charge of his duties, this does not entitle him to a seat in the leaders' meeting, or in the Quarterly Conference. 4. The class-leader, in the absence of the pastor, may not furnish any member about to remove with the usual certificate of membership.* 5. Class-leaders, as such, are responsible only to the preacher in charge, who may change or remove them at pleasure. SEC. VIII.-SUNDAY-SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENTS. 1. The Sunday-school is the catechetical institute of the Church, and must be kept under its fostering care and control. It is made the "special duty" of pastors to see that Sundayschools be formed in all our congregations where ten children can be collected for that purpose, and "to engage the coöperation of as many of our members as they can." It is also required of him who has charge of a circuit or station, to lay before the Quarterly Conference, at each meeting, to be entered on its journal, a written statement of the number and condition of the Sunday-schools within its bounds; and he is called upon for a detailed report of the *Journal Gen. Conf., 1854, p. 331. same at the Annual Conference. "Each Quarterly Conference shall be deemed a board of managers, having supervision of all the Sundayschools and Sunday-school societies within its limits." 2. The Superintendent, if a member of our Church, is, by virtue of his office, admitted a member of the Quarterly Conference. He may have one or more assistants; but the Discipline does not know them, as members of the Quarterly Conference. No specific rule has been laid down for the election of this Church officer, but analogy and the reason of things indicate that the election should be under the control of the pastor and the Quarterly Conference. SEC. IX. SECRETARY OF CHURCH-MEETING. 1. This officer is annually elected by the Church-meeting, and is charged with keeping its records. In order to accurate statistical reports, it is made his duty to return to the Quarterly Conference-of which he is ex officio a member-all the statistics which the Discipline requires to be reported to the Annual Confer ence. SEC. X.-OF STEWARDS. 1. Stewards serve three tables-the table of the Lord, the table of the minister, and the table of the poor. (a) They provide the elements for the Lord's-supper. (b) They make the estimates for the support and expenses of the ministry, and take measures, by private and public collections, for paying the same. (c) They inquire into the cases of the needy and distressed, and out of a Church-fund raised for that purpose, relieve them." 2. As class-leaders have, incidentally, a financial function, so stewards have a spiritual one. It is their duty to inform the pastor of any who walk disorderly, and "to tell the preachers what they think wrong in them." 3. The circuit stewards must estimate the salary and traveling expenses of the preachers, and apportion the amount among the several congregations composing the circuit. The District stewards must estimate the salary and traveling expenses of the Presiding Elder, and apportion the amount among the different circuits of his District. For this purpose, these two boards should meet early in the year. Informal agreements for allowances and apportionments between ministers and congregations are irregular, unauthorized, and mischievous in tendency. 4. The apportionments made by the District stewards among the circuits, and by the circuit stewards among the congregations, are not the less obligatory because no representative of the congregation or circuit was present at the meeting when the apportionment was made. They had a right to be there, and should have seen to it. 5. The District steward* should be elected annually from each board of the circuit or station. It is his duty to attend the District stewards' meeting, when called by the Presiding Elder, and represent his own board therein, and report. 6. The Recording steward† is not ex officio the secretary of the Quarterly Conference. He is the custodian of its papers and records, and should copy into a book the minutes of the Quarterly Conference when they have been approved. It is also his duty to report to the Joint Board of Finance of the Annual Conference, an account of the acts of his board of stewards for the preceding year. 7. Stewards are responsible to the Quarterly Conference, which may remove them at any time. It is now necessary that they be annually elected. A careless or inefficient steward may, without posi The office of District Steward was created in 1816. tive opposition, starve out the ministry, in the midst of plenty and a willing people; for no other member feels at liberty to act in his place, without appointment. He stands between the pastor and his support. He is the commissary of the Church militant, and by his non-action can contribute more to defeat than all the strategy of the enemy. On the contrary, where energetic and liberal stewards are employed, the Church partakes of their spirit, the congregation devises liberal things, poverty vies with wealth, and comparatively small and feeble societies amply sustain the institutions of the Church. SEC. XI.-OF TRUSTEES. 1. All our Church-property, such as preaching-houses, parsonages, and cemeteries, held according to Discipline, is vested in a board of trustees, who hold it for the benefit of the members of the Church. "The property of the preaching-houses," say Coke and Asbury in their Notes on Discipline, "is vested in the trustees; and the right of nomination to the pulpits in the General Conference, and in such as the General Conference shall, from time to time, appoint." They explain that this division of power between the local trustees and the General Conference, whereby the latter become the patrons of the pulpits of our Churches, is essential to the itinerant plan: "Without it, the itin |