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the same District for more than six successive

years.

¶ 177. The duties of a Presiding Elder are: § 1. To travel through his appointed District. § 2. In the absence of a Bishop to take charge of all the Elders and Deacons, Traveling and Local Preachers and Exhorters in his District.

§ 3. To change, receive, and suspend Preachers in his District during the interval between the sessions of the Conference, and in the absence of a Bishop, as the Discipline directs; provided, however, that a Presiding Elder shall not change a Preacher in his District from a Charge to which he has been appointed by a Bishop and appoint him to another to which he could not be legally appointed by a Bishop. The law of limitation applies also to Superannuated and Local Preachers who are employed in the Pastoral work.

§ 4. It shall also be his duty to be present, as far as practicable, at all the Quarterly Meetings, especially the first and fourth; to call together the Quarterly Conference to hear Complaints, to receive and try Appeals, to renew all Licenses approved by the Quarterly Conference, and to transact such other business as is provided for under the caption "The Quarterly Conferences;" and to furnish the member of the General Missionary Committee for his Mission District, prior to the annual meeting of that Committee, a writ

ten statement of the condition of the Missions under his care, and their pecuniary wants.

§ 5. To oversee the Spiritual and Temporal business of the Church in his District; to see that all Charters, Deeds, and other Conveyances of Church Property in his District conform strictly to the laws, usages, and forms of the State or Territory within which such property is situate, and to the Discipline; to see that all Church property is well insured; to promote by all proper means the cause of Missions, Church Extension, and Sunday-Schools; to report to the Annual Conference the Statistics of the Literary and Theological Institutions located within the bounds of his District, and under the care of our Church, according to the form published in the Appendix to the Discipline; to carefully inquire at each Quarterly Conference whether the Rules respecting the Instruction of Children have been faithfully observed; and to report to the Annual Conference the names of all Traveling Preachers within his District who shall neglect to observe those Rules.

§ 6. To take care that every part of our Discipline be enforced in his District; to decide all Questions of Law involved in proceedings pending in a District or Quarterly Conferenee, subject to an Appeal to the President of the next Annual Conference; but in all cases the Application of Law shall be with the Conference.

§ 7. It shall be his further duty to attend the Bishop when present in his District; and to give him by letter, when absent, all necessary information of the state of his District.

§ 8. To direct the attention of Candidates for the Ministry to the advantages of a thorough training in the Literary and Theological Schools of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and also to direct those who are admitted on Trial to those Studies which have been recommended by the Bishops.

§ 9. To explain to those Preachers who are on Trial, as well as to those who are in futnre to be proposed for Trial, that they may be either admitted or rejected without doing them any wrong.

¶ 178. If any Preacher absent himself from his Circuit or Station the Presiding Elder shall, as far as possible, fill his place with another Preacher, who shall be paid for his labors out of the allowance of the absent Preacher, in proportion to his usual allowance.

179. A Presiding Elder shall not have power to employ a Preacher who has been rejected by the previous Annual Conference, unless the Conference should give him liberty so to do, under certain conditions.

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The Election of Traveling Elders and their Duty. ¶ 180. An Elder is constituted by the election of the Annual Conference, and by the laying on of the hands of a Bishop and some of the Elders who are present.

¶ 181. The duty of a Traveling Elder is:

1. To administer Baptism and the Lord's Supper, to solemnize Matrimony, and to conduct Divine Worship. 2. To do all the duties of a Traveling Preacher.

T 182. No Elder who ceases to travel without the consent of the Annual Conference, certified under the hand of the President of the Conference, except in case of sickness, debility, or other unavoidable circumstance, shall on any account exercise the peculiar functions of his Office, or even be allowed to preach among us: nevertheless, the final determination in every such case is with the Annual Conference.

¶ 183. Every Traveling Deacon shall exercise his Office for two years before he be eligible to the Office of Elder; except in the case of Missions, or of Churches in a foreign country outside of a Mission or Conference, when the Annual Conferences shall have authority to elect for the Elder's Office sooner, if they judge it expedient.

¶ 184. When a Preacher shall have passed his examination, and been admitted into Full Connection, and elected to the Office of a Deacon, but fails of his Ordination through the absence of

the Bishop, his eligibility to the Office of Elder Ishall count from the time of his election to the Office of a Deacon.

The Election of Traveling Deacons and their Duty.

¶ 185. A Traveling Deacon is constituted by the election of the Annual Conference and the laying on of the hands of a Bishop.

¶ 186. The duty of a Traveling Deacon is: 1. To administer Baptism and to solemnize Matri mony. 2. To assist the Elder in administering the Lord's Supper. 3. To do all the duties of a Traveling Preacher.

T187. Whenever a Preacher on Trial shall be appointed by a Bishop to a Mission, or in charge of a remote field in any Conference, or a Church in a foreign country outside of a Mission or Conference, or to a Chaplaincy in the Army or Navy, or to a Reformatory, Sanitary, or Charitable Institution or Prison, he may, if elected by an Annual Conference, a majority of the Presiding Elders concurring, with the approbation of a Bishop, be Ordained by him before his Probation ends.

¶ 188. No Deacon who ceases to travel without the consent of the Annual Conference, certified under the hand of the President of the Conference, except in case of sickness, debility, or other

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