appointment, and provided further, that in no such case shall the Church incur any financial responsibility.

§ 5. The duty of a Bishop is also, in the interval between the sessions of the Annual Conferences, to change, receive, and suspend Preachers as necessity may require and as the Discipline directs.

§ 6. To travel through the Connection at large. § 7. To oversee the Spiritual and Temporal business of our Church.

§ 8. To Consecrate Bishops, and Ordain Elders and Deacons.

§ 9. To decide all Questions of Law involved in proceedings pending 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.

§ 10. To prescribe a course of Biblical, Ecclesiastical, and Literary Studies, upon which those applying for admission upon Trial in the Annual Conferences shall be examined and approved before such admission; to prescribe a Course of Reading and Study proper to be pursued by Candidates for the Ministry for the term of four years; and also a four-years' Course of Reading and Study for Local Preachers.

¶ 162. A Bishop may leave without appointment a Preacher on Trial, or a Member of an Annual Conference desiring to attend any of our

Literary or Theological Seminaries, whenever he shall be requested so to do by the Annual Conference and it shall seem to him expedient; provided, however, that the time thus spent in School shall not count on that required for Probation in the Annual Conference.

¶ 163. A Bishop may, when he judges it necessary, unite two or more Circuits or Stations for Quarterly Conference purposes, without affecting their separate financial interests or pastoral duties.

¶ 164. If a Bishop cease from traveling at large among the people without the consent of the General Conference he shall not thereafter exercise, in any degree, the Episcopal Office in our Church.

¶ 165. In case there be no Bishop to travel at large 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 the sessions of the General Conference, Ordination excepted.

Missionary Bishops.

¶ 166. A Missionary Bishop is a Bishop elected for a specified Foreign Mission field, with full Episcopal powers, but with Episcopal jurisdic

tion limited to the Foreign Mission field for which he was elected.

¶ 167. A Missionary Bishop is not, in the meaning of the Discipline, a General Superintendent.

¶ 168. A Missionary Bishop is not subordinate to the General Superintendents, but is co-ordinate with them in authority in the field to which he is appointed, and is amenable for his conduct to the General Conference, as is a General Superintendent.

¶ 169. The election of a Missionary Bishop carries with it the assignment to a specified Foreign Mission field, and such Bishop cannot be made a General Superintendent except by a distinct election to that office.

T170. A Missionary Bishop should receive his support from the Episcopal Fund.

¶ 171. A Missionary Bishop should, in his field, co-operate with the Missionary Society of the Church in the same way that a General Superintendent co-operates in the Foreign Mission field over which he has Episcopal charge.

¶ 172. When a Missionary Bishop, by death or other cause, ceases to perform Episcopal duty for the foreign field to which he was assigned by the General Conference, the General Superintendents at once take supervision of said field.

T 173. In the matter of a transfer of a Preacher from a field within the jurisdiction of

a Missionary Bishop, to a Conference under the Episcopal supervision of a General Superintendent, or from a Conference under the Episcopal supervision of a General Superintendent, to a field within the jurisdiction of a Missionary Bishop, it shall require mutual agreement between the two Bishops, and a similar agreement shall be required between the two Bishops having charge, when the proposed transfer is between two foreign fields, over which there are Missionary Bishops.

¶ 174. In case of a complaint against, or the trial of a Missionary Bishop, the preliminary steps shall be as in the case of a General Superintendent, but the Missionary Bishop may be tried before a Judicial Conference in the United States of America.

Presiding Elders and their Duty.

¶ 175. Presiding Elders are to be chosen by the Bishops, by whom they are also to be stationed and changed.

¶ 176. A Bishop may allow an Elder to preside in the same District for any term not exceeding six years; after which he shall not be appointed to the same District for six years; but Presiding Elders in Missions and in Mission Conferences in heathen lands may be appointed to