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when females attend public worship, to join in singing the praise of God, it is becoming and proper, that they should have their heads covered, and not unnecessarily expose themselves to the gaze of the other sex.

The other officers of the church are

ELDERS AND DEACONS,

whose duties are defined in the Formula of Lutheran Church government Ch. III. and IV.

Duties of Church-members.

The duties of church-members as individuals, have been sufficiently discussed in different parts of this volume. A few remarks only would we here make on a particular duty devolving on the church collectively.

The duty of affording a reasonable support to the ministry.

This duty is inculcated in the clearest and most unequivocal language in the sacred volume. Indeed when a church engages the entire services of a minister, and those services are faithfully afforded, every such church should regard it as a matter of common honesty to support, the labourer who spends his strength amongst them.

The sacred volume does not however specify the manner in which this money shall be raised, nor determine how much is a reasonable support in any given situation. This of course must vary much in different sections of the country, with the different price of the necessaries of life. In Europe generally, and in the Methodist church in this country, the salaries of ministers are fixed. In Europe they are paid by the government, and ultimately raised by tax on the people. a) This is in direct op

position to the spirit of the gospel, which requires that our aid of religion be voluntary. b) It is opposed, moreover, to the example of Christ and his apostles, who though they maintained, that those who preached the gospel should live of the gospel, inculcated with equal force the maxim, that contributions for religious purposes must proceed from a willing heart, be a freewill offering to the Lord. c) Nor is there a syllable found in the New Testament, specifying the amount which a clergyman shall receive. d) It destroys one of the strongest safeguards of the liberty of the people. If they have lost confidence in their minister, and yet cannot prove any overt crime against him so as to remove him by course of discipline, they need but withhold their support, and as a matter of necessity he must either change his conduct to regain their confidence, or must seek his bread elsewhere. But in Europe the people are of ten compelled to contribute to the support of men of acknowledged impiety, without any certain relief. It is true, in all the churches of the land except that of our Methodist brethren, a man who enters the ministry places himself in a situation, which, in nineteen cases out of twenty, amounts to a renunciation of all prospects of accumulating wealth, and in the majority of cases presents the expectation of a mere scanty subsistence. It is an undoubted fact, that three-fourths of the ministers of our land, those of the denomination above-mentioned generally excepted, are doomed to spend their life in straightened circumstances. Still this very fact presents one of the strongest safeguards to the purity of the ministry, and excludes from the clerical ranks thousands, who under different circumstances, would " for filthy lucre's sake" undertake to feed the flock of Christ. We suppose that a minister of Christ should ask no more than a decent, competent support; yet it is to be acknowledged that in many cases the churches hardly afford this to their spiritual guides. The support of Methodist ministers, we would regard as a full competency, and have only often been surprised that they should

still complain of its insufficiency, especially as its provisions very justly extend to sickness, to old age, to widows and orphans. We have often thought that other churches ought to

1 In order that our readers may judge for themselves of the fiscal system of this church, we annex some extracts verbatim from the printed Discipline published in 1825 (24th edition), a work, which with many features of rank aristocracy combines much knowledge of human nature, much business tact, and zeal for the cause of God,

Part 2. Section 4. (p. 171. 172.) 1. The annual allowance of the travelling preachers shall be $100,00 and their travelling expenses.

II. The annual allowance of the wives of travelling preachers shall be $100,00; but this provision shall not apply to the wives of those preachers who were single when they were received on trial, and marry under four years, until the expiration of said four years.

III. Each child of a travelling preacher shall be allowed $16,00 annually to the age of seven years, and $24,00 annually from the age of seven to fourteen years; and those preachers whose wives are dead, shall be allowed for each child annually a sum sufficient to pay the board of such child or children during the above term of years: Nevertheless, this rule shall not apply to the children of preachers, whose families are provided for by other means in their circuits respectively.

