degree, the Episcopal office in our Church.

¶ 163. 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 shali be regulated in every respect by the Annual Conferences and the Presiding Elders in the interval of General Conference, ordination excepted.

Presiding Elders and their Duty.

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

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

¶ 166. The duties of a Presiding Elder are,

§ 1. To travel through his appointed District.

§ 2. In the absence of the 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 intervals of the Conferences, and in the absence of the 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 the Bishop, and appoint him to another to which he could not be legally appointed by the Bishop. The law of limitation applies also to Superannuated and Local Preachers who are employed in the pastoral work.

§ 4. To be present at, as far as practicable, and to hold, all the quarterly meetings, especially the first and fourth, and 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 in the section on "The Quarterly Conferences," and to furnish the member of the General Missionary Com

mittee for his Mission District a written statement of the condition of the missions under his care, and their pecuniary wants, prior to the annual meeting of the Committee.

§ 5. To oversee the spiritual and tem poral business of the Church in his District, and to promote by all proper means the cause of Missions, Church Extension, and Sunday-schools; and 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 of the Discipline; and carefully to 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 these 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 Conference, 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. To attend the Bishop when present in his District; and to give him, when absent, all necessary information, by letter, of the state of his District.

§ 8. To direct the candidates for the ministry 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 future to be proposed for trial, that they may be either admitted or rejected without doing them any wrong.

T 167. If any Preacher absent himself from his Circuit, 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.

T168. 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, under certain conditions.

The Election of Traveling Elders, and their

Duty.

T 169. An Elder is constituted by the election of a majority of the Annual Conference, and by the laying on of the hands of a Bishop and some of the Elders who are present.

¶ 170. 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.

¶ 171. 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 all such cases is with the Annual Conference.

T 172. 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, when the Annual Conferences shall have authority