"Ques. 4. To whom is the bishop amenable for his conduct? "Ans. To the General Conference, who have power to expel him for improper conduct, if they see it necessary.

"Ques. 5. What provision shall be made for the trial of an immoral bishop, in the interval of the General Conference?

"Ans. If a bishop be guilty of immorality, three traveling elders shall call upon him, and examine him on the subject: and if the three elders verily believe that the bishop is guilty of the crime, they shall call to their aid two presiding elders from two districts in the neighborhood of that where the crime was committed, each of which presiding elders shall bring with him two elders, or an elder and a deacon. The above mentioned nine persons shall form a conference, to examine into the charge brought against the bishop: and if two-thirds of them verily believe him to be guilty of the crime laid to his charge, they shall have authority to suspend the bishop till the ensuing General Conference, and the districts shall be regulated in the meantime as is provided in the case of the death of a bishop.

"Ques. 6. If the bishop cease from traveling at large among the people, shall he still exercise his office among us in any degree?

"Ans. If he cease from traveling without the consent of the General Conference, he shall not thereafter exercise any ministerial function whatsoever in our Church.

"N. B.-The bishop has obtained liberty, by the suffrages of the Conference, to ordain local preachers to the office of deacons provided they obtain a testimonial from the society to which they belong, and from the stewards of the circuit, signed also by three elders, three deacons, and three traveling preachers."

The following amendments, tabulated as in supplied form of Constitution of 1784, were made (for substance) by the General Conference of 1792:

Amendment I-Amending Article VI of 1784.

"The General Conference shall consist of all the traveling preachers who shall be in full connection (in an annual conference) at the time of holding the Conference.

Amendment II-Additional to Same Article.

"All the traveling preachers of the district, or districts, respectively, are members of the district (annual) conferences.

Article III—Amending Article VI of 1784.

"It shall take two-thirds of all the members of the General Conference to make any new rule, or abolish an old one. But a majority may alter or amend any rule.

Amendment IV-The District, or Annual, Conference.

"For convenience of administration, the ministers and preachers are organized into district conferences to be held annually. To these bodies the members thereof are severally amenable for their conduct." (See Section III, Discipline of 1792, page 15, questions 3 and 4.)

This last article is quoted by Sherman from the Minutes of the General Conference of 1792. (History of Discipline, p. 30.) All the other formulated and numbered articles, as will have been seen, are mere condensations or paraphrases of the acts of the two formative General Assemblies of the "body of ministers and preachers."

Special attention is due to the last number of the series above cited. What more complete authority can be imagined than that which the General Conference of 1792 assumes to itself? "Any new rule." There are no exceptions. In a two-thirds' majority of the Supreme Methodist Legislature the ultimate, absolute, unlimited government of the Church is claimed to reside.

Here, too, may be found the origin of that well-established basis of Methodist common law, that "no General Conference can bind its successor." The vote of two-thirds of a General Conference was adequate to the doing of any act of legislation; but such act was of no force as against a similar vote in a subsequent session. The legislative authority of a General Conference is here supposed to begin with the close of its session, and continue until the close of the next quadrennial session. Thus it is possible for each General Conference to order the manner of choosing the delegates who are to constitute the next succeeding Assembly; but if that next session desires to do so, it can expunge any rule made by its predecessor by a twothirds vote. It is evident from all this that the life of any law made by a General Conference is measured by the sufferance of the succeeding General Conference or Conferences, which may see no occasion for changing or removing it. This was the only and sufficient provision for permanency which, up to this date, the "organic law" of the Methodist Episcopal Church contained.

It is fair to conclude that the Conference of 1792, which

made this rule for its own government had no idea of binding the future to the past. All doors were left open. There were as yet no class interests to be protected. The political era had not yet begun. The following quotation from the Preface of the Discipline of 1792, signed by Bishops Coke and Asbury, shows the spirit of the leading minds of the Church at that time:

"We think ourselves obliged frequently to view and review the whole order of our Church, always aiming at perfection, standing on the shoulders of those who have lived before us, and taking the advantage of our former selves."

With the Conference of 1792 the Constitution-making period closed. These foundation-builders, many of whom were Englishmen, had no fancy for Constitutional fetters or Church decretals. From that time forward, until 1808, nothing was heard of "Constitution" or Constitutional Conventions. The Church now had anchors enough. What she required was sails.

The rapid increase in the membership and ministry of the new body soon made the General Conference unwieldy. Besides, the area of the Church soon became so wide that the assembly of "the body of ministers and preachers" was next to impossible. Therefore, acting on its rights, as established by the Constitution of 1792 (formulated and numbered above as Article VI), the General Conference of 1800 again. changed the composition of that body, by enacting that the Supreme Legislature of the Church should be composed of those full members of annual conferences only "who had trav-. eled four years."

This second limitation was accepted without protest, though the junior preachers thereby excluded were not consulted. Here, then, is still further evidence that the General Conference was admitted on all hands to have full power over the form and manner of its own existence, as well as over the form and manner of the existence of other departments of the Church.

CHAPTER X.

THE CONSTITUTION (CONTINUED).

SECTION III IN THE DISCIPLINE OF 1808, SO FAR AS IT RELATES TO THE GENERAL CONFERENCE.

THE

HE General Conference of 1808 has by many been held to mark the opening of a new constitutional era in the Church. Hence arises definition 3 of the word "constitution," as given at the outset of Chapter IX; viz., "The Six Restrictive Rules," with the proviso for their suspension or modification.

The limits of this chapter do not admit of a full review of the controversy which has of late arisen over this definition. and the questions involved in it. The utmost that can be done. will be to point out the controlling historic facts involved in the case, and to suggest, in brief, the chief arguments on both sides of the question.

For the convenience of readers, the whole of Section III of the Discipline of 1808, relating to the General Conference, is here reproduced, of which "The Six Restrictive Rules," as they are usually called, form only the negative side of the section:

OF THE GENERAL CONFERENCE.

"Ques. 2. Who shall compose the General Conference, and what are the regulations and powers belonging to it?

"Ans. 1. The General Conference shall be composed of one member for every five members of each annual conference, to be appointed either by seniority or choice, at the discretion of such annual conference: yet so that such representatives shall have traveled at least four full calendar years from the time that they were received on trial by an annual conference, and are in full connection at the time of holding the conference.

"2. The General Conference shall meet on the first day of May, in the year of our Lord 1812, in the city of New York, and thenceforward on the first day of May once in four years perpetually, in such place or places as shall be fixed on by the General Conference from time to time: but the general superintendents, with or by the advice of all the annual conferences, or if there be no general

superintendent, all the annual conferences respectively shall have power to call a General Conference, if they judge it necessary, at any time.

"3. At all times when the General Conference is met, it shall take two-thirds of the representatives of all the annual conferences to make a quorum for transacting business.

"4. One of the general superintendents shall preside in the General Conference; but in case no general superintendent be present, the General Conference shall choose a president pro tempore. "5. The General Conference shall have full powers to make rules and regulations for our Church, under the following limitations and restrictions, viz.:

"(1) The General Conference shall not revoke, alter, or change our Articles of Religion, nor establish any new standards or rules of doctrine contrary to our present existing and established standards of doctrine.

"(2) They shall not allow of more than one representative for every five members of the annual conference, nor allow of a less number than one for every seven.

"(3) They shall not change or alter any part or rule of our government, so as to do away Episcopacy or destroy the plan of our itinerant general superintendency.

"(4) They shall not revoke or change the general rules of the United Societies.

"(5) They shall not do away the privileges of our ministers or preachers of trial by a committee, and of an appeal: Neither shall they do away the privileges of our members of trial before the society or by a committee, and of an appeal.

"(6) They shall not appropriate the produce of the Book Concern, or of the Charter Fund, to any purpose other than for the benefit of the traveling,' supernumerary, superannuated, and wornout preachers, their wives, widows, and children: Provided, nevertheless, that upon the joint recommendation of all the annual conferences, then a majority of two-thirds of the General Conference succeeding shall suffice to alter any of the above restrictions."

In determining the value of Section III of the Discipline of 1808, so far as the question of the Constitution of the Methodist Episcopal Church is concerned, it is proper to examine the nature and determine the powers of the body by which that section was enacted. This, for convenience, may be done in a series of numbered paragraphs, as follows:

1. The history of constitution-making shows that certain. conditions are held to be essential to the valid enactment of organic law. Of those essential conditions are the following;