IV. The allowance of superannuated, worn out and supernumerary preachers, shall be $100,00 annually.

V. The annual allowance of the wives of superannuated, worn out and supernumerary preachers, shall be $100,00.

VI. The annual allowance of the widows of travelling, superannuated, worn out and supernumerary preachers shall be $100,00. VII. The orphans of travelling, superannuated, worn out and supernumerary preachers, shall be allowed by the annual Conferences, if possible, by such means as they can devise $16,00 annually.

Part 2. Section 5. (p. 179.) It shall be the duty of said committee or one appointed for that purpose, who shall be members of our church, to make an estimate of the amount necessary to furnish fuel and table expenses for the family or families of preachers stationed with them, and the stewards shall provide by such means as they may devise, to meet such expenses, in money or otherwise provided the stewards shall not appropriate the monies collected for the regular quarterly allowance of the preachers to the payment of family expenses.

Part 2. Section 5. (p. 177.) It is recommended by the general Conference to the travelling preachers, to advise our friends in general to purchase a lot of ground in each circuit, and to build a preach

adopt some plan to support their disabled ministers, their widows and orphans, and hope the annexed account of the plan of our

er's house thereon, and to furnish it with, at least, heavy furniture, and to settle the same on trustees, appointed by the quarterly meeting conference according to the deed of settlement in our form of discipline."

We have not seen any separate deed for the dwelling-house of the minister, but suppose it to be like the form prescribed for their churches, by which the congregation, after having built a house of worship, relinquish all right of property in it to the General Conference for the use of the members of the Methodist church in the United States. This feature we regard as unjust, for the Conference may lock the doors of a church against the very people who built it, if they do not approve and support the measures of the Conference.

The modes of raising funds according to the book of Discipline are in accordance with the spirit of the gospel, by voluntary contributions. 1. Every circuit and station is expected to make an effort to supply the yearly allowance and provision for its own preachers: and if there is any surplus it is the duty of the stewards to remit it to the annual Conference. 2. Every preacher must "earnestly recommend to every class or society in his circuit," to raise a quarterly or annual collection, which is to be remitted through the stewards to the annual Conference. 3. Every preacher who has charge of a circuit is to make a yearly collection, and if expedient a quarterly one in "every congregation," where the people will probably be willing to contribute. 4. A public collection is made at every annual and every general Conference. 5. A meeting is held in every district, of one steward from each circuit, to take measures for providing a house and table expenses for the presiding elder. 6. An extra collection is taken in each circuit and station, some time previous to the sitting of the General Conference to defray the expenses of delegates to that body. 7. They have a chartered fund, which in Jan. 1829, amounted to $27, 000, managed by the trustees of the General Conference, the interest of which aids in making up the salaries of the travelling preachers. 8. The revenue resulting from the book concern. Every Methodist minister is a book agent, having an actual interest in the amount of his sales; as the fund resulting from them, is one of the sources whence his salary is derived. Independently of this consideration, much spiritual good is thus effected by the extensive circulation of books which in general we regard as well calculated to extend the kingdom of Christ. See Meth. Discipline, sup. cit. Part II. Sect. 3. 5. 6. (p. 170— 189) and Economy of Methodism, p. 16.

Methodist brethren may aid others in devising some remedy for their own case.

ARTICLE IX.

OF BAPTISM.

Concerning baptism our churches teach, that it is a necessary ordinance, that it is a means of grace, and ought to be administered also to children, who are thereby dedicated to God and received into his favour.

The blessed Saviour instituted several positive ordinances, of perpetual standing in his church, which are usually designated by the term sacraments; a word not found in scripture, and variously understood by different writers.1 There has been much dispute about the number of the sacraments; but as this will depend entirely on the definition of the term which may be adopted, the controversy amounts to mere logomachy. The

1 The following are the principal significations which the word sacrament has borne : a) a military oath; b) a mystery, thus it is used by the vulgate translation for uvoτηgiov in Eph. 5: 32. 1 Cor. 15. 51. c) the oath by which Christians bind themselves in the Eucharist and at baptism. In this sense Pliny uses it, Epist. 97. d) An external ceremony or religious rite, having a spiritual or symbolical reference to something unseen. Tertull. and Augustine.

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