PART II.-CHAPTER IV.

LOCAL PREACHERS AND LAY WORKERS.

General Directions.

¶ 195. The Quarterly Conference shall have authority to license proper persons to preach, to examine them in such Course of Study as the Bishops shall prescribe, and to renew their Licenses annually, when, in the judgment of said Conference, their gifts, grace, and usefulness warrant such renewal; to recommend to the Annual Conference Local Preachers who are suitable candidates for Deacons or Elders' Orders, or for admission on Trial in the Traveling Connection; and to try, suspend, and deprive of Ministerial Office and Credentials, expel or acquit, any Local Preacher in the Circuit or Station against whom charges shall have been preferred; provided, that no person shall be licensed to preach without the recommendation of the Society of which he is a member, or of the Leaders and Stewards' Meeting; and no Member of the Church shall be at liberty to preach without such License. Nor shall any one be licensed to preach, or recommended to the Annual Conference to become a Traveling Preacher or to be ordained

without first being examined in the District or Quarterly Conference on the subject of Doctrines and Discipline. In all cases the Candidate shall first pass a satisfactory examination in such Course of Study as the Bishops shall prescribe.

196. Every Local Elder, Deacon, or Preacher shall be amenable to the District or Quarterly Conference where he resides for his Christian character and the faithful performance of the duties of his Ministerial Office. He shall have his name recorded on the Journal of said Conference, and also enrolled on a class paper, and shall meet in Class; and shall make to each District or Quarterly Conference to which he is amenable a report of his labors, as follows: 1. Number of Sermons Preached; 2. Number of Prayermeetings attended; 3. Number of Class-meetings attended; 4. Number of Sunday-Schools attended; 5. Marriages Solemnized, and the names of the parties married, and the names and ages of all persons baptized, that they may be entered by the Preacher in Charge upon the Church Records; 6. Number of Funerals conducted; 7. Miscellaneous Items. If a Local Preacher be found neglectful of any of the above duties, or unacceptable in his Ministerial Office, after due trial the District or Quarterly Conference, if it judges it proper, may deprive him of his Ministerial Office. And when a Preacher is located or discontinued by an Annual Conference, he shall be

amenable to the Quarterly Conference of the Circuit or Station where he had his last appointment.

¶ 197. Whenever a Local Elder, Deacon, or Preacher shall remove from one Circuit or Station to another he shall procure from the Presiding Elder of the District, or from the Preacher in Charge, a Certificate of his official standing in the Church at the time of his removal, without which he shall not be received as a Local Preacher in other places.

¶ 198. The Presiding Elders and the Preachers in Charge are required so to arrange the appointments, wherever it is practicable, as to give the Local Preachers regular and systematic employment on the Sabbath.

¶ 199. Whenever a Local Preacher shall have a Pastoral Charge he shall hold his Church relation in said Charge.

Local Preachers and their Ordination.

¶ 200. A Local Preacher shall be eligible to the office of a Deacon after he has preached four consecutive years from the time he received a license, and has obtained a recommendation from the District or Quarterly Conference, after proper examination, signed by the President and countersigned by the Secretary, and after his character has passed in examination before the Annual Conference and he has obtained its approbation.

201. A Local Preacher who has been licensed three consecutive years before his admission on Trial in an Annual Conference shall be eligible to the Office of Deacon after he has preached one year in the Traveling Connection and has obtained a recommendation from the District or Quarterly Conference of which he is a member, and his character and qualifications have been examined and approved by the Annual Conference.

T202. A Local Deacon shall be eligible to the Office of an Elder after he has preached four years from the time he was ordained a Deacon, and has obtained from the District or Quarterly Conference of which he is a member a recommendation certifying his qualifications in doctrine, discipline, talents, and usefulness, signed by the President and countersigned by the Secretary. He shall, if he cannot attend, send to the Annual Conference such recommendation, and a note certifying his belief in the Doctrines and Discipline of our Church. The whole being examined by the Annual Conference and approved, he may be ordained.

To Have an Allowance in Certain Cases.

¶ 203. Whenever a Local Preacher fills the place of a Traveling Preacher, with the approbation of the Presiding Elder, he shall be paid for his time a sum proportional to the allowance of a

Traveling Preacher; which sum shall be paid by the Circuit or Station at the next Quarterly Meeting, if the Traveling Preacher whose place he filled up were either sick or necessarily absent; or, in other cases, out of the allowance of the Traveling Preacher.

¶ 204. If a Local Preacher be distressed in his temporal circumstances on account of his service in the Circuit or Station he may apply to the Quarterly Conference, who may give him what relief is judged proper, after the allowance of the Traveling Preachers and of their Wives, and all other regular allowances, are discharged.

Exhorters.

T205. An Exhorter shall be constituted by the recommendation of the Class of which he is a Member, or of the Leaders and Stewards' Meeting of the Circuit or Station, and a License signed by the Preacher in Charge.

¶ 206. The duties of Exhorters are, to hold meetings for Prayer and Exhortation wherever opportunity is afforded, subject to the direction of the Preacher in Charge; to attend all the sessions of the District and Quarterly Conferences, and present a written report to the same; to be subject to an annual Examination of Character in the District or Quarterly Conference, and